The Job Search Has Begun!

Today marks my first official day of job searching. A wretched two weeks of passing three kidney stones kept me from beginning my job search in earnest and then another week of having Ciaran in town kept me occupied and determined to ignore the looming search that needed to take place. And then yesterday I allowed myself to wallow in misery and grieve Ciaran being back in New Hampshire, but after a refreshing evening with my mentor last night and a rousing morning of housework, I began the job search this afternoon in earnest.

So where will my job search take me?! Only the Lord knows the answer to that one. I will be applying for jobs this week in Wisconsin and Indiana and there's actually one in Michigan as well (the same school Ciaran interviewed at last week on the west side of the state...although that one is a high school position and my experience is at the middle school level--thanks for the lead though Ciaran!). Pray for me if you think of it, I'm excited about this process, but I know I need wisdom and a clear sense of God's leading as I navigate these waters in the months to come.

And now for a brief recap. of my enjoyable week with Ciaran. OK, I just wrote that and immediately started to feel sad so I'm going to keep this short. It was a wonderful week! I know I conveyed that in my last post, but words really can't do justice to how nice it was to spend time in person with Ciaran again. And Ciaran's uncle and aunt were in town from Ireland and I hadn't met them before, so I enjoyed some time getting to know them as well. Ciaran's family is so fun to be around and his Uncle John loves literature and I so enjoyed some time discussing Oliver Goldsmith's The Deserted Village (one of his favorites as well as my own) and James Joyce and a whole host of other Irish literary figures. I always enjoy discussing Irish literature with Dr. Byrne, but having his brother to discuss this with as well made for some immensely enjoyable hours. And then Ciaran's Aunt Beatrice (she's originally from Spain and has a beautiful Spanish accent) also is inclined toward literary pursuits and so all around I was able to bask in the joy of discussing literature at length with both of them. What a joy!

All right, I'm going to end here because thinking about my time with Ciaran is making me miss him more...and I have AT LEAST seven more weeks to go before I see him again. :-) Hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful evening...it's absolutely gorgeous here, I might even take Ben for a long walk before the night is over!