After graduation I was able to spend some good and much
needed time with Devan, my sister-in-law.
She came and helped me with school and we were able to get to know each
other better, Oh and talk about our men.
She really helped out with the end of the year program. It was a hard
week because I found out someone was going to move to teach Kindergarten which
meant that someone was going to lose their job or be moved to teach a different
grade. Turns out that I was asked to move up to teach First Grade. Nick and I
had no idea what our future held so I agreed to the move. If we were going to
stick around for another year and him not do school it would make sense if we
moved to Bryson City. So we started some research and I found a cute little
house for rent that was well in our budget. We fasted and prayed about it and
felt that we shouldn’t move. I just looked at Nick and said, “Well some things
going to happen because why live here and drive all that way to work.” I decided to just put that feeling off and
just keep going on.
We had Julie and Matt’s wedding in Raleigh NC. We had to
drive to Washington, D.C. where they were sealed then back to Raleigh for their
reception. We then stayed Saturday night at a hotel so we could hang and
explore some more. We went to the Melting Pot for dinner and bought Nick some
gear at REI for his camping interview. Nick was going the following weekend to
interview for a camping leader job and needed specific cloths and things. I
didn’t want him to go because if he got the job he would work 8 days then off
for 6. If that is what was meant for us to do then I would have had no problem
with it from the beginning but I knew that it wasn’t. When we were in the DC
temple Friday night (Matt and Julie went for their endowment session) I prayed
about it, and I was told to just let him go. I’m glad I did because he had to
learn and make the decision not me and he didn’t get offered the job.
I started working with my Stepmom on her new business
YourVacas, and I started helping plan vacations for people. I thought I would
have made more money. I thought it was going to be worth my time but it wasn’t.
We made a fort with the Miller's Children(Noah, Anna, and Helena)
Joe came up for a two week visit with us. We signed him up
for swimming lessons and did that every day with him. I feel bad because I
worked a lot while he was there and Nick spent a lot of time with him.
I think
it was good though for both Nick and Joe. I learned a valuable lesson…. The
time I spend with my children is much more important that the time I spend
working. I hope that when I have my own children I will concentrate on them and
raising them instead of working.
At the end of Joe’s visit I was really struggling with
getting ready to go back to teaching because every since I got the Kindergarten
teaching job I didn’t feel like I should have taken the offer. Nick and I
started talking about it again. I bluntly told him that I didn’t think we were
supposed to be in Cullowhee anymore and that it was time to move on, but we had
no idea where to go. We had no direction, so we started brain storming on
things that we could do. We came up with traveling abroad to teach English. A
feeling overwhelmed me and I knew it was the answer we had been looking for. I
started doing research and I found a few places that popped up on Google search
but they weren’t what I was looking for. I don’t remember how I got there but I
found a blog written by a girl who had traveled and she had links to great
websites. I clicked on one and it led me to idealist.org. I found some jobs and
started to apply for them. I was starting to get very excited however, Nick was
not convinced that this was something we needed to do. All this happened on a
Thursday. My mom came up on Friday to pick Joe up and Nick and I talked to her
about it. She didn’t look pleased in fact she tried to talk us out of it. She
left with Joe Saturday morning and Nick and I went out to see Brave. On our way
we I called Nicks parents to see if they would fast for us that Sunday (July 2nd
I think) and Lon asked why. I told him what we were thinking and he said okay
and hung up. When we were about to walk into the movies Lon called me and said
that we should do it and that we have their support. He said that as soon as he
hung up with me he told Mom Stevens and they both knew that we needed to do it.
They told us that we should fast for where we should go. I told Nick when I sat
down what his parents had said and he was like, “they approve?” I thought it
was funny that once his parents backed us up and didn't think we were crazy he
was okay with the idea.
Sunday we fasted and we knew we needed to do it now all we
had to do was find a job and plan the next steps. We didn’t feel it important
to stay in Cullowhee any longer because our Landlord would need to find someone
to come in and rent. Leigh was getting married and I would be traveling a lot
to Bama. So we decided to pack that week and move the next. I quit my job, we
told our bishop and friends, and we packed. That week we had several
interviews.
We also went to see Coldplay in concert with Matt and Julie. I lost
my cell phone on the train and we had to track it down. Thank goodness the guy
was nice and called us. I got my phone the next day.
We had an interview with a recruiter from South Korea. After
we got off Skype with him I started to cry. I knew that that’s where we were
needed. Nick said he felt it as well.
We moved into Nick’s parent’s house during the week and I
threw Leigh’s Bachelorette party in Chattanooga the following weekend. It was
awesome!!! The week after we had another interview with a school in South Korea
and we were notified that we didn’t get the job because they wanted a male who
had more experience. Well that Sunday Nick and I fasted for a job because now
we were out of options. Sunday night I emailed our recruiter, that if he found
something else please let us know. He wrote me back that they had changed their
minds and we got the job! WE WERE SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!! We started the paper
work
