Did You Know...

...I'm an Occupational Therapist?  I got my degree from UAB a hundred years ago.  I worked a year for a family where the wife had Alzheimer's Dz, and after that we were ready for a family.  Of course I wouldn't ever work again once we had kids (right?), so I promptly filed all things OT away in the very back corners of my brain.  Now I did have a deep-felt appreciation that I'd never be able to pass the written exam again, so I've kept my license up as much as necessary to avoid that terrible scenario.

Fast forward...our youngest is now in school all day 3x/wk.  My husband is finished with school but has not found a call (job) yet.  Two years ago I worked a half day 3x/wk.  Last year my half days were 5x/wk.  This year it seems our family has a new-found capacity (and need) for me to stretch myself a little more and enter the healthcare professionals world.

I have a lead on a job.  Please pray I get it.  If I have 2 contact hours a week, I'll bring home more than I did working 12 hours at the school.  Truth is though, it's about so much more than the income.  I'm so very, very excited about doing occupational therapy.  I'm remembering why I loved it so much.  And how much I loved it!  It's SO FUN.  (Yes, I know I'm a nerd.  Hard to deny when I took physics in college as an elective because it was SO FUN.)

What a treat--and a testimony to the Lord's working in both my and Brian's hearts--that I could have a degree/potential job that I truly enjoy, that serves families in need, that helps provide for my family,  and that Brian and I are on the same page about across the board about this.

Oh, and I'm keeping the PE job 2x/wk at the school.  Which is also exciting.  I'll be able to maintain my relationships with all the 1st-6th graders as well as teachers and staff at the school where my own kids are.  Seriously--this is the best of both worlds.  The only downside (and it is a big one) is not being with my teacher who I've worked with 3x/wk for two years now.  I'll miss our amazing conversations and keeping up with the goings on in the Kugler household.

But pray I get that job.  And praise God with me for my new friend, Jen Bensinger, a PT, who is my new friend that God provided at just the right time, who is walking me through this process and advocating for me with her contacts.  I don't think I would have had the courage to do this if she hadn't been such an encourager.  (She also does this work as a mother of 4, one who has Down Syndrome, with the heart of a servant loving her family and the families she helps treat.)

And I'll keep you posted!