A new story.... or maybe the next chapter in an old one

We have after several months (Jan31 to present) of applying for work and getting nothing, decided to move one more time and this will be back to Australia. While the global crisis has taken it's toll everywhere it seems that Australia is not quite so hard hit as others including the USA.

Since our return to the USA, I have been unemployed more (12mths) than employed (9mths) and we just can't seem to get solid stable work for anything.

I will be leaving in mid-June ahead of the family and I hope to have work before I go but if not, then it will give me a couple of weeks to try and nail something down before the interruptions of family begin to occur once again. I detest that I have to leave my family behind and have them follow but if it all works out in the end for the better, then I guess a short separation could be counted as worthy.

This time we are packing up everything and getting it ready to ship to Australia. It looks at this stage like we will have about 5 to 6 pallets of stuff, which is a darn sight more than my 9 boxes I shipped over here. Though of course, now I have a family and for a family of 4 to only have 6 pallets is not too extravagant I would think. We have already offloaded much stuff to others or the Salvo's and the church too, because people are always coming in and out and before you know it, someone saw what you put out and decided they could use it.

What to say ......

It has been almost a year since my last post and things never quite worked out as we had hoped for.

Amongst other things, the global economy turned sour sparked by an over-burden in the US housing market. From there it was just a knock on effect and half the established order of things good or bad fell with it.

One of those things was the job market and along with 600,000 other folks, I lost my position at Ryan Companies where I had been on a contract for 9 months. To their credit they kept me on probably 3 months longer than they really should have, given the appearance of the economy. Finally though, cuts have to be made where necessary and I was one of those cuts.

I had hoped to make a post here of things to see and do in the QCA but nor have I got to this.... maybe I can run out for a few hours this weekend and takes some pics of the sights around here. Although I realise it won't be much by most standards nonetheless I'd like to post some pics.

Summer is half over and we're up for round 2!!!

It has been a long way to here from where we came and we have bigger plans yet.

It seems that the market is still in a downturn but I have obviously showed enough skill that my employer wants to keep me on. At first this sounds great but there is almost always a "BUT" .........so here it is.

The company is chasing several big jobs but have yet to actually land them. While they are confident of doing so, they don't want to give me a false impression of permanency so they have offered me a 2nd - 3 month contract.

I am pleased to still be working and learning but the downside of this is we still don't have any insurance for the family and of course, b/c the deal is a contract and not full-time employment by the company, the pay continues to suck. Of course, as I have said before some money is better than none so we take what we get and plan for bigger things back in the Great South Land known as Australia

Well, I hope to post again in the next week or so of our little house we have rented and maybe some pics of the local area and things to do, although there is not much to see and do the QCA.

The flying kangaroo has landed....a job.

To all those who are wondering and to those who have been praying and hoping for us as much as we have ourselves.......WE HAVE A JOB!!!

I am working for a construction group called "RYAN COMPANIES" (http://www.ryancompanies.com/ ) who have their own in-house drafting department. Miracle of miracles is, they use REVIT the program that I had hoped to be drafting with and gain more experience on.

At this point in time they have me on a 3 month contract which we both hope turns to a more permanent situation. As a result of the contract, the pay is on the very low side but right now is better than nothing at all.

Most important of all, is that I am gaining much needed experience. This time round it is in the commercial field instead of residential which should result in being more valuable experience in the future.

While the office humour is what most folks would call rather "broad" or "coarse" the guys I am working with are really good about sharing info and teaching me pieces of the program that I have not yet used or teaching me how to use something fully which I had partially used. I really am grateful for the time and experience here even if it is only 3 months and no more b/c I will have learned much more about commercial building design.

While here, I also hope to learn the basics of civil design and how to put the building and landscape formats together to use them more effectively. This may be an opportunity and a give me "a leg up" to my next position.

While the waiting goes on the blessings are coming

It is April now and just last week we had our last snow fall. I've heard of "April showers bringing May flowers" but I'm not sure that is what the writer had in mind.

After the snow (which didn't stick) we did have some good rain fall which then swelled the rivers and the streets. Out the front of the Plemons house we had 6 inches of water flowing in the street due to a blocked drain at the top of the park opposite the Plemons residence.

