Job Interviews

I had my first job interview today. It went really well and the job sounds very interesting. It's a clinical educator position and I would be meeting one-on-one with patients educating them on their conditions and how best to care for themselves. I would also help to streamline clinic practices, develop programs, and help train volunteers and work them in areas they would be most effective. It actually sounds like something I would be good at doing so I am just waiting to see the final job description and the $$.

Meanwhile, on the Select front, I am still working! Uggghhhh, I've had enough. Yesterday I took the most recent Harry Potter and sat there reading for a few hours. I was told that my team could leave once all the medical records are boxed and filed and the storage rooms cleared out. Welllllll, that was done by 2:30 today and yet he asked for us to come back tomorrow for a "once over". God love him, I understand why he is doing it, but I am tired of this and want to start my maternity leave pronto!

I had a moment (well it was a very long moment lasting a few hours) of prolonged sadness after emptying my desk and taking things to my car. I really will be sad to leave. I will really miss everybody (with a few exceptions).

Faith

Faith. Simple word, big meaning. One of the biggest fears of my life has been unemployment, but in the seconds following the announcement on Tuesday I felt peace. Excitement. And this thought crossed my brain, "Alright, God, what else have you got? Show me what you can do." Somehow I knew it was going to be ok. Today Matt preached on Judges 6 and the general thought that I took away from the sermon was letting God lead and that it is ok to ask for a sign from God that it is truly him. I look at losing my job as a sign from God. I can trust him in certain areas, but I hold other areas so close to my heart because I don't trust him with them. These areas have been neglected for so long that I no longer trust him to provide for those things as well. If I can trust him to provide for me, why can I not let him provide for these other areas? Maybe it is time to let him.

I'm always amazed when someone tells me they have read my blog and have kept up with my news. I know that some of you have even been praying for me and I want to thank you for all your prayers and your concern.

Good Day

There is nothing like having a Saturday without an agenda....ahhhh. I slept late and even the cat didn't disrupt my slumber. It has been a long time since I have had a Saturday free. I decided to sort through the large tubs of stuff my mom sent with me a few weeks ago. I found some great treasures that I haven't seen in 15 years or so. I found the hand-made "Cabbage-Patch Doll" my mom had made. She had painted blue eyes on it to match my own and fitted it with brown hair. It even wore the same outfit that I had worn as a baby. What a great thing to find. I also found notes and cards my Grandma Henderson had sent me. She developed Alzheimer's when I was quite young and was pretty far gone by the time I was a teenager. When she died I received the Bicentennial Crazy Quilt she had started for me. It has bits of all of our clothing and each piece tells a story. I have wanted something with her writing to transfer onto the backside of the quilt and now I have those things. I think I am going to do an iron transfer of one of the cards onto a piece of fabric and put that into my daughter's 100 Good Wishes Quilt. That is one more thing I can work on while on "leave".

I also made the mistake of opening the newest Harry Potter book. After that my treasure hunt ended and I can't get my other projects started. It's such an exciting book...I'm already 100 pages into it!

Thursday night before I went to bed I noticed that the CCAA updated their website. They are finished reviewing dossiers submitted through June 2006. This is incredible! It has only been 3 weeks since they finished the month of May, 2 weeks since they finished April. It took 3 months to clear the month of March, yikes! It will take them forever to match babies and families for that month, but hopefully it won't take another 3-4 months (like October 2005). Little things like this give me hope that I won't be waiting forever.

The Beat Goes On

Nothing new on the job front. I submitted my resume for an analyst position and e-mailed the person in charge of the department. She said she can not proceed until the hospital processes my application and forwards it on to her. From past experience I can tell you it will take 3-4 months for them to hire someone, even if they are desperate. So, I may be unemployed for awhile.

I spent yesterday cleaning out my desk, my car, and all my files. Not only did I have one filing cabinet, but my predecessor also had a tall filing cabinet that I had to empty. And all the boxes and 3-ring binders....yikes! We had approximately 60 bags of trash and at last 30-40 bags had to go to the shredder because of confidential material. Initially I thought that once that was done I would be free to leave, but that is not the case. They want me to stay on and inventory, bag and tag all our equipment. The only problem?...corporate still hasn't sent us the appropriate labels (with barcodes, evidently) to complete the task. So, since I was done with my work and couldn't begin to help anywhere else I sat at my desk for 6 straight hours until being freed to go home. Tracie and I spent the afternoon yelling insults at each other and laughing like goons. We had brought food for a little private pitch-in and listened to a Ron White CD. When we were finally allowed to leave we decided to go to Target. I now have the new Harry Potter book, but I can't start it until Monday. I need to have something to do next week!

