Update on Life

I thought I'd give an update on what's been going on with us the past few months.

To start off, I am no longer working. I was laid off as a contract employee from Caterpillar. My last day was Friday, March 13th. I am searching for another job in the area, but there is not much hiring anywhere right now. I am hesitant to look for anything in Indy since I really would not want to make the commute from our house everyday - probably about an hour and 15 minutes to downtown Indy.

Chris is (thankfully) still working at Caterpillar but they have several shutdowns scheduled for this year. I'm sure a lot of people have heard about the layoffs at Caterpillar that were announced this spring. We were blessed that Chris was able to stay as one of the few people in his group. Chris had a week off in April when he did some painting and organizing at home.

The last month and a half has been a whirlwind of trips for me. After going to Kansas City with Chris the first weekend in April for a college friend's wedding, I turned around a week later and drove down to Joplin (by myself) to help my parents. They are moving to a new house in town and I was able to help them do some of the cleaning, packing, moving, decluttering, and organizing all week long. I was glad I had the time to help them out, as I know we made a big dent in the things to be done. Plus I got to see their new house!

The next week I was back at home with Chris before leaving again. This time I went down to Columbus (Chris' parents' house) to help take care of my 12 year old sister-in-law Kaitlyn and my 3 year old nephew. I stayed there for almost 2 weeks while my mother-in-law was able to visit my father-in-law in India. They were able to spend a lot of relaxed time together, which they both needed. So I was glad to help. During that time, Chris had also come down on the weekend to visit and also go with me to my mini marathon race.

Then I was back at home for about another week before returning to Columbus last week, which is where I'm at now. This time my mother-in-law had to travel back to Missouri to help care for her mom, as she is very sick right now - she has another round of aggressive cancer after fighting off breast cancer last year. (Please pray for Chris' grandma and Chris' whole family during this tough time.) Chris had this past week off, so he came down to Columbus with me. He spent the week helping me babysit and doing some repairs and projects around the house for his mom. I'm here the rest of the week until Kaitlyn leaves for camp.

This year has already proved to be abnormal and unpredictable and I don't really expect that to change soon. But I find it amazing that God can use bad situations (me not having a job) and turn them into a blessing in disguise. I would not have been able to help both of our families how I have in the past couple of months if I had still been working. Chris and I have also had extra time to spend together (when I've been home) recently.