Leaps of Faith

So there are some really big and sudden changes going on in our neck of the woods...
. . .
Luke gave his two week notice this morning...
. . .
and he doesn't have another job lined up...
. . .
but I am not worried or scared...
. . .
but 100% happy for and proud of him.




If you told me last monday that this was going to happen, I would have been skeptical. I mean he has been getting more and more frustrated with his working conditions but we figured he would stick things out until November when he takes his AWS CWI/CWE exam. But this past week changed things...
For as long as we have been married, Luke has worked a consistent 44 hrs a week. His job more than covered our expenses and we have been able to set aside a good little security fund. In January he signed up to be a regular auxiliary pioneer. In our religion, this means you volunteer to take part in a part-time Bible ministry activity in your local area for at least 50 hours a month. This was really exciting for me, because he now became my service partner since I have been a regular pioneer (the same thing as auxiliary but with a 70 hour requirement) for 4 years now. He's really enjoyed sharing in this sacred service to Jehovah, but the last few months have been very exhausting for him, especially with these ridiculous temperatures. So although we have had the goal of him stepping up to regular status, we knew that it was an impossibility with his current work situation. Ergo the excitement over his November exam.
So how does this all lead to him quitting?
Well for the entire year, his company has been working on installing these new machines at both their plants. And they finally went live on Thursday, meaning not only did he have to work 2 hours late on one of our religious meeting nights to get them started but he had to go in Friday night for a repair as well as getting 2 call in's on Saturday. The cherry on top was having to work a 8 hour shift Sunday night to get home at 11 just to get called right back in at midnight to then turn around and start his regular shift at 6. He will have worked 26 hours in the current 48 hour stretch. And the whip cream? This would be his schedule for at least another 6 weeks. It's one thing if you are working those kinds of crazy hours as a doctor to save people's lives, it's a completely different story when you are sitting in an un-air-conditioned warehouse in 100 degree weather making sure big machines don't break down.
Therefore we spent the entire weekend praying about what to do and assessing our financial situation and trying to reach a decision. In the end, it was a pretty obvious one.

{source}

At 9:00 AM on August 1, 2011 my amazing, loving, supportive husband turned in his two weeks notice. So what is our plan? Well, we are both going to spend this month looking for part-time employment - preferably something 3 days a week - while paring down our spending to the absolute necessities. We've always done pretty good about living simply, but now it's even more so because we plan for this to be a long term change in schedule so that Luke can take the plunge into regular pioneering at least for a year.

So if you are looking for any construction, maintenance, or design help, we are totally available! :)