Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Secrets, Secrets! Read all about them :)

Well I'm ready to spill the beans, even though I haven't gotten a chance to tell all of my coworkers yet (hence the delay of a FB announcement)...

We are moving to Cleveland, OH!!!

Image result for cleveland, oh map

Let me start from the beginning (I know you're thinking, "yay, another rambling post!") ...

This summer has been a whirlwind. Lot's of uncertainties at a time when I thought being pregnant was enough on our agenda, God had other plans. In case you hadn't heard the news, US Steel (where Ross works) is doing very poorly, as a whole. Over the course of the spring, Ross had witnessed round after round of layoffs at his workplace. Eventually, we were not surprised when he was dealt the same card. We saw the writing on the wall but were still hopeful at the time that he would be spared. Since June, Ross has been enjoying his 'summer break' (as we call it :) There was a chance he would be recalled, but that never happened and the operations here (and all USS plants nationwide) have only gotten worse. They just recently announced last week the remaining 1,100 layoffs at his plant here in B'ham. The plant is being completely idled for at least a year. And even when they do start-up again next fall, they will only hire back about 200 employees (compared to the 1,500 that worked there earlier this year) (and that 200 does not include Ross' position). Lot's of good people lost their jobs so the whole scenario is really a shame.

In the meantime, Ross has been job hunting this summer. The big question at first was whether or not we move out of state (since I have a very good job here in B'ham!). Once we learned that I may have the possibility of working from home, the job hunt was wide open. We decided it would be nice to be a bit closer to home, so he started looking for jobs anywhere on the east coast.

He actually got a lot of good traction in his job hunt and I was excited to think of our next phase of life (even as it was bittersweet)! He had gotten such invaluable experience at his job here at USS that I really felt like we did what we came here to do, but now it was time to move on.

As of 2 weeks ago, he accepted a job offer with Alcoa (another Pgh-based company, go figure!) in Cleveland, Ohio! He'll be in the same line of work of Labor Relations. We gave them a start date of 9/14 (which gave us 4 weeks) to give us time to list & sell our house here (another house updated and flipped *sigh*) and get some other kinks sorted out before we move north.

Our house was officially listed this Monday. It's been on the market for 2 days now and already, we've had 2 showings, and 3 more coming up today! It's getting a lot of good attention so we're hopeful it will sell quickly! The updates we've made to the house really show so even though it plain *sucks* that we've renovated another house, and are now selling it, we're hopeful to at least make some money off of it. (I'll blog a house post to show you some 'before' and 'afters' so stay stuned!)

Ross & I are headed up to Cleveland this weekend for a house-hunting trip and to check out the area. We haven't decided yet whether to rent or buy in Cleveland, but hopefully we will have some answers in the next few days. Baby Girl's due date is approaching quickly, so trying to coordinate a timeline for the next 6 months is quite the headache. We'll see what feels best for us and our situation this weekend :)

And lastly, as far as my job is concerned... it's probably one of the biggest blessings I could have never imagined. I just found out yesterday that my boss has agreed to let me work remotely from home until after maternity leave! And then!, for the long-run, I can come back as a contractor and continue working from home. I'll admit, I never wanted to be a stay-at-home, I love coming to the office and interacting with coworkers on a daily basis, but with our lives about to change with Baby Girl, working from home may be such a huge blessing I didn't even know I needed and/or wanted, so I'm thrilled for the opportunity! (And Ross is thrilled I still have a job, haha)

Everything is now falling into place. I've prayed more in my life this summer than ever before and relied on my faith more than ever. Strangely enough, Ross & I have felt more calm in this chaos than I think we should've felt. Yes, there were days we were fearful or questioning 'Why?' but we've not been as stressed as I think someone should be in this case. From one of my favorite church sermons we heard at the beginning of summer (perfect timing!) was to live fully in your Faith so that you can live your life Fearlessly. I've relied on that so heavily this summer and God has truly taken the brunt of the weight and moved mountains for us.

In the end, we feel we've done what we came here to do and now it's time to be closer to our family and friends in Pgh. Ross & I are so excited for our next phase of life and I'm so relieved to finally get to share our secret :)

*Kristin*