Making it More Real

I’ve been trying to come to terms with something that seems to be on our horizon. I’ve not wanted to blog about it, though I’ve spoken to a few good friends about it.

My husband had a good job here before he went to Iraq. It was work that he (mostly) enjoyed, with a company we’re pleased to be associated with and it was HERE, in Central Texas… our home. We’ve lived here for nearly 9 years and planned to live here for 90 more. Here is the snag….

The contract that covered my husbands position is not being renewed. The company has been scrambling to find a loophole to keep his position in tact. Their efforts were in vain. Our suspicion that the job would not be here was intensified when they asked him to do a second year in Iraq (um, heck no!) We felt pretty sure at that point that they were asking so that they could keep him on the payroll since the position has been eliminated. A few days later, the company confirmed that.

OH BOY! Now what do we do? Since we haven’t hit the lottery, he has to have a new job soon after his return from Iraq. There is nothing here for him anymore (unless someone creates a new slot in another organization…. highly unlikely.) We are going to have to <GULP> move.

The bad news is that we have to leave our home, our friends, our parish. There really isn’t much here that would attract most people, but this is hour home. We love it here. We really don’t want to leave. It seems God has another plan.

The good news is that there are a lot of jobs in his “specialty” all over the world. There are contract positions and government positions. There are stateside slots (though honestly, the ones we are aware of are not in places we would to live.) There are a lot of overseas slots… most in Europe. We do not doubt that he will be able to get a job. It’s the *where* that is the biggest question.

After retiring from the Army, we thought our moving days were over. I guess we thought wrongly. I think we’d say we’re about 90% certain we will be leaving our home this summer. That brings up a whole host of questions and concerns…. do we sell our house or rent it out in the hopes that somehow we make our way back home? What are the tax implications? (if we go overseas, we will not be able to roll the proceeds of a sale into another home.) Whether we rent or sell, we will have to tackle all of the little and not-so-little home jobs we’ve been putting off.

And I’ve got STUFF! Moving regularly really helps keep STUFF in check and out of our house…. so we’ve collected a lot more STUFF than we brought with us.

I know God is in the details. He has a perfect plan for us. But that doesn’t mean this doesn’t make me a little nervous and a lot sad!