Ben's work update

Ben finally had his driver interview at work. He fears that it didn't go well. The assistant chief is sometimes hard to read...putting it nicely...many of the questions he was asked were irellevant to the position he was applying for. Ben came out of the interview very frustrated. Who knows, maybe he could still get the position. We'll see. We prayed about the position, so I'm sure if he's meant to get the promotion then he will.

Rutherford Co. Ambulance service has been a whirlwind of unreliability lately. Two weeks ago Ben was called off work because of their being over budget on the part timer budget. The next week he was told to go back to work. This week we found out that management moved $50,000 from the overtime budget to the part timer budget in order to cover 1.5 pay periods for part timers. They were hoping this would allow them enough time to figure out how to resolve this situation.

They have since met with the mayor and are trying to figure out their options. Management so far only has two options. The first is to reallocate funds and I didn't really understand from where and how it would help...but it will allow everyone to keep working. The other option is to close some of the stations. They do not want to close stations as this lessons their ability to care for the county and will overtax the stations not being closed. The big downside to this option is that by closing just 1 station will put 6 full time employees out of a job at that station so they will need to be moved to other stations. This also means that many if not all part time employees would be downsized. Not good! Ben has recently asked MTMC if they were hiring any part time help and there are no current openings. So he would have to find another EMS service to work for. I really don't want him driving further away for work but we will have to find something because as of July...I can't work full time anymore...if at all.

This definitely isn't good news in light of the baby on the way but even before we got pregnant our constant prayer was that God would bless us with a child when it was the right time for us. We never wanted to rush this decision. So even though I have my stupid fears...I have to trust that God has a great plan and that Ben will have work and our finances will be taken care of. We have great insurance that is covering a huge majority of the baby cost and that is FANTASTIC! Life is good...

In other news: I found out tonight that I got a raise!! I totally didn't expect one due to patient numbers being low. I forgot that James had told me during evaluations that a slight raise may happen. I was looking at my pay stub tonight and realized my pay went up $1!!! I'm so excited. I didn't expect that good a raise seeing as the people with 10-20 yrs more experience over me were topped out at $4-5 more than I was currently making. So I was so ecstatic! Good news...Oh Oh...other good news. The lady at work that takes care of employee benefits told me that maternity is covered by short term disability!! WHAT??!!?? I was so shocked. I have 50% but a 20% buyup option. That