Yes, you read right! I mentioned Hubbie's third interview the last time I blogged. Well it was followed by a quick fourth, and yesterday he signed the contract to become an official employee at the consultancy firm. Hooray! We are so grateful and amazed. We can hardly express our joy. Yesterday when we drove to the supermarket, we gazed out at the streets with new eyes and we wanted to throw our arms around the buildings and the people in the rain. We kept yelling, "Woohoooooo! We are here to stay!" and scaring the daylights out of our son.
It's been such a long haul. I was already preparing myself for leaving this friendly town for cold, distant Paris. I thought about what we've been through, and how all of it served to grow us more in our faith. I have learned so much about what it means to trust in the sovereignty of God -- how tough it is to trust in real difficulty, and how easy it is to give it lip-service when life is easy. Not that we've had it that hard, but it was hard enough for us! The beginning was the worst by far, when Hubbie applied for dozens of jobs and never heard from anyone. I think the biggest lesson for us was the realization we had been in a type of spiritual complancency in our well-oiled church in London. We have learned so much about what it means to be truly a part of the church, by attending a church still in its infancy and investing in people more than we ever had before. Many lessons have been learned... and all would have comforted me if we had had to go to Paris.
But we are so very, very happy to be able to stay.
All this has given us an exceptional buildup to Christmas. I don't think we have ever so looked forward to celebrating the birth of Jesus with the family. Today we got out of the apartment and did some Christmas shopping. Had it not been for Hubbie feeling ill, we probably would have spent far too much money. Surely another stroke of providence! Tonight it's like Hubbie has finally allowed himself to exhale after so many months of stressful job hunting. His body called in its debt with a 39.6 C (103.3 F) temperature an hour ago. Now he is literally stretched out on the sofa, snoring. God, bless him.
We spent New Year's in Perpignan, where it got up to 18 C (65 F)
Saturday 20 December 2008
Monday 15 December 2008
One Last Try
Hubbie had a third-round interview with a consultancy firm today. As expected, the firm didn't have a project to put him on right away, so they claimed they would only be able to offer him a job in early January. We will wait, like we have before, for this hope to become reality and for the job to materialise... but we have decided that if it does not happen by the 5th Jan, we will start looking for work in Paris.
Paris is not so bad, with its grandes rues, cafés, museums and large ex-pat community. I mean, it is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. But to us, it's just another big city containing big city people and offering a big city (speedy) lifestyle. We have never felt drawn to live in Paris. Where we live now, people strike up conversations with neighbours, with mail carriers, with people in the metro, anywhere, anytime. I often chat with moms in the playground, even with my limited franςais. I love that gift of gab most French have and their willingness to use it. When we were in Paris in October, we went to a playground, and our 17-month old son fell flat on his back after being intimidated by a bigger kid. The kid's mom was on her cellular phone the whole time, vaguely watching us. She didn't say a word to me. She did not offer an apologetic look. She did not even look me in the eye. That, to me, symbolised the general feel of being Parisian.
If Paris is where we are meant to be, then that is where we will end up. It will make me sad to leave this place. We've made some friends through the church we attend here, and had hoped we could stick around to serve in this congregation. Being older now, our son will probably notice the change of environment and it would probably affect him more than our move from London. We hope it won't cause behavioural problems or problems sleeping! The stress of moving again may cause me to have behavioural problems.
Of course, there are a few churches we know of that we could serve in in Paris or in the suburbs. That may well be where God wants us to be. We will wait and see.
Paris is not so bad, with its grandes rues, cafés, museums and large ex-pat community. I mean, it is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. But to us, it's just another big city containing big city people and offering a big city (speedy) lifestyle. We have never felt drawn to live in Paris. Where we live now, people strike up conversations with neighbours, with mail carriers, with people in the metro, anywhere, anytime. I often chat with moms in the playground, even with my limited franςais. I love that gift of gab most French have and their willingness to use it. When we were in Paris in October, we went to a playground, and our 17-month old son fell flat on his back after being intimidated by a bigger kid. The kid's mom was on her cellular phone the whole time, vaguely watching us. She didn't say a word to me. She did not offer an apologetic look. She did not even look me in the eye. That, to me, symbolised the general feel of being Parisian.
If Paris is where we are meant to be, then that is where we will end up. It will make me sad to leave this place. We've made some friends through the church we attend here, and had hoped we could stick around to serve in this congregation. Being older now, our son will probably notice the change of environment and it would probably affect him more than our move from London. We hope it won't cause behavioural problems or problems sleeping! The stress of moving again may cause me to have behavioural problems.
Of course, there are a few churches we know of that we could serve in in Paris or in the suburbs. That may well be where God wants us to be. We will wait and see.
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