My Hard Working Man

When we left for Paris, we knew that things would be tough when we got home.  Coming back to a depressed economy with no jobs is never the ideal situation, but we felt so good about our semester abroad that we pressed forward regardless of the risks.  Sure enough, now that we are home, we are finding it very difficult to acquire work.  Now that Burke officially has his Masters Degree in Business, he has looked forward to coming home and finding a job with a company that had started from the ground up so he could learn how to do it for himself someday.  For the 3 weeks since we've been home, we have job searched without much success.  We have enough in the bank to feel secure for a few months, but Burkie is not the kind of man to sit around and watch our account be depleted while waiting for the perfect job to come his way.  At the start of this week, he refused to go another day without work and called his cousins who own a landscaping/construction business to see if they needed some extra hands.  The phone conversation probably lasted 3 minutes and when he got off he smiled and said, "I've got to go get a hard hat!"

Joey, do you think Uncle Burke could borrow your hard hat for a little while?

This past week he has been working 10 hour days (13.5 yesterday!) and coming home exhausted!  I wanted to cry when he came home a couple of days ago and threw up from heat exhaustion, but proceeded to get up at 5:30 the next morning regardless.  After 5 years of working at the bank it has been a huge adjustment to return to manual labor.  I am so proud of him and his willingness to work so hard for us.  I know that eventually the Lord will bless us with a job where he can put his hard earned skills to use and grow in his career path, but for now we just feel so grateful for work, especially in St. George where we see so many people suffering from unemployment, foreclosures and bankruptcy.

I especially feel grateful that Burke is supporting me in my decision to focus on school for my last semester and student teaching in the spring.  It feels so strange for me to not be working, especially after last year of working and going to school full time, but I know this next semester is going to be extremely difficult and it will be interesting to see how I do without the pressures of work weighing on me as well as classes.

In short, we trust that as we continue to do our callings, go to the temple weekly and keep up with our daily scripture study and prayer that everything will work out the way that God has planned for us.  After such a remarkable summer in France, how can we even complain?!  We are so grateful for our family and friends here in St. George and everywhere who have been looking after us.  We can feel your prayers and thank you for thinking of us.  I'm sure good news is just around the corner. :)