When one door closes another door opens

Have I ever shared with you all my total and utter frustration with Andre's job? I'm sure I have. If I haven't, well we both hate is job. His boss is a bully that routinely likes to yell and humiliate his employees, and well, there are just too many specific things to write.

Andre's dream job would be to work for the city as a bus driver. The only problem with this is that they only accept job applications about twice a year, and then once you go through the testing, then the interview process you could wait up to another year before there is a vacancy that needs to be filled. Andre's second runner up dream job would be to work for a private school in our city as a school bus driver. Benefits, a pension, and twice as much money as what he is making now. Not a bad deal in exchange for driving a bunch of rich kids back and forth to school everyday!

An old co-worker of Andre's that told the boss to shove it a little while ago, told Andre that anytime he got sick of the boss to let him now and he'd put in a good word for Andre at the school. So earlier this year he gave Ernie his resume. They were hiring. Well after getting our hopes up for weeks, the start of the school year came and went. No phone call, no nothing.

So about a month into the school year I run into Andre at the office I work at, and he says that they are really under-staffed, and Andre should give them a call. Andre decides to fax another resume in (you never know if it got lost in the shuffle). He does the follow up phone calls, and again nothing. We give up. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be?

Then while we were eating breakfast on Monday morning we get a phone call. It's the school. They're hiring. They want Andre to come in for a little talk and driving test the next day. Thankfully Andre has the day off. He goes in, and talks to the head of the Transportation Department, then has a driving test with another Supervisor. The driving test goes fabulously. The Supervisor tells Andre that she is "impressed with his driving". Andre tells her he is impressed with the bus (brand new 2010 model). He is left with a great impression.

Fast forward to the next night. No word from the school, and Andre has talked to jerk..erm, boss, and the boss tells Andre that the Shuttle run that he has been driving for over the last 2 years isn't a big money maker (not a huge surprise) and that it's being stopped at the end of November. After that he can give Andre a "few limo runs", but gone are the guaranteed hours and pay of the shuttle. He comes home heartbroken and breaks the news to me. I went to bed that night and prayed and cried.

Andre and I had been so excited. It seemed like everything was finally working out our way. This new job was the answer to our prayers. We had decided that if Andre found another job making at least the same wage as me we could start a family. We could afford it. With this new job he would be making the same as me, and be getting benefits, not only that but I was on the way to figuring out what was going on with my faulty uterus. How could God bring us so close to everything we had ever wanted, only to bring us to the point of Andre losing his job? I prayed that I would have the strength to get through the next few days. I prayed that I would trust in His plan for us.

Over the next few days Andre and I would try our best to get through the day. Both of us checking the messages at home for any word. Nothing. To make matters worse Ernie called and told us (twice!) that Andre had it in the bag. He had the job. Very frustrating to hear when you haven't heard this from the company themselves!! So I called Andre on my lunch on Friday. Gave him the number for the woman in charge, and asked him to call her and find out when we could expect to hear the results of the interview.

He called and left a message and the supervisor ended up tracking him down on his cellphone to tell him that they wanted to hire him! Not only that, but they wanted him to start on Monday! It was like a huge relief. Our prayers had been answered. Andre told his boss that he was leaving at the end of his shift on Friday. He was scheduled to work Saturday night and Sunday all day and then he was done.

Monday is for new beginnings.