So our life has been a major roller-coaster lately. I’ve been dreading this, but I’m about to report the WHOLE story. I’ll be incredibly impressed if anyone makes it through the entire post. That’s a challenge!

So about this time last year, Miles and I found ourselves sitting in bed talking about the possibility of Miles not continuing his PhD in biology. He had come to the realization that he just wasn’t passionate about/ obsessed enough over it. In case you didn’t know, a person has to be absolutely in love with something to devote 6+ years of their life to it. Two years into the program and Miles found himself already dreading going into the lab each day.

So what now? Well if you’ve spent more than 20 minutes in a conversation with Miles, you’re sure to know what he is passionate about. Computers. Apple. Programming. Problem solving. There was just one problem. He didn’t have any formal training in computers whatsoever. He was self-taught. He’d done a few websites here and there. And he sure spent a lot of time on the internet learning about different programming languages etc. But really in the end, he didn’t have much to show for it. So yeah, I was scared. I let Miles know my insecurities, but in the end, I knew he was not happy and that this career change needed to happen. So we started praying. A lot. And we went forward.

Miles dedicated the next few months to strengthening his resume. He checked out books from the library and continued learning. It reminded me a lot of my dad who built two homes by basically reading how-to manuals.

Then the tedious job search began. Applications, cover letters, resumes. Yuck! And it took awhile for Miles to nail down exactly what jobs he should apply for. But then a miracle happened. He got a phone interview! This was before Thanksgiving. They liked him and gave him a project which he worked on until 2:00am every morning for a couple weeks. To make a very long and drawn-out story a little shorter, after a couple more interviews, in March they flew Miles out to North Carolina for and in-person interview. I paid my own way and went along too. I devoted the couple days to looking at the area and checking out places to live. We thought for sure we’d leave with an offer on the table.

Well, we flew home, still confident, but without an offer. A few days after getting home they emailed us a less-than desirable offer. The bummer was that they weren’t offering benefits. But after some thought, we decided we could make it work. We prayed about it and felt good about accepting the offer. Actually how we felt was that it was a good offer but that there would be others. But since we didn’t have any other offers in the works, we’d be crazy not to take this one. But instead of receiving a updated offer letter, we received a two-lined email stating that they decided not to renew the offer. That there’d been a question about Miles’ commitment to the company. What the?! We had no idea what they were talking about! This was such a blow. It hurt a lot. Miles sent a very lengthy letter the the owner of the company trying to clear up any miscommunication. After they reviewed his letter, they responded by saying they just didn’t think Miles was a good fit.

So after months of being in the interview process with this company, and applying to many others, we were back at square one. We started again, only this time we were looking to be much closer to home. North Carolina was really far, and it put some things into perspective. So more applications, resumes, interviews. This time though, three separate companies asked to interview Miles: one local company; one in Littleton, CO; and one in Riverton, UT.

It seemed we’d struck gold. Miles had three interviews with the company here in Irvine. And we actually got an offer from the company in Littleton. When we got the offer, however, we were in Utah where Miles was interviewing for a Database Engineer position for the LDS Church.

He’d applied for the job with the Church thinking he was very under qualified. Which he was. In fact, during the phone interview he was told so. But they still wanted to meet him. They said they saw potential.

The interview went well. And we were very hopeful! This would be a great opportunity for growth. And there’s no doubt that Miles indeed does have the potential to do very well. We wanted this position. My family wanted us to get this position because we’d only be a few hours away. We were so grateful when my mom told us my family would be fasting and praying for Miles to get the job. Well, God heard our prayers. The next day, Miles got a phone call informing him that they’d like to hire him with a start date of May 17th. Nothing short of a miracle!

We are so thrilled! But as we learned from our experience with the NC peeps, it’s not official until it’s official. So just today we heard the details of the offer. Great salary and benefits! Who could ask for more?

Only one problem. Remember how I’m supposed to have a baby mid-June? Well the benefits don’t kick in until July 1. Now this complicates things beyond belief!

I currently have a private plan through Kaiser Permanente. Utah doesn’t have Kaiser. I cannot buy into an other individual plan because pregnancy is considered a pre-existing condition. Blah. We do not qualify for medicaid assistance even though here in California we are living in poverty. So that leaves us paying out of pocket. Maybe not too big of a deal if everything goes perfectly. But that’s a big risk. We could be paying tens of thousands of dollars if I need a c-section, not to mention all the other possible complications.

