I Have a Job!

I wanted to write and reveal the good news now that I can. I have a job! Here's what happened: On Friday I got a call from Kelly Services in Provo, one of the employment agencies Scenic View Academy had me working with. We played telephone tag for a while, but when I was finally able to reach Matt, the man who called me, he told me that there was a call center position open in American Fork that he thought I would be eligible to fill. He said that he wanted me to come down to Kelly Services the next day (Saturday) to discuss this prospect and see if I would be a good fit. So on Saturday when he called to let me know he was at the agency (he was commuting from Salt Lake City), we headed down to Provo. I met with Matt for about 20 minutes. He and I visited about my qualifications for the job, and he told me there were two open positions I could potentially fill. One started Monday (yesterday), the other one a week later. He said the job paid $10 an hour and aske about my availability. I told him I was looking for an 8-5 or 9-5 job as I was taking medication in the evening that might make me drowsy and thus render me unable to work. He said he was sure the company would be willing to work with me on that. After we had visited, he said he was satisfied that I could do the job. He promised to call me with further details Sunday evening once he heard back from the company.

On Sunday, Amy was sick and stayed home from Church. I went to fulfill my responsibilities as the Ward Media Specialist and, at her insistence, stayed for the whole block. I greatly enjoyed passing the news of my job on to many of the friends I've made in this ward. Each expressed their elation that things were finally starting to work out for Amy and me. I had the opportunity to be home taught and to go home teaching. The rest of Sunday passed uneventfully. I was more than a little concerned when I didn't hear from Matt.

On Monday, I tried to start getting into the daily routine I will need to follow once I start work next week. Because we went to bed too late, I was unable to follow through with that. I had an appointment with my dentist to get the worst two of my four fillings taken care of. That went well. We visited Amy's dad so Amy could pick up some stuff she needed and get some branches and acorns to make a Thanksgiving wreath to hang on our door. We also got more details about how his buying a house for us would work. It would be Amy's inheritance from her parents. I also received word from the office of my muscle doctor, Judith Gooch, that since Medicaid Healthy U wouldn't allow me to see Dr. Gooch at her new clinic in Murray that I would have to find someone else to manage the medical side of my spasticity issues. So I dashed off an e-mail to her late last night asking for her recommendation as to whom I should see at the University of Utah Hospital to replace her. Haven't heard back yet, but hope to soon. It pains me to have to stop seeing Dr. Gooch. She's been taking care of my spasticity issues since I was a little guy, and I couldn't have asked for a better, more caring doctor to help me manage that. However, my hands are tied, so I will have to make the best of a bad situation.

Last night, we got to bed really late. I had trouble sleeping and tossed and turned for a while before I gave up at 6 and got up. Several hours later, I called Kelly Services and got more details about the job from a different man who was also named Matt. I will be working from 8 am-4:30 pm and will have a half hour lunch. Since I won't be too far away, Amy and I have talked about the possibility of us having lunch together every day, though we haven't worked out the logistics of it yet. The way my job will work is this: The first week (next week) will be training. When the company is satisfied that I have been sufficiently trained, they will refer me to another call center, where I will work from that point on. That was slightly different from what I'd previously been told, so it'll be interesting to see what the truth is. Once I am established with the company, I am to make sure that I present them regularly with a list of my upcoming appointments. Matt (the one I talked to today) assured me that it was not a problem to get time off for my medical appointments. He also said that the company uses electronic time cards so that I don't have to worry about lousing up a physical time card with my awful handwriting. That was  a big relief to me. So, I now have a job and will start on Monday. Hallelujah!

There are a couple of downsides to finally having a job First is the reality that I will no longer be spending as much time with Amy. I will miss her terribly. But if I can see her at lunch every day, that will be great! The other is the fact that I have never worked full time or at all, so I don't know how it will work out for me or how my body, mind and spirit will handle it, but I am just glad that the Lord has finally answered our prayers and let a job fall in my lap after all our blood, sweat and tears about the issue. Best of all, Amy won't ever have to bear the burden of supporting us and earning our living anymore.

With the rest of my day, I contacted Irwin, my employment counselor at Scenic View and let him know about the job. He was ecstatic for me. I left a message for Vanessa Howell, the woman who handles my SSI case, to see first how my earning $10 an hour and working full-time would affect my SSI and what effect, if any, Amy's dad buying us a house would have on my SSI if the money never came into our hands. II attempted to call Annemarie Smith, my Vocational Rehabilitation counselor, but just got an automated voice that directed me to dial one of several extensions that I knew for a fact were out of date. So I will have to try again tomorrow to reach Annemarie. I was able to nap for a couple of hours in the afternoon and felt much improved for the rest I got. We went to Fresh Market to pick up my prescriptions and some Halloween candy. Once again, I made Amy a promise. If she would let us buy enough candy to allow for a generous amount of trick or treaters and none came as in years past, I would buy her dinner somewhere. If we do get trick or treaters, I don't get anything out of the deal except the good feeling of knowing I was right.

The rest of this week will be spent getting myself ready for work. On Saturday evening, we have the monthly Stokes family dinner and we are doing family pictures. I may or may not try to get in to Physical Therapy one other time this week before I go Saturday. I imagine I will stop by my parents' house on Sunday night and ask my dad to give me a father's blessing prior to my beginning work. And I will work and hope and pray for the opportunity to one day stop working at the call center in favor of devoting my full time to writing. But in the meantime, it gives me great relief to know that we will be taken care of. I admit to not knowing what the future holds. But, as ever, I am optimistic that the answers to all of our problems are just around the corner. The Lord is in control of our lives, and we couldn't be in better hands. I will continue to update this blog regularly as time and circumstances allow. Until I write again, all the best!