my husband is a wildland firefighter. and we live in minnesota. which means that in the spring and fall he does prescribed burning on national wildlife refuges to maintain the ecosystems for native and plant and animal life. it also means, that the summer-time is often too wet for any fire to happen anywhere near. last july i wrote i can hear that it is raining again. that's why he isn't here. he's there, where it is dry, where lightning has dry tinder to catch and flare and dance into flame, where thunder in the evening means smoke to look for in the morning. here, lightning doesn't have a chance to catch and flare, thunder means more rain and no fires anywhere close to here when everything is so saturated and verdant and green.
so in the summer, ben travels. a lot. to wherever they need him to fight fire. and the kids and i do just fine, and even have fun! but our long term plan isn't for every summer to be spent 1500 miles away from each other.
and ben has been working hard, growing his qualifications, making contacts, getting good experience under his belt and ashes and moutainsides under his boots.
and we are ready to make a move. a move to a job and a place where ben can use his fire fighting skills and his leadership qualities to a greater extent.
there may be a few more adventures and stops along the way before we are somewhere where we will settle. or maybe we will never settle. we aren't really the settling kind. for any of you who have known me from the beginning of this blog and before that to the beginning of our marriage and even before that, i am a bit of a gypsy. we are. gypsies. nomads.
we got a christmas card this year from one of ben's cousins i hope this finds you! i have three addresses for you, lol, and i hope this is the right one! and as i looked at that note, i thought you know, it's ok. it's ok that in 13 years we have not settled in. we are going to see a lot more of this grand country of ours before we ever do. and that, for us, is good.
since ben went back to fire fighting, we have known that we probably wouldn't stay here, or even in minnesota. and we've been looking, and researching, jobs and places, housing and prices, grocery options (amazon ships everywhere!), travel options for visiting family, etc! we decided that it's a good thing i'm not afraid to homeschool our kiddos. and that the kids and i have even missed that this last year and a half. it's a good thing that we have pared down what we have and that we aren't afraid to pare it down even more.
this job search process for ben is long. these jobs aren't the kind that you can just make the right connections and have the right qualifications and do the right things and land the job. (and i say just with my tongue in my cheek. we all know that there is no just to the hard work of landing the right job.) these government jobs are particularly hung-up and out of anybody's control and unsettling to apply for. and then there is the whole list of people who get hired ahead of 35-year-old white males - small matter the qualifications, small matter the actual person.
he has made connections, has gotten his application through, and been told that, though he was the most qualified, he isn't the right demographic. ugh.
we do know that God knows where He wants us. we know this. and we trust. and we know that His timing is always perfect. we can look back and see His timing at work in all of our 14 years together.
that doesn't mean that this doesn't feel long and longer and even longer. but we have had time to think through the possible scenarios (always there is a bit of sunshine, a silver lining) - right now there are about four of them - and make tentative plans for how each might work out. we will be jumping for joy and shouting it from the mountaintops (literally!) when we find our where and when we will be going next.
when we know, we'll let you know!