A Permanent Smile

So you know that other reason that I was maybe going to share -- maybe! -- as far as why the C-section is a pretty good choice for me?

Well.  Here it is!

Chris was just hired at an awesome new job.  Better than awesome.  Excellent.  It is everything we have been praying for since Chris lost his job in August 2010.  I've been bursting at the seams with excitement (and some anxiety that such great news was too good to be true) since last week when he got the verbal offer and today, the written offer came in.  

The biggest news -- a 30% increase in salary!  Hello, accelerated debt repayment, which means we can move back out on our own sooner while still meeting our financial goals.  More vacation time.  More growth potential.  And the medical benefits can only be described as out of this world.  I’ll be having a C-section -- surgery, more anesthesia, longer hospital stay -- but our portion of the bill will still be less than 10% of what we paid when I had Averie!   

Even when Chris got hired at StorageCraft, it didn’t feel like the job.  I tried to convince myself that it was, and that those niggling thoughts about all its imperfections were just residual disappointment from other, admittedly better, jobs not panning out.  But really, I think I knew all along it was just a stop-gap because we literally could not go on any longer without some sort of income. 

There is just no denying that this is THE job.   

For so long, I have felt like we weren’t living our lives.  We were just surviving.  Just had to get through another day…another week.  It has been difficult to keep our heads up and put on a happy face when I felt surrounded by only disappointment, but I see so many good things on the horizon for us now.  Financial stability.  No anguish over how to pay for medical treatments for my MS.  A career -- not just a job! -- for Chris.  A home of our own.  No longer wallowing in depression.   

Averie -- and our new baby boy we will be welcoming soon -- deserve better and more than what we have been giving.  I am nearly weeping with joy over finally feeling able to give Averie back the parents she had before our life went into this downward spiral.

I dare you to try to wipe this smile off my face.

HA, I'm so hyped up that I forgot to say HOW this even relates to the C-section *slaps forehead*.  Chris will be in mandatory training for several weeks and it's unlikely (OK, pretty much impossible) that he'll be able to take as much time off as we had originally planned, so it's better that we know the exact how, when and where of delivery so he can make arrangements with his new employer :).