What up 2012!

New year.. decided I wanted to try this blogging business again.

21 Days of Prayer and Fasting started yesterday, and it has made me look back on this past year. I have prayed for so long for God to send me godly, dependable, amazing friends. Well, he delivered in 2011. Not only had I met Meredith, one of the best friends a girl could as for, in 2010, we decided to lead a fellowship small group in the Spring of 2011. We prayed that we could meet new friends through Highlands and foster an environment of openness and fellowship with other Christians. We certainly got what we asked for. So many friendships were made that I feel will be long lasting. These people have challenged and helped strengthen my relationship with God, as well as who I want to be. It has allowed me to see myself through the eyes of others, and given me a new perspective on who I am. The two greatest blessings from 2011 are finding an amazing group of friends, and God leading me on a journey to become more confident and proud of who I am.

Starting 2012, I can already say I've been blessed! I am finally, finally, finally starting a job with children! It only took two years after graduating to find a job where I truly feel like I'm called to be. I will be the Augmentative Communication Consultant for Jefferson County Schools. I will travel to different schools around the county and consult with teachers and Speech Therapists on how to incorporate augmentative devices into the classroom and therapy sessions. I've had several job interviews in pediatrics over the past several months, and God always gave me a peace about them. I truly only wanted what God had for me, and if that meant I needed to stay in my position as an SLP in a nursing home for awhile longer until the job he had for me came along, so be it. I already made a job change in 2010 that, needless to say, was a disaster. I didn't want that to happen again. The only surefire way to make sure it wouldn't was to give it to God. He and only He knows where I need to be and where He can best use me. So, through all of the job interviews and not getting jobs, I was completely at peace with it. I didn't want anything unless it was in God's plan.

That being said, getting this job is completely a God thing. From the very beginning, it felt different. I regularly checked the Teach in Alabama website to see if there were any SLP jobs posted in my area. I had never seen one within a reasonable driving distance until December 5. It was a listing for an SLP in Jefferson County. I happened to look at the closing for the job listing, and it happened to be on December 5. Hm. I didn't think much else about it until I received a phone call that following Thursday. Yes, as in 4 days later. I was asked by the woman who will now be my supervisor which job I had applied for, as there were 2 being offered. I replied that I had no idea, I just saw an opening and applied. She explained that one job was the one I will be starting in a week, and the other was a typical SLP job split between an elementary and a high school. She asked if I had training with augmentative devices, to which I replied some. She said that the person for this job really needed to have a heart for special needs children. Uh, hello? I still think she could read my mind somehow. I'll have to ask her. Later that day, she calls back and asks if I can come in for an interview the next afternoon. I had already planned to leave work early that day, as the LIFE Retreat was that weekend, so I didn't even have to fib about why I needed to leave work early. I showed up, parked at completely the wrong end of the parking lot, ended up hiking around the circumference of the Board of Education building in heels, and finally made it inside out of one of the only cold days we had in December. Hustled to the office, as I was now a little late, and sat in the waiting room. I got called back for the interview and talked a bit with the woman who will be my supervisor. Her boss comes in about ten minutes later and they very kindly trade off asking me questions. To be completely honest, I don't even know what I answered for some of them. All I remember is praying "God, I have absolutely no idea how to answer this question, so if you want me to have this job I'm going to need some help."

After they were questioned out, my soon-to-be-supervisor and her boss went out into the hall to "talk for a minute." I was freaking out a little. The way I saw it was, they were going to put me at the top of their list, or they were going to call the Board of Speech Pathology to have my license revoked on the grounds of having no idea what I'm doing. The whole time they were in the hall, which was probably 5 minutes but felt like 5 hours, I prayed the same words over and over: "God, I don't want this job if you don't want me to have it. Please don't let this continue any further than this room if you don't want me to have it." After an eternity of repeating those words, they walked back in and sat down. Surely, they could hear my heart hammering away, but they politely ignored it. The first thing said was "We would like to offer you the job." Uhh.. say what? I'm sure I looked completely dumbfounded. I think I said something along the lines of "Oh, wow, really?" What a good Speech Therapist I am. They then progressed to tell me about benefits and whatnot. In my frazzled haze, I think I wrote down the specifics. To top off the whole "this was completely a God thing," as if he basically answering my prayer of "I don't want this if you don't," immediately and finding the job listing on the last day it was posted and already planning to leave work early weren't enough, I really think I applied for the other job. I don't remember anything in that job posting about augmentative communication.

So, to sum it all up..... GOD IS GOOD! He has been so faithful to me. He has brought me an amazing group of friends, a job that I can only assume is straight from the Man Himself, all in one year. If that many great things can happen in one year, all I have to say is... what up 2012!!!