Possibility {How We Got Here, Part Two}

On Friday we signed a lease for a new place to live. We’ll be moving soon, a process that has been a long and winding road. Here’s the story of how it happened. Read Part One here.

The kids and I had been at the library one Friday in early fall, and when we came home, I asked Phil how the job searching was going.

“Well, I found a job you can do,” he said.

I laughed and dismissed his comment. Then we talked about it and decided if that would get us to Lancaster, maybe we should consider it.

I hadn’t written a cover letter or updated my resume in almost five years, but I went for it anyway. I applied for a job I was both passionate about and qualified for–a rare combination, especially for someone who left the job market to stay home with her kids.

Then, we waited.

The day before my first interview was scheduled, I found out the job had changed from its initial description, but I went ahead with the interview anyway. The timeline, also, had changed, so my second interview wouldn’t be for a few months.

More waiting.

In the meantime, Phil kept looking for jobs. We and our families kept looking for solutions. There were days I wanted to move back to Illinois. Or to Canada or Colorado or somewhere we could just start over. I was restless for change, tired of feeling stuck.

In a word: impatient.

Because life wasn’t working out for us here.

Then Phil saw an ad that the Chick-fil-A in Lancaster was hiring. It wasn’t his first choice for jobs, but at this point, we didn’t have any other choices. We knew they’d be closed on Sundays, which is something our family needed, and we’d heard they were a good company to work for.

So, he applied and was hired. It was a step we had to take even though it didn’t solve everything. It was more pay but not enough, and it involved two hours of commuting each day.

But it felt like the right next step. So we leapt.

It was late fall and we were hopeful that things were moving, even if they were moving slowly. We had hope that any.day.now the pieces would come together and we could once-and-for-all move to Lancaster.

I started packing boxes here and there with no real effort.

We felt confirmed in our desire to move to Lancaster.

But, still, we waited.

The question was: How long would we have to wait?