Playing Catch-up

So much has happened since we last posted! Originally, we were going to tell our tale through the praises and prayer requests section, but then we got to thinking that we need to actually write out our story for you all. Please remember that we are new to this whole “blogging thing,” but we will try to keep up as events unfold. We’re hoping that we will be getting off of the “roller coaster” soon in regards to getting our first assignment. But as Pastor Bryan told us, “Nothing for you guys has come easily or as planned—don’t expect that to change anytime soon!” Though he complimented us on our patience through all of this, believe us when we tell you, our patience is truly being tested (& our faith). We wish we could say that we haven’t gotten frustrated or disappointed when the “bumps” came along, but each time we were reminded who was ultimately in control. Thank you to those of you who have given us kind words of comfort and encouragement! And especially thank you for your prayers! This means so much to us!!

Okay, let’s get you up-to-date. There has been A LOT going on, with many, many changes…

First off, as you may have read our most recent praise, Tracy got a job offer!! The assignment is in Walnut Creek, California and it’s for 13 weeks. The start date is October 1^st and will end December 31^st. Now, this offer is certain in the fact that it has already been offered and she’s working on all of the paperwork and tests for the hospital she will be working at. What is still pending is her California license. We’ll get to that in a bit.

But let’s go back a little bit further, back to the last entry (In the Beginning)…

Tracy applied for a license in Nevada, California, and Arizona, and then later for North Carolina. Just for clarification, applying for a license has not proved easy. There is the financial part just to apply ($300+ for most of them), plus the application paperwork, requesting verification of her license from the state of Michigan (which also costs money for each state), nursing school verification (yes, this costs money) and the fingerprinting (and each state needs fingerprints—there’s of course, a fee for that and a fee to actually get fingerprinted). The crazy part about the fingerprinting is that they all go to the FBI for approval. Why does each state need new fingerprints?? I’m sure it has to do with getting their “piece of the pie” for the fees, but we’d rather pay the fees than have to get fingerprinted many times over.

Shortly after we gave our testimony, Tracy received notice that she had been given a temporary license for Nevada. Her recruiter had previously offered her positions in Las Vegas, one of which we actually thought we’d be accepting. Lesley, Tracy’s recruiter, had suggested Tracy put in her two-week notice to make it easier and quicker to place her in an assignment (Lesley’s company is what is called a “rapid response” group and they try to fill positions as quickly as possible, i.e. emergency situations and strikes). She called Lesley, to let her know about the temporary license. It turned out that the jobs in Las Vegas had been either pulled or filled. “Strange,” Lesley said, “but don’t worry—we get Las Vegas assignments all the time, so just call back tomorrow.” Little did we know that this was the beginning of all of the “strange” things that were going to happen. This occurred several days before Tracy’s last day at work.

Tracy called back several days in a row, but no offers. Lesley was rather perplexed that she wasn’t getting offers in Las Vegas yet, but again told Tracy not to worry, that she got offers for there all the time. Since Tracy had stopped working at St. John Oakland Hospital, we were wanting to push things forward to get a job as soon as possible. Also, the day for the Goldsmiths to move in was coming up very quickly. We were frantically trying to get everything done and ready for them.

What made it even more difficult to get everything all packed up to store and take with us and get the house in order for a new family, was that Tracy’s body seemed to be falling apart. Not only did she have emergency gall bladder surgery, but one of her sites got infected which delayed her recovery and ability to lift more than 10 lbs. After she recovered from that, she pulled a muscle in her neck and down into her back and could barely move her neck (all she was doing was reaching up on a shelf to get an item, nothing strenuous). When that started healing, she started having severe shoulder pain that came out of nowhere and affected her arm to the point of not being able to lift it. Of course, keep in mind that Geoff has a 40 lb. weight restriction, so none of this was helpful in getting things ready. She spent quite a while in prayer for all of this and though she didn’t enjoy any of the pain, we knew there was a reason for it (of course, now we really understand why she went through so much pain). Because things weren’t ready yet and we didn’t even have a job yet, we called the Goldsmiths to let them know that we needed another week. Unfortunately, this took them by surprise, even though they had an offer to stay at a friend’s house (a family from church). Again, we knew that God had a reason for it. We think things had been a bit easier up to that point for the Goldsmith’s plans to come out to Michigan. This was now a “bump” in their road.  God was beginning to really stretch all of us.

Tracy’s dad and mom offered for us to stay with them until we got our first assignment. We figured that if we didn’t have a job within the week, we would stay with them so the Goldsmiths could move in. Tracy made calls all week long and we continued to get the house ready and pack up our belongings. By the end of the week, the Goldsmiths decided to stay with their friends, so we would have a little bit more time. This was such a relief and really removed a lot of pressure! We were thankful for the Johns’ offer to keep the Goldsmiths and ultimately, this ended up being a true blessing all around (the Goldsmiths were able to be with the Johns during a difficult time and then there’s their “unexpected pre-approval”…).

During that next week, since we were already packed, we decided to do some projects around the house. By that Friday, we were ready to give the house to the Goldsmiths. They came over that afternoon to pick up some of their belongings (they are using our garage and some of the house for storage until they were going to move in). They said that earlier that morning they opened a checking account for their new church and ended up leaving with that account and a pre-approval letter for a mortgage loan! So, they decided to start looking for a house out by the school, out where they plan to start a church, and said they wouldn’t need our house. Wow!! That was unexpected! It was certainly exciting that things were starting to come together for the Goldsmiths and we couldn’t help but praise the Lord with them!

