So I told y’all that I was going to fill y’all in with the “thing I am not going to announce yet cause I do not want to jinx it”. So here it is.
Towards the end of June Mike took the carpenter’s apprentice test. The test is not an easy one, especially if you have been out of school for 10 years! Anywho, they graded his paper right in front of him and he passed. They told him that he would be receiving a registered letter in the mail with more info. After waiting un-impatiently for a couple of weeks it finally came. It stated that Mike’s second interview would be on July 24 down in Parkersburg West Virginia. After his interview they would add his test score to his interview score and then add his name to the hiring pool. The spot he would get on the list would depend on his total score (the higher your score the hire you are in the hiring pool). So on July 24 we dropped Raven off at the mother-in-law’s and Mike and I drove the hour and half down to Parkersburg and after getting lost and being 20 minutes late we finally arrive at the Carpenter’s Union office. While Mike was in the interview I sat in the car re-reading Stephen King’s Everything’s Eventual. When Mike came back to the car he informed me that he had to go take a drug test at the health center which was only about 10 minutes away. We had no problems finding the place and after Mike peed in the cup we went home. Two days later Mike gets a call from the carpenter’s union telling him that on Friday 27 he was to go to the Bridgeport branch (which is just a few miles from us) for orientation. He went, had to fill out a bunch of papers and they went over everything that you would think they would at an orientation. On Sunday morning Mike put his two week notice in at Toys R Us. And this Friday he has to go back down to Parkersburg for an OSHA 10 class. We are not for sure when he will actually start working as a Carpenter. That just depends when they call him in. But I am extremely proud of him! Mike also seems pretty happy and excited about the whole thing. He says he really likes the idea off having a skill. And after he completes the apprentice process, which is about 4 years give or take, he will be a journeyman carpenter! Yeah! This will be a career not a job.
I hope this is a step in the right direction. Things started to take a turn for the worst in the fall of 2006. I did not have high hopes. But by the Grace of God things started to look bright in the spring of this year. God willing this will be the right move for us and our family. God willing it will help our family and make it stronger and better then ever. God willing these wounds will continue to heal and we can move past all the pain and hurt and have a long and happy life together. God willing.