Thursday, January 9, 2014

Long-Distance Family

Two months ago, we announced our upcoming family changes with me (Jill) accepting a new job out of town.  Click here for the link to that blog entry.  During November, I was able to take some much-needed time off at home before starting the new job/new town, and we also enjoyed a long-ago-planned family vacation at the beach over Thanksgiving.  Amazingly, the weather--at the coast!--averaged 68 degrees.....this doesn't happen in the middle of summer, not to mention the end of November!  It was heavenly.

We love the beach!

One month ago, I started my new job based in Mt Angel.  The first three weeks of training were in Portland, which meant driving through rush-hour traffic twice a day from Salem to Portland.  I used to think traffic was fun and what did everyone complain about anyway?.....until having to actually drive in it!  AND THEN IT SNOWED.  Traffic was especially un-fun that day.  I'm now at my home base in Mt Angel where the biggest traffic issue is four cars at the four-way stop at the same time!

Portland goes into PANIC with an inch of snow


In the work-world, I am enjoying working for Providence--especially being a faith-based company.  Their mission statement refers to "revealing God's love for all" and has actual Bible verses in their core values.  ( Click here to see the full version.)  Since this is a brand new start-up hospice, most of my time is spent doing interviews for my team, reading hospice rules and medicare regulations (snore!) and writing policies (more snore!)  Our "goal" is to see our first hospice patient March 1, depending if all the behind-the-scenes work is completed.....including remodeling the soon-to-be hospice office.  In catching up on past meetings about this hospice start-up, I discovered I was one of seven candidates for my position, three of us were interviewed, and....I won!

Hospice offices under construction

In the family-world, some days are good.....other days, not so much.  December is generally a non-routine month anyway, and then add in long-distance separations, phone calls, Skype, weekend visits.....and routine isn't even in the vocabulary.  Before I left, I got each of the kids a fuzzy "Mommy-blanket" which I infused with plenty of cuddles and hugs for them to wrap around themselves whenever they miss me.  But, this doesn't stop the tear-fest departures at the end of a weekend.  The very first weekend I was to come home.....the snow hit and we made the decision it wasn't safe for me to travel over the mountain.  This was especially hard on Maezie who cried a lot, and drew pictures of herself with a broken heart......this caused Mommy's heart to completely crumble!  But since that first weekend, we've been able to count out the days until each visit and we've ALL adjusted much better.  Recently we were able to spend 12 consecutive days together while the kids were out of school for winter break.  (Although five people in my apartment was a fun challenge, but we managed!)

Maezie had a "brocine hort" (broken heart)....and so did Mommy!

Our next step is to look into options for selling our Bend house and buying a Salem house.....and praying it all comes together at the right time in the right location for the right money and everything will be--well, just right.

wacky Williams