I used to make 7K a month, and manage millions of dollars and keep track of 10 companies - then on July 2, I went to work and "The Man" said...."Hey, God told me that you and your husband should start a business together" and boom my job ended. Just like that - the life I had known for the past 8 1/2 years was over. No warning, no tell tale signs, in fact the whole thing was kept very secret and even months later even the corporate lawyers were still emailing me as they still knew nothing. Hell, I even had to tell one of the presidents of one of the companies - after two months, he emailed me about a payment he hadn't received, he still didn't know I didn't work there.
Just a side note here: I am not opposed to someone telling me that God spoke to them in regards to my life - heck he can speak from a donkey he could have spoken through this guy...However, normally God puts an idea in our hearts that blossoms and is confirmed by another person. Neither my husband or myself ever felt the need to be in business together and in fact my hubby had given up his career to stay home with our kids, we were going to be homeschooling that year. In hindsight - the treatment of us (the stealing of almost a million dollars in shares and some other stuff - lead me to believe perhaps it wasn't God's talking through him - but hey now we are splitting hairs and God can work anywhere - I believe this).
Anyhow, we spent the summer vacationing at a friend of mines house and found jobs in a small town. Which at the time looked like a great idea. The thought of no drive-by shootings, no pedophiles running around, no home invasions, lots of lushious green trees and blue sky, no pollution meters to worry about looked inviting. And we packed up and headed out west. Thus we said bye to a city of 135,000 people, politics and conveinces and headed to a rural community with 5,000 people. Life looked promising.
Well, we got there and stayed at my step dads farm. 40 minutes from where we both worked. Sounds ok but the drive was hell and we had only one car. So my accountant husband turned oilfield worker (cuz supposebly there is big bucks there) sometimes had to be at work between 3 am and 5:00 am. Made having to grab kids and load them in the car a chore. Okay it just plain sucked. So when my dad wasn't working he would look after them and I would drive hubby in and come back to the farm. A 1 1/2 hour round trip. My dad lived in a trailer and has been a bachelor for 10 + years, the cats, dog and kids drove him nuts at which point he drove me nuts. Misery loves company. And let me tell you, I was miserable. Leaving our beautiful 3600 sq. ft. house behind to live in a trailer was a breaking point. I cried all the time. Funny enough I wasn't mad at my old boss. Logically speaking my job was the one he could afford to get rid of with the least amount of impact. But I couldn't live this far from the town so we kenneled the dog, cats and we moved into a hotel for a bit. Our house still hadn't sold (stress), we couldn't find anyplace to rent (stress), new job (stress), less money (stress), hubby working away from home days on end (stress), not hearing from God (more stress)! But we perservered. Living at the hotel I got the newspaper a day before everyone else so come 8 am one morning I phoned an ad about a 5 bedroom house, brand new, in the best sub-division in town. Rent was crazy but I had seen places where they wanted 1,600.00 a month and I wouldn't have brought my kids there. So I took it. Sight unseen to kids or hubby - I did phone him to tell him about it but we needed to live someplace. Oct.1 we moved in. Was awesome to be out of the hotel. Smaller (by 1000 sq. ft.) then what we had previously, but cheaper then living at the hotel. We had to borrow furniture (thank God for my friend and her family), our house still wasn't sold but this lasted only 5 days or something. Our house sold in a market with a less then 4% chance in 31 days. That my friends - is God. Our furniture showed up - which of course didn't fit, my hubby got his car and life was still stressful and hard. Here I am 6 months later and I am just starting to get out of the funk I was in. The culture shock has been enormous. We have yet to find a good restaurant. My kids are so traumatized by what passes as Chinese food here that they won't eat it anymore (this was one of their favourites prior) and even going for steak I have had to send it back. So we quit eating out. I am learning to cook and I am learning how stuff works here. For instance I found a butcher who has the best steaks I have ever tasted, ever! That all the good produce is kept in the back, FIFO for those accountants (First in, First out for those who aren't) so you have to ask for it. That any store here will order stuff in for you! Prices are higher here and 1 1/2 hours to the "City" is a big drive. We got our Firearms license here 2 weeks after hitting the border. Because owning a firearm here isn't a privelage - It's a right. They practice "Lockdowns" at our school here in case someone carrying a weapon tried to hurt the kids which they have never done in our old city where it is much more likely. My youngest had nightmares about it - at which point I said that if that were to ever happen - I would feel sorry for those people. I don't know any parent here who doesn't own a rifle or handgun or some firearm that if our kids were in danger - they'd use. We don't have pedophiles here - at least not ones that they'd ever tell the public in our town. We don't pay for Christian schooling - they are considered part of the public system. People still say "Merry Christmas" here AND when we went to my husbands Christmas party - which was held at a PUBLIC hall, with tons of burly, oilfield workers and their wives. Free flowing alcohol, great food and THEY PRAYED before serving the food. Let me tell you, everyone bowed their head to the Lord. It was amazing. Men here open doors for ladies, teenagers still respect elders and there is not much political correctness. Oh, yeah, as of today - healthcare is free! There is no Starbucks, no Tim Hortons not a lot of choices for clothing etc. It gets to be -41.9 (last night - without the wind chill) but I see the sun every day. So I'll keep you posted.
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