The water rushing through the park washed away the baseball diamond and eroded the "soccer pitch" that the local Mexican league plays on. The council will of course fix it , just when is the question. Hopefully it is before the Summer so the league can use it.

Tax day (April 15th) has come and gone and even though we weren't here for much of 2007 we still had to submit our share. I was left late and once again we had to do the midnight run to get ours postmarked on the right date but now it is done for another year.

These last 2 weeks have been a rush of replies to job apps that I had sent out and so now I have about 5 potential job opportunities where before I had none. Some are local here to the QCA, another is in Chicago and another is back in Kansas City. The last one is the same job I missed out on in late Nov. / early Dec. Apparently someone left a hole in the workplace and they are now looking to me to fill it. They have to go through the same process and get approval from head office but it looks like it will go through this time.

I guess it is the old adage, "If it doesn't rain, it pours" so now I am pray God to give me wisdom in choosing the right opportunity for my career.... and to bring back to rememberance everything I ever learned about AutoCAD, Revit and anything else.

The ways of God.....

Well, it has been many weeks since we tried to locate ourselves in Denver, CO and all to no avail.

I had received an offer and took that offer. Only I found out later that the pay I would receive was actually much lower. It was gonna be a tight squeeze to get an apartment etc on what I had been promised but when I found out that I would in fact be getting less then we pulled the plug on the venture.

Another nail in the coffin of the Denver project was our car got broken into and getting that fixed used up a bunch of money that we needed to get our stuff relocated.

We still like the idea of living in Denver, Boulder or Colorado Springs but it seems that the time is not right for us. So I returned to the QCA with nothing but a weeks pay for my trouble. Thank God for the little I did receive.

Since the start of January and my return to the QCA we have continued to look for work all over the USA and even in the QCA but I have not had any replies to any of the jobs I have applied to and the number of jobs grows daily.

As of today the 25th of February, I have applied for somewhere in the region of 150 positions from the time about 2 weeks before we left to return to the US, including drafting jobs, warehouse jobs and even customer service jobs (and others). Deanna has now started looking for work in an attempt that we might at least have something coming in for our bills and helping out around the house.

To say the least, it has been very disappointing that I have not been able to nail down work of some kind and we wonder at times if God has forgotten about us. Of course, we know that he hasn't and that in time his perfect will and plan will be the cause of more rejoicing than we could imagine but it's the waiting that causes the human in us to wonder where is God in these situations. It seems more so to us, in this day and age where everything is delivered....NOW. But we know that Gods ways are higher than ours and his thoughts higher than ours too.

A man needs to provide for his family and God knows this. He says "Ask, ....and he will not withhold any good thing". All we can do is keep trying our best and trust that God IS says who he is and that at the far end, we will look back at what he HAS done and praise him for it. In the meantime, we would ask for your prayers of encouragement and to continue faithfully in his will for our lives.

I keep thinking of those lines in the song,.....

"For the God on the Mountain, IS STILL GOD IN THE VALLEY"

Christ is my hope in whom I trust, he's all I need..... In truth he's all I have left, I have tried everything I can think of now, it's up to God to show himself afresh and anew. Yesterday's manna is old and stale and I am looking for the new blessing to rejoice in.

May his will be done. Amen.

Denver..... that mysterious allure

Denver International Airport

What is it about this town? Even before I moved to the USA 7 years ago the town had a place in my mind of somewhere I'd like to be. I am not really sure why.

Maybe it has something to do with the "wild frontier" or maybe it has something to do with fantastic ski slopes around the area, or maybe it is just the incredible magnificence of the mountains rising out of the plains.

Whatever IT is, Denver seems to be a special place in my mind. This time before leaving Australia, I felt a strong draw to the place.... stronger than in the past but decided first to try Boise, ID and then figured that, seeing how we were being re-routed to Kansas City we would try there too.

Now, 3 weeks later than expected but no doubt on God's timetable we have arrived at the destination of choice.....

Having been here for a week now we have had one interview and several interested parties so I am hopeful for a job very soon. Of course,.... God willing in all this, we will make Denver our home for the next while

How long is a "while" one may ask? Well, once again it all depends on God and his plan for us as a family. I personally would like to be here for at least 5 years to get some experience in my field behind me, from that point I'd like to make the world my oyster.