Appointments...of Many Varieties

The day after we received our interview invitation, we left on our long weekend trip to Hocking Hills (Thursday, May 28th). We felt the timing of the getaway (which we scheduled back before quarantine) was completely ordained by God. What a perfect time to get away, have hours of conversation, and time to pray and worship while surrounded by nature! It wasn't just a vacation. It was a retreat.

In fact, the worship pastor at our church, Pastor Liz, called it just that. She knew all about our journey and she told me she was praying specifically that God would use our time away as a retreat to draw our hearts closer to Him and prepare us for whatever He had for us.

But it was a bit of a working vacation for us, because when Ryan had looked for a fingerprinting appointment the night before, he discovered that our county and all surrounding counties didn't have any open appointments until mid-June. (Some were not even providing the service yet...hello, virus. Others were operating on limited hours...hello again, virus.) We knew that without that appointment, we would eventually be stuck in a waiting pattern, so it was imperative that we find someplace with an open slot.

He got the idea to check the counties along our vacation route, and indeed, he found back to back appointments at the police station in Connersville, Indiana, which was just a few miles off our path to Hocking Hills. Because of construction slow-downs, we arrived at the station not a minute early. Actually we were a couple of minutes late because we thought the police station was in the courthouse and went there first. Ryan asked an older gentleman standing outside the courthouse if he was from the area and if he might know where the police station was. The man replied, "I don't know where it is. It's in that yellow building right there."

I still don't know what that means, but we scurried over to the yellow building and met the nicest lady in the history of police station employees. She was super friendly, efficient, and had us in and out in absolutely no time. We took our police station selfie and got back on the road for our weekend retreat!

Rob called us while we were driving and said that because of pending vacation schedules, the soonest they could schedule an interview was Wednesday, June 10th. We put that on our calendar and looked at each other with wide eyes. This was really happening!

While we were on our trip, I found a quote that struck me, given where we were in the process. The quote was by Melanie Redd, though she started by quoting a gentleman named Don Woodruff. Don said, "It may not be an area of our choosing and it might take us out of our comfort zone." Melanie said, "What is the IT referred to in this quote? It's God's will for our lives. Often, God will take us WAY OUT of comfort zones when He calls us to follow Him."

Indeed.

While we were gone, we also received paperwork we needed to fill out for a CPS background check, so the day after we got back home (Tuesday, June 2, and also our 90th monthiversary) we filled out those forms and submitted them.

Over the course of the next week, we prayed often and heartily, asking for guidance, wisdom, and more. On Monday, June 8th, two days before our interview, we learned that Rob had called all our references and talked to them at length. I guess they must have been kind to us, because he didn't call to cancel the interview. Whew!!

The day before our interview (June 9th) I happened upon this verse in my time with the Lord: "Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak." (Exodus 4:12)

That became our prayer.

For the record, it had been awkward to come back from vacation on June 2nd and ask for the next Wednesday off work. When I left the church the evening before our interview, all my co-workers told me to enjoy my day off! Have fun, they said!

Ryan and I woke up the morning of June 10th, got ready, prayed together, filled our coffee cups, and left the entire day in the Lord's hands.

We punched the address into our GPS and started driving!

We arrived right on time - about 10 in the morning, and in the interest of not showing my Bekahrazzi side immediately, I did not take pictures for the entire day.

Rob met us in the parking lot and had us transfer into his van. He drove us around town, showing us some of the highlights, including the coffee shop. Because of course. He's a good guy.

He drove us to the main campus, which is about a mile down the road. They are actually still very much on a quarantine lockdown, so he could really only take us inside empty buildings, but we enjoyed getting to see the beautiful campus: the houses where the under-18 residents live, the pond, the school, the office buildings, etc. It's a beautiful, beautiful place that bears testimony to years of hard work and love, as well as God's favor upon it.

Rob took us back to the apartment building where we would live and work if they chose us for the position, and we were able to take a full tour of the place.

Ryan and I both felt that just seeing the building would be very telling to us. Would it feel right? Feel like home? Feel like a place where we could serve?

And oh, how it did. So much love and hard work had gone into renovating the place. (The building itself is not new, but they remodeled it completely when they transformed it into what it needed to be for this ministry.) We were able to see the apartments where the residents live, the community areas, and even the apartment that would be ours if we lived there.

Rob had told us before we went that we would get to meet the residents and they even planned to make lunch for us. (And they are good cooks, let me tell you!) We met Rob's wife and children, and the assistant advocate couple too - and then we all had lunch together.

I had been a little nervous about that part, actually. I told Ryan that even though I didn't know any of these residents, I knew they'd had lives filled with much change and uncertainty. Rob, who has been serving in the role for which we were applying (in addition to his own full time job) for the past year is clearly easy to love and good at what he does. What if the residents weren't ready for him to go? What if they weren't crazy about the idea of new people showing up? It wouldn't be personal against us, and I knew that. But I just had no idea what to imagine from them.

What they showed was genuine interest, kindness, acceptance, and joy. We didn't have on our rose colored glasses that day. We knew that if we ended up taking the job, every day wouldn't be as easy as that one. But it sure didn't hurt as a first impression!

We spent about an hour and a half with them, eating, talking, and laughing, and then it was time for our interview.

Originally we were supposed to leave the building and go back to an office on the main campus. But during our tour, Ryan and I had expressed our great joy at the ridiculously cool temperatures in the basement of the building. Rob, also a fan of extreme coolness, asked if we would be opposed to having our interview down there instead. We jumped at the chance, so at 1:00, we headed to the basement with Rob and the director of the place.

And so began a three hour interview.