Rain, rain go AWAY!

It never fails. I always get rained on.

My boss told me last week to switch my schedule back to eight to five. "Sure," I replied and immediately altered my schedule to come in to work earlier. The problem is, I NEVER manage to leave at five. Because five is the hour that EVERY single parent who has a kid in our child care wants to pay. And it's the time I have a new staff person coming in, and I usually have to take a few minutes to get her settled and give instructions and answer questions.

And, of course, by the time I manage to leave, it's freaking pouring. Like it does EVERY evening in Florida. Sometime right after five.

Yes, I know we've had a drought. Yes, I know that we need the rain. All I'm saying is, couldn't it wait? Just until I get home?

I don't enjoy having my cute shoes get soggy. There is nothing fun about wiping raindrops off of my nerd glasses. This evening, I had an errand to run on the way home. "Oh, good," I thought as I pulled into the CVS pharmacy parking lot, "it has stopped raining."

Oh, no. I came out, and voila! It rains again, just to improve my dash to the car.

Rain, rain, go AWAY!

The Secret is Out.

Matt and I had been keeping this to ourselves and just a few others, but today someone decided to spill the beans. I know what you're thinking. No, we're not expecting.

I am probably returning to Tennessee in August to finish my education. Matt will remain here, as he has a good job that he doesn't want to leave and it's not a good time to try to sell a home. Plus, I like it here. Once I have my degree, I totally look forward to returning permanently...Or at least until we move to France, ha ha.

It's not finalized yet, because there are a number of details to work out. Matt and I have discussed this very thoroughly, and we both feel that the time is best now for me to go and do this. It's better if I obtain my master's degree before we start a family, and my goal of becoming a teacher hasn't changed. Admittedly, I am excited to continue my education.

The difficult part will be the separation from Matt. *sigh* I'm trying not to dwell on it, though. I'll have plenty of time to cry and be miserable later. Instead, I'm choosing to focus on how this will position us for a better future.

There is a small part of me that is worried that people will gossip about our marriage and speculate that we must be having trouble to be willing to endure a separation of 800+ miles. But, I can't spend too much time thinking about that, because those who are close enough to matter already know how strong our relationship is.

Anyway, like I said, nothing is set in stone at this point. I had given my boss a heads-up about what we're considering, because I felt that was the fair thing to do. She was very understanding and supportive, and asked that I keep her up-to-date on this decision. Then, today in a meeting, she announced the possibility to my coworkers. That was unexpected, to say the least. So, I can only surmise that it no longer matters who knows about this potential move. The secret is out.

Powerless to Help...

The last couple of weeks at work have been challenging, and a bit disheartening. Not because of any conflicts with co-workers or anything. Everything is pretty calm on that front. We've all been getting on quite well with one another.

Sadly, the problem is that the economy is severely limiting our ability to help everyone who needs it. We've been so proud of our policy of providing scholarships so that no one is turned away for an inability to pay. Unfortunately, the demand for financial assistance has been so great this year, there are not funds left. We've awarded more than EVER, and still people are coming in, asking for scholarships.

It's beginning to get to me. I'm not handling it well when I have to inform these families that all of the financial assistance for summer camp has been awarded. The next step is to reach out into the community to see if there are individuals or organizations that wish to sponsor a kid for child care. Somehow, we have to find a way to help these families.

Please pray that the Lord provides a way.