And now, for some really good news. REALLY GOOD NEWS

Another big giant thanks to everyone for their kind comments and prayers in Monday’s post.  It was really hard to put that out there, but I’ll tell you why I did it.  I have three friends who are absolutely amazing and have endured some of their own struggles (currently), and in the past.  Without them, I couldn’t make it through this process.  The kindness, love, and knowledge they have shared has been vital to keeping me upright and moving forward.

I hope to some extent, I can do that for any of you going through this struggle too.

You are not alone.  Your heart doesn’t have to break in silence.

We may be the 10%, but we have each other.  And some days that isn’t enough, and some days it has to be.

Let’s completely change gears, or I am going to have to switch to waterproof mascara, and I hate that crap. It never comes off.  I guess that is the point, right?

I have good news.  Like REALLY good news.

I have been lying to all of you since November of 2013.

I know.  Right?  I’m terrible.

Many of you who have been reading this blog for any extended period of time know that Troy has been working towards becoming a full-time fire fighter.  It has been a family struggle since 2010 when he got laid off (on April Fool’s Day) from HVAC and decided one day that fire fighting was for him.  It has meant so many days and nights away from us, an incredible amount of hard work, and a staggering amount of money to pursue this dream.

Well, after years of nothing, Troy got two offers on the same day. THE SAME DAY!

Let me set a little scene for you.  It was the week before Thanksgiving 2013, and Troy had two really great interviews with two departments.  He knew one of the departments (department A) was going to be calling him that day to either make an offer, or tell him “thanks but no thanks”.  That call was supposed to happen right before he went in his final interview with another department (department B).  Knowing that Troy was easily rattled during his interviewing days, we had agreed the night before he would NOT pick up the phone from department A if it came through before his interview with department B.  We didn’t want him to go in to the department B interview acting like a sad bastard if the news wasn’t good from department A.

Well, I’m not patient.  This has been documented, so when he texted me saying department A had called and he had let it go to voicemail, I did what any supportive wife would do.

I hacked in to his phone from work and checked his voicemail.

And it was an offer from department A!!!!!  I texted him immediately to call me and then I screamed so long and so hard, and holy hell, so loudly.  He went in to the department B interview flying on wings.

And then department B called two hours later with an offer.

I was hoarse at this point, but I still managed to scream and fist bump listening to gangsta rap in my car until people around my started to get concerned.  If you’ve never seen a a 6 foot tall white girl flailing dancing in the front seat of a Honda Civic while singing (?) Straight Out of Compton in the pouring rain…well, you should consider yourself lucky.

We talked that night and compared both options.  Department A offered more money and meant a shorter commute, but department B was Troy’s dream department.  He loved the culture, loved the people, and really wanted it.  After years of being BROKE for this pursuit, I realized that money was indeed not everything, and truly loving your job and coworkers were more important.  He/we picked department B, and we had so much thankfulness to share the next week at Thanksgiving.

And we talked about telling you all.  Can you imagine how hard it has been for me to NOT share good news with you wonderful people?  My fingers have wanted to type “OMG HE GOT A JOB” about 32,970 times a day since then.  The reasons we chose not to are as follows:

• He had a one year probation at this department.  During that year, he could be fired for any reason.  We debated heavily about sharing because on one hand, telling you would mean we’d have people praying for him to do well.  On the other hand, if he didn’t pass probation, it would be known by thousands of people.  The thought of that seemed really painful, and embarrassing.
• He had 14 weeks to complete at the fire academy.  Telling people that Jack and I would be alone in the house for over three months didn’t sit well with either of us.

He passed probation in January, and we were itching to share the news then.  But I wanted to also be able to do a double-whammy post and be like “Troy got a job, and now we’re going to have another kid”, but alas, that never happened.  I have posted so many times about wanting another kid, but it couldn’t happen because Troy hadn’t found a fire fighting job, blah, blah, blah.  I figured the second I hit “publish” on the “he got a job post”, I’d have a bunch of “so when are you going to have a baby” comments waiting for me the next morning.

And my heart just seriously couldn’t deal with that.  I wasn’t in an emotional state where I could read those comments and still be able to get up the next morning and go about my day.  Well, now that I spilled those beans, I realized there was no point in holding back on the good news any longer.

If you’ll excuse me, I can finally go let out the biggest sigh of happiness ever now that the secret is out.  The sense of relief I feel right now is like releasing an 18 month old fart.

Please stand back.  This might be dangerous for all bystanders.