Full Circle, Part 2

Picking up where I left off…

Truth be told, I’d thought since early in the week that I was pregnant…I just felt different, and even though I could not get one of those darn sticks to produce 2 lines, I was sure of it. FINALLY, on Saturday morning (I said Friday in the last post – that was wrong), I got a positive!

Of course, we were beyond thrilled. And then my thoughts quickly turned to my new job situation: temporary. I started thinking we must have been crazy to accept that job when I knew there was a good chance that the funding wouldn’t be there for a permanent job. And me not working was absolutely not an option.

There were a few hiccups early in the pregnancy that resulted in many extra doctors’ appointments and an ER visit, and therefore, I had to tell my new boss within a couple of weeks that I was expecting. She was super nice about it, but I’m sure she was thinking, “Are you kidding me?”

After the first few weeks, I settled into both the job and the pregnancy. We got the great news in early June, I believe, that my position would, indeed, be funded for another year, which was a HUGE relief. My days were filled with phone calls, meetings, proofreading books being written by my boss, soaking up knowledge about character education, and eating the snacks I’d stashed in my desk drawer, particularly Ritz Bitz Smores (which, incidentally, I haven’t seen in stores in a long time). I often proofread at night, too, and combined with the energy it takes to grow a human, I was exhausted.

But as time went on, and Matt and I started preparing for parenthood, we started hoping that I could switch to part-time work. Serious talks about the budget. Hoping and praying that we could manage it, and that my incredibly-understanding supervisor would help me find part-time work within the organization. I knew I’d have to switch to another job, because she needed a full-time admin.

When I approached her in October about this, she agreed that we could work something out, but didn’t have details. In late October, our organization got some amazing news…the 2 federal grants that we’d applied for had been accepted. BOTH of them, which was huge! I remember bringing the mail back to our office one day, and being so excited to hand the packet over to my supervisor and the coworker who’d made much of the proposal happen. I was giddy…like a college acceptance letter, the packet was nice and fat…rejection notices don’t come like that!

I didn’t realize it, but that packet would change my life.

In mid-November, as the people in charge of the grant started looking for employees, my name was thrown into the hat, and I was approached by the director of one of the grants. Did I want to interview for a part-time position with the grant, in which I’d be coaching schools on how to implement this program?

The two women in the office who were conducting interviews scheduled me for a noon time slot. And asked me if I could order lunch for the 3 of us to eat while we did the interview. Awkward and funny and please for the love tell me I’m a shoo-in for this position.

Positives: The pay was hourly and much better than what I was making (which helped to make up for the reduced number of hours), I would be trained in the program we would be using, and I would get to make my own schedule for the most part. Plus, no offense to the people I was working with, but I would be out of the office and working with teachers and administrators, and home with my baby the rest of the time. Negatives: the hours would be inconsistent, and oh yeah, what exactly was I going to be doing? Still, it was a no-brainer. I happily accepted the job, with all of its uncertainties, and finished out my pregnancy working my original full-time hours as an AA.

I worked ON my due date, December 10th, stopping first at the Galleria to walk several laps and hopefully induce labor. When that didn’t happen, I went on up to the office for a few hours and then called it quits, and went home to wait for this little guy

luke, about 1 hour old...my extra chin, courtesy of the drawer full of ritz bitz smores.

who FINALLY made his appearance on Friday the 13th.

And in the next installment, I will finally get to the point of my story. Sorry to be so windy…when recording family history, I tend to get that way. 🙂