After they left, we both thought out loud, “Well, what are we going to do with the house now?” We took a little break from all of our ponderings and went to Frankenmuth for a leisurely day. It was very relaxing and we used the time to pray and consider other options. The conclusions we came to were that we would do some projects around the house and get it in tip-top order to try and sell it. We figured that if we could sell the house and break even and be out from the burden of caring from our house while we were away, that it would be a good option for us. We know it’s not the best market right now, but if this was the plan all along, God would sell the house for us and everything would work out. So we prepared for whatever God had in store.

We had a realtor from our church come out and assess the value of the house. We actually just found out today that though it would be really close, we would still be at a loss if we sold the house. So now we’re going to leave the house as is and wait to see what is next. We also let Pastor Bryan know that the house is available and there are a few situations that may work out.

As far as the job situation, Tracy continued calling her recruiter with no offers available for Las Vegas. She contacted another recruiter, Leanne who was very helpful. She found an available eight-week assignment in Jackson, Michigan. Sure, this wasn’t out of state and wasn’t much of a real traveling assignment, but it was close to Tracy’s parents’ house and we could stay with them and get a little bit more money for housing reimbursement. Plus, if we forgot anything or packed too much, we’d only be an hour away from home, instead of a few days away. And Tracy’s mom was pretty excited about the prospect of getting to have her daughter with her for eight more weeks before she left for months on an end.

Leanne put an offer in for the Jackson position and said we should hear back within a day or two. And then more “strange” things happened. Days went by and no call. Turns out, the agent from the Jackson hospital misread Tracy’s application and sent an email to Leanne stating that they felt Tracy didn’t have enough experience. When Leanne corrected them, they apologized and said they were interested in Tracy and would contact her as soon as possible. Again, days went by and no call. According to Leanne, the job was still “open” but the start date was due to expire. We actually never heard back from that assignment.

Tracy ended up receiving a rejection letter for her fingerprints to Nevada. There was no indication as to why, but we knew this would slow the process for getting her permanent license. We were hoping this wouldn’t affect the California license since that one would take a full six weeks to get (she got her fingerprints done for Nevada and California on the same day). She got re-fingerprinted and sent it back to Nevada right away.

At this point, Tracy had been off of work for 3 weeks. We were still doing okay financially, but knew that we really needed an assignment soon. It had been about 4 weeks since she sent in her applications, so we knew it would still be a few more weeks for her permanent licenses.

During this whole time, she was still in contact with Lesley. No Nevada jobs ever came up. Eventually, a few California positions were presented and even though she didn’t have a license yet, she interviewed for one of them and was offered the assignment! Exciting and yet not… It was great that she was approved for an assignment, but this is pending on her license and it also doesn’t start until October 1^st. That means that her next paycheck will be October 14^th (and her last was half a check on August 12^th). We are still in prayer about the finances and are confident that God is going to provide our needs. But even though we had an assignment offered, Tracy had hesitation in her excitement since we had come across so many “bumps” already. She said, “I am praising the Lord for this potential offer, but won’t get too excited. I think my excitement will hit me once we are in the car and driving out to the job.” God was still making changes.

This past Wednesday night (4 days ago), we got home from church after a long day of errands and such to find some troubling news in the mail. Tracy’s fingerprints were again declined, this time by California.  The company that did the fingerprints here in Michigan had made a small error and that error was about to potentially cost us the Walnut Creek job.  Thursday morning, Tracy contacted the California Board of Nursing asking if there was any way that she could get re-fingerprinted that day and send them off in one night that they could be approved within 2 weeks.  Their response was that the FBI requires a mandatory 4-week approval process.  Well, after a day of calling back and forth between California and Lesley, we finally had some answers and ideas. Since she had called California so many times and amazingly talked to the same agent every time, he ended up giving Tracy his personal line number if she had to call back. This was awesome according to Lesley, because things tend to move slowly with the California Board of Nursing unless you have a “man on the inside.” We found our man! J Our new friend in the California Board of Nursing, Dennis, said that if Tracy were to fly out and get fingerprinted in one of California’s fingerprinting stations, that it is only a 5-7 day approval period (and many times less than that). Per Tracy’s recruiter’s advise, Tracy boarded a plane on Friday morning and flew out to California just to take care of the fingerprints and flew back in the afternoon. TWELVE+ hours of flying and layovers for only 2 ½ hours actually in Sacramento. Crazy, but prayerfully worth it.

Another amazing thing that may come to fruition is another job offer before the Walnut Creek assignment. If Tracy’s license comes through by Wednesday, she may be approved for a very high paying three-day assignment in Los Angeles. We are hoping and praying for this assignment as it would truly help out with our financial state and give us a week between the assignments to get settled in California. Plus, there is the wonderful benefit of getting to visit with Tracy’s great uncle and aunt in California for the week in between.  

We’ve been waiting so patiently for things to come together and just waiting and waiting…now it’s suddenly: hurry up and get all of this done super-fast and hurry, hurry, hurry.