Getting Ready for Christmas

It's been busy at the Driscoll's for sure! Decorating the tree, painting ornaments, baking and decorating cookies keeping us busy. I have too much to write to be able to break it down in this post, so for now a collage will have to do :)

Fall Leaves and Family

We went to Williamsburg recently to see Grandma Marsha and Grandpa Mike at Great-Grandma Rita and Great-Grandpa George's house. Adi's 2nd cousin Kaden was there, which was a fun surprise. Kaden is a few years older than Adi and I wasn't sure how well they'd play together but they had so much fun together.

There were leaves galore, everyone else was trying to clean them up but we were more interested in playing with them :)

Who can resist a big pile of leaves on a windy day? Kaden had a blast throwing the leaves in the air and watching them fly.

Here is Miss Adi under the weeping cherry tree.

Adi was a good helper, raking up leaves for our jumping pile.

A face framed in leaves.

I love Heidi Baker

OK, so when I took the temporary child care gig I just assumed I wasn't going to be able to go see Heidi Baker (my favorite Christian woman on the planet) in Chicago on Monday night. Very early on Thursday morning I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. When this happens I chose to believe that God wants to say something and He won't let me sleep until I get it.

So I felt an urge to get up and check my email but I really didn't want to get out of bed. It was 2:00 in the morning, I was tired and didn't want to ruin my chances of sleeping by stimulating my brain with the light of the computer. But as I lay there trying to sleep the urge got stronger until I finally gave in.

Since I had lost my job and money got tighter I applied for a scholarship to go to the conference that Heidi was speaking at. I hadn't heard anything back, until I finally got up and checked my email. The message included key words such as, "your registration has been accepted, print this email for admission to the conference" and "we have been praying for you by name since receiving your registration" and "you are attending this conference by divine appointment". I know it was a form letter but it got me, it felt like it was all speaking to my heart and actually ripping it in two! How was I supposed to go to the conference when God had provided an answer to my prayer for Kingdom economy? I had to honor the family I had an agreement with.

But God woke me up to read that email so the only thing left to do was pray like a mad woman! I prayed for what seemed like an hour, maybe two, that Monday and Tuesday would be cleared up so I could go to the conference.

Well, long story short, Cam agreed to watch the little one on Tuesday and I compromised on my travel by leaving after she went home on Monday at 12:30. Adi and I did the road trip to Chicago to meet the McCoy's and stay at the Frauenholtz's (I hope I spelled that right).

The trip up was good. Maybe even excellent. My favorite part was when a white owl swooped in from the median, it came right at me and lifted it's feet as though it was going to just pick me up and then it flew right over me. It was incredible! The significance of the owl is way bigger than I can do justice and I'll have to dedicate an entire post to the owl later but just know that this is extremely spiritual and extremely exciting!

Here is a short video of Heidi preaching. She spoke on courage which is the same thing that Christy Wimber spoke on a week ago at the Vineyard in Cedar Rapids (where Cam prayed for my foot with tendinitis and it was HEALED, by the way! :) and I haven't heard it yet but Cam says that Bill Johnson also spoke on courage in his sermon on Sunday. God wants us to have courage, I know I need courage right now so I'll take it!!

There was a prayer tunnel at the end of the evening after Heidi spoke. Basically there are two lines of ministry leaders and the conference goers walk down the middle and are blessed by the folks who make up the lines. It can be very powerful. The guy at the beginning of the line asked me what I wanted prayer for and I said, "courage". He said it took courage just to say that. I chuckled because I didn't think so but whether I agreed with him didn't matter. I didn't sense anything specific happen when I went through the tunnel but thought maybe I got what I asked for.

Today we went to Kohl's to get a new outfit for me for a TV appearance I'm going to have next week (again, another post) and in the parking lot was a man walking with a cane. I asked Cam if he wanted to go pray for the guy and Cam said no. I walked a few more steps with Cam and Adi and then found myself just changing direction and walking toward the man. Adi followed and therefore Cam did too. In the end the guy didn't let me pray for him, but I told him that God loves him and blessed him and respectfully left him alone. It's OK that he said no, the most important thing is that I had the courage to say yes!

Latest Adventure

Here are some shots from Cam and Adi's latest adventure in the woods.

Fall is such a fun time to be outside. The colors, the leaves, the migrating birds, the cute little Adi's sitting by streams... the list goes on and on.

I love that smile!
I saved the best for last. I love this photo.

Apologies and Answers to Prayer

So since my last post I've learned that many people are offended by the use of the term, "fired". It feels too strong. And because I'm getting severance I couldn't have been "fired". Maybe so, maybe not. I don't really know. I do know that I was terminated from my position along with 3 of my co-workers and I think we all felt like we were fired in light of the circumstances. But, from here on out, I am committed to use new terminology. I was "laid off". I guess that is probably closer to the truth since I am eligible to apply for open positions at Pearson and I supposed had I been fired that would not be the case. So here's my official apology for using harsh language. I guess I was more irked than I wanted to admit. I still contend that I'm blessed indeed, though I was operating under such grace from God that I didn't acknowledge some of the underlying hurt of being let go from the company I've spent the last 11 years at.

