Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Changes....

This week has brought some big changes to our family. Good changes, but big ones. Last month, Eric received a job offer for a company in Draper, called Edwards Lifesciences. He accepted and just began on Monday. It was difficult to say goodbye to his old job. Although his pay wasn't great, it was a good, family oriented company. We are grateful for the job they gave Eric when we desperately needed one 4 years ago and for the things Eric has been able to learn while he worked there. 

His new job is will be challenging, but in a good way. They manufacture heart valves and heart catheters. Totally different from trailer hitches. Everything his teams manufacture are done in a clean room. In fact, Eric's office is even part of the clean room, so to be in his office, he has to have on shoe covers, a hair net, gloves, and a body suit. Way different from his paint stained jeans he wore to Progress. Everything he takes in has to be sterile. So pretty much all he can have in his office are papers he is working on for the production line. 

When he was first contacted about the job for an interview, we really didn't think much of it because he has been interviewing for a new job for months and months with no luck. He almost backed out of the interview because it was going to be 3 hours long and he had to get to school for finals that same day. Honestly, I was a little bugged that he went too. I just figured it was a waste of time. I am so glad the Spirit prompted him to go! He got a job offer about 2 hours after his first interview. He had some of the details and then I really wasn't excited about the idea of this new job. (It was a bad weekend for me-I was very tired and very lonely.) Taking this job would require a much longer commute, cause we don't want to move anytime soon, with longer hours than he was working. He would be leaving our house by 5am and not getting home until 6:30ishpm, depending on traffic. Plus all his school stuff on top of that. They hadn't told him anything about pay, but we figured it wouldn't be much more than what we were already making and by Sunday night we had pretty much decided to turn down the job on Monday. Well, Monday morning they called him back with a great offer! So great, that even with the crappy hours, we felt like we couldn't turn it down. Over the last two weeks as Eric prepared to leave Progress and start at Edwards, we have really seen the hand of the Lord guide us to this point. Not only will this job be a huge blessing financially, but it will give Eric experience and opportunity to grow and progress in his career. And, they are willing to work with his school schedule which has been an issue for most of the other jobs he was interviewing for. They told him on Monday that they had been interviewing other people when he interviewed and they had been looking for the right person and they really felt like Eric was that person. That was great for him to hear!

It has been a big change for him, but so far he is liking it. We had more good new come on Monday, when he found out that his hours will be more like 7:30am-4:30pm. Way better!! He also has to dress "professionally". It is weird to see him leave for work every morning in dress clothes. It feels like we are finally grown up:) 
All joking aside, we are very thankful and feel so blessed for this opportunity! We hope this will bring many more opportunities for our family in the future!