So where does that leave us? In a very hard situation. We’ve come up with two “solutions.”

1. Link and I stay in California and Miles moves up to Utah to start his job. This would mean me taking care of Link by myself for a month, risking Miles not being here for the birth of the baby (would probably ask the doctor about induction to decrease this risk), paying double rent, and trying to move with a newborn by myself since Miles will have to be back at work.

2. We move together up to Utah as planned. I stay in Riverton and get things settled for a couple weeks. Drive down to St. George to stay with family for a week (it’s 4 hours closer to the Kaiser Hospital), then the final week I’d stay in a friend’s apartment while they are out of town. This would mean I’d pay for prenatal visits out of pocket, we’d still be risking Miles not being there for the birth, and I’d have to travel back up to Utah with a 2-day old.

So neither option is a good option. I hate to say it but our current health care system here in America sucks!

As my grandma said, we’re going to need to talk to the Lord about this one. Indeed!

I welcome any thoughts/ advice. Maybe there’s something we haven’t thought of?

Miles is planning to leave his PhD program with a Masters and find a job in computer programming. One position in Durham, NC looks promising. Miles and I are flying out in a little over a week to check out the area. After two interviews and two projects, they still haven’t officially offered him the position, but we pretty much think he’s got it in the bag. My mom, sister and nieces will be staying at our place to watch after Link while we’re gone.

We have another possible option that would be much closer to home. This job is in Sandy, UT. We should be hearing from them soon as well. Personally I feel good about both options. We are just praying for a lot of direction right now.

We’re hoping to move sooner rather than later. This baby is coming in June, and it would be really nice if we had a chance to get settled before she comes. Besides, packing boxes at 8+ months does not sound pleasant.

Miles has been down and out with a toothache this week. He’s on Vicodin, ibuprofen, Nyquil, and two types of antibiotics and is still miserable. I took him to the endodontist (root canal guy) and he sent him home saying there’s nothing he can do until the infection clears. So I’ve been basically taking care of both my boys full-time. It’s reminded me just how much Miles helps out around here!

Chasing a toddler while pregnant sure is exhausting! It’s been interesting though. As I get bigger, Link seems to grow more and more independent. As long as I am patient, he will climb into the car and up into his car seat by himself; he’ll walk up and down the stairs to our apartment while holding my hand; and he’s been much better at not running off. We made great pizza dough together the other night. It was the first time he successfully helped me in the kitchen. He is just my little buddy these days. We have so much fun together, even though I may get a little tired of him asking me to play basketball with him all day everyday. There’s nothing I love more than seeing him grow and develop and learn new skills.

Life these days is unsure, but good. One thing is certain though, we are on the verge of some exciting adventures!

Yes I’ve been missing from the blogging scene lately. I’m full of good excuses, but my best is that I had a lapse in my flickr account so I was unable to post pictures. Without pictures to post, I lost most of my motivation. But you’re in luck, my flickr account is up and running again, which means this post is going to be picture overload.

Lincoln has a love for literature. Often when I hear silence and think Link is probably getting into something, I’ll find him in his room, sitting quietly, pulling books off the shelves, carefully paging through them. He’ll spend at least 30 minutes a day doing this. It’s probably his favorite pastime. Often I’ll place him near his books with a snack, and he’ll keep himself entertained the whole time I take a shower!

Before Halloween we visited a local pumpkin patch and petting zoo. Even though he didn’t actually “‘pet” the animals, he was still very excited about the whole thing and he did touch them a couple times.

For Halloween, we all dressed up like pirates. Actually, that’s not completely accurate. For the Day Before Halloween, we all dressed up like pirates. We were so Halloweened out by the end of that night that we actually went to dinner on Halloween night instead of going Trick-or-Treating. Here are a few pictures from our many festivities. Unfortunately we didn’t get a picture of all of us together on our camera.

Miles competed as the reigning champ of the pie eating contest at our ward Halloween party. Unfortunately the title was taken from him by Brother Wingard. It was a close one though!

Miles here. As a video birthday card for Michelle, I put together the above slideshow of pictures gathered from the past five years we have spent together. She celebrated her 25th birthday on Friday. She makes each and every day of my life happy. iPhone Version