I think I promised more pictures of last monarch we let go. I don't know how many there were in all over the course of the monarch season but they were so much fun to take care of and my 4 year old knows the word "metamorphosis" and has working knowledge of it's true meaning. That's pretty cool!

So I had mentioned that I was getting full pay as severance for 24 weeks. That's only partially true. I get full severance, but apparently the tax rate on hours not actually worked (severance) is astronomical! When I saw my first pay check I had a few moments of panic. It was a lot short. A lot. So I started praying. "Kingdom economy, God. Kingdom economy!" I think I said the same thing over and over again a few thousand times before going to bed that night and pray it every day since.

Cam and I talked it over and decided it would be a good idea to post an ad on craigslist for in-home child care. I could care for just one additional child for a while and hopefully that could make up the difference of insane taxes on my income and I'm strongly considering doing in-home childcare for a living ongoing so it would be nice to ease into it.

I wasn't expecting to get a response so quickly from someone in need of help so soon! I mulled it over a bit and finally said, "OK, God, if this is you I can't say no." The couple who responded is lovely. They have an adorable 18 month old daughter. The job is only temporary, which at first felt discouraging but now feels like just what I need. And of course it is. I prayed for kingdom economy and God sent people to us that need us as much as we need them. God is so beautiful in His ways, it brings tears to my eyes. I'm in awe of His glory, His majesty, and the way He answers prayers. God is good. He is so good!

FIRED!

Yep, it's true. Yesterday, I got fired from my job of 11 years at Pearson. And this is my 200th post on this blog which must be cause for celebration!

Everyone wants to know what happened, and to be honest, I'm really not quite sure. Seven online designers were merged with the paper design department a little over a year ago. Three moved on to better things. My 9-month position was taken away (which meant I had to work the full year like most humans), I was put through a 6 week intensive training starting a few months ago and then I was given practice training samples to work on. I chose to work on live work with real deadlines instead. Bad idea, according to management, I guess.

We had our "test" on Wednesday, got feedback on Thursday saying that they would get back to us in a few days time. Even though the live work I was doing actually utilized many of the skills in the training samples the mistakes I made on the 3 1/2 hour high pressure test that paper designers (legal resource) were not able to easily help me with, management found that I was not meeting the expectations of a designer in the department. I read: "You do not subordinate to authority as you should and therefore you must be eliminated because you are otherwise a threat to our authority". Not a new theme for me. If I'm gonna go down, it's gonna be me standing up for myself, my friends.

The official story is that I was let go because of performance which was actually a blessing because it means that I get severance pay and am elligible to apply for any open position at pearson as a result. So I have 2 weeks full pay for every year of service plus 2 weeks in lieu of notice for a total of 24 weeks or almost 6 months of full pay. I was already covered under Cam for insurance so nothing really had to change in that respect.

I felt really sad for about 15 minutes, knowing that I was going to miss my friends and the familiarity that I had grown accustomed to. Then I drove home. And in the privacy of my car I shouted, "I trust you God, I trust you God, I trust you God!!!" and I gave over every emotion I had. You know what? God took it all and in return poured love and grace over me. I can not even fully comprehend the totality of God's goodness in all of this.

Cam and I knew that when we left our church to seek God in new ways that our lives were going to change drastically. We really thought that was going to look different, but the promise is being fulfilled. I have been set free of something I thought I liked and I thought I wanted but in the end God says this door is closed. Stay tuned to learn which new doors open as a result. I don't know what the heck I'm doing but that's OK because God knows and that's all that matters :)

So we move forward with anticipation of what is to come. I'm so thankful for God's provision and I struggle to find rest because I want to know what's next but I know the only way to understand what is next is to be still and listen. Crazy how God works, but fun and wonderful at the same time. We are blessed indeed. Blessed indeed.

09/09/09

Several weeks ago Adi approached me and said, "Mama, I made up my mind. I want to go to school." Wow. OK. We've been choosing to follow her lead on the preschool thing and up until then we had always heard the same answer from her when asked about going to school, "I'll go to school when I grow up."
Adi's friend Avra is attending Kinder Farm, which we thought sounded like a really fun place. However, when we called, they only had afternoon openings left and that wasn't really going to work well with our schedule. Then Nana suggested Our Redeemer Lutheran Preschool, she has co-workers that attend that church and she felt really good about it. We checked it out and after visiting a couple of times felt like it was going to be a good fit for our family (the preschool - not the church ;)
Adi was so excited to go to her new preschool and make some new friends. We love the open space, and there's lots of it. I like the "Montessori" type approach to learning that Our Redeemer uses in its preschool and they include Bible story time and prayer. Most public preschools don't do that and I really appreciate that she will be learning preschool level Bible material. Of course we do a ton of talking about and to God and Jesus at home so she's getting the full package.
So here she is on her first day of preschool which just happened to be 09/09/09. What a special day. Adi has her adorable rainbow name tag and she was such a big girl - no crying at drop off time!
And here she is, so proud of her cute Tinker Bell back pack. She gets to bring projects and other info home in it every day that she goes to school (Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings).
The free time is so needed and much deserved for Cam. He moved the elliptical trainer into the living room so neither of us have an excuse not to use it. Well, I do currently with extensor tendinitis, but it's only a matter of time before I get to work out on the machine and watch Bethel or other teachings at the same time. So excited to get back into a work out routine!