The Job Hunt Begins

Yesterday I was in shock, but today I am angry. This morning I made the comment to my CEO that since I was being robbed of my maternity leave that I was going to make up for it in the next 2 months and get a lot of baby things done. After tomorrow I can't think of anything else that I can do. I cancelled all my appointments today and called and wrote letters to all my referral sources. That was really hard. They were really upset and they were worried for all of us. It's a small town and we suddenly will have a lot of medical personnel flooding the market. Initially the CEO said I was finished with work after this week, but then made some comment about staying on and helping with the close. Considering I'm not receiving a severence package (we had been promised this numerous times in the event we ever did close) I don't feel too charitable. I'm not going to sit "on-call" for the next 2 months and help tear down the hospital that I helped put together. Terri had the best advice: if it's not in your job description, you can't be made responsible for it.

On the positive side, I've received several job leads. It was amazing how quick that happened. Mike at our Beech Grove site offered me the same job that I had there (minus all the responsibility I was carrying here). I had job offers at 3 home care companies (been there, done that, and God willing, never will again). I had 3 leads for jobs that haven't yet been posted at Bloomington Hospital and I have an interview for one next week. The one lead came from Kathy, an FCC mommy, who had read my post yesterday. I'm most excited about that one and I really hope the lady calls me back to set up an interview. Say a prayer not just for me, but for all of us affected by the closing. We had ~120 employees and about 30-50 of them were full-time.

Bad Day at the Office

First, I want to apologize to my close friends that will read this before I have the chance to tell them in person. The truth is, I just can't handle any more calls on this matter today. We had a scheduled visit from our regional director and our corporate HR person today. That is not terribly unusual as they visit annually to check in, but today we were all called in to a meeting and informed that our hospital is closing and we are all losing our jobs. Yep, I just lost my job. We will finish up the care on the patients that are currently with us, but will not evaluate (my job) or admit anyone else. Since our average patient length of stay is 25 days, I anticipate we will remain open for another 3 weeks. Fortunately we will be paid until September 24th and my medical benefits will not end until the end of September. Unfortunately, there is no severence package and all the time I have accumulated for my maternity leave is lost. I will not be able to use or be paid my sick time (aka baby time), but I will be able to cash out my vacation time which will probably only add up to 2 weeks.
I am asking for your prayers on this matter. I have never been downsized before and as the sole breadwinner I have no other paycheck to lean on. I was also still working on saving money towards my adoption.
I was surprisingly calm all day and even cracked jokes with my CEO and the corporate people who delivered the bad news. They even asked me to help notify my fellow employees by calling and sending certified letters. I think that helped separate me from what was going on, but now I am home and feeling the stress. Pray that I will have peace and not feel overwhelmingly stressed and that I am able to find a new job quickly!
I hope that I do not have to return to work after this week. Since I will not be able to enjoy a paid maternity leave when my daughter comes home, I want to do it now. All those little things that I wanted to get done and don't have the time or energy for, I want to work on now. Of course, I will also be on the job hunt full time.
If you want to call me tomorrow, that is fine, but today I just need to take a nap, a crap, and walk before I feel better.

I A-M E-X-H-A-U-S-T-E-D

Yep, you read it here first...I'm so tired I can't move. Yesterday I woke up bright and early (aka 5:45 AM) so that I could get to Illinois in time to help with the big garage sale and move. The garage sale was supposed to begin at 7 am, but people actually began arriving at 6:30. What is wrong with people? Why can't they sleep in on a Saturday morning? It seems like some sort of sickness...I wonder if there is a 12-step program for them? Anyway, I arrived around 7:40 central time and the big rush was already over but people stopped by all morning long. I was so exhausted after going to bed so late and getting up early that I was useless. Plus, I hadn't had any caffeine. I usually try to go caffeine free on the weekends, but this was ridiculous. I spent most of my time watching Saige and helping with the garage sale while the rest of them packed things up and loaded the U-Haul. Even watching Saige wore me out. Finally by 6:15 the worst was over and the majority of their belongings were moved to the duplex. I really wish I had pictures of the day, but my camera wasn't working and I am really hoping it is just the battery. Even though I dead-ass tired I still stayed up late last night. It seems I have reversed the good bedtime vibes I was on last week and the new overly-exhausted ones have taken over which means I am going to be tired but unable to sleep.
I decided to skip church this morning so that I could sleep in. It's the first day since July 4th that I have been able to sleep late and not wake up by the alarm. After a nice, peaceful sleep I began to tackle my front yard. I've been very frustrated with the appearance of the front of the house. I want to landscape the area closest to the front of the house, but the slope of the yard is wrong and I needed to remove dirt and sod from the front of the bed and move it to the back of the bed (against the house). Now I have a better slope so hopefully things will drain away and down the hill to the south of the house. I cleared a 10x20foot piece of land. I'm exhausted! I think tomorrow if I am able to move I will try to slope it more and remove the old wood chips that passed for mulch. Hopefully I will be able to put my flower bulbs and other flowers in this week and mulch it by the weekend! I'm so excited as crazy as that might seem, but this yard is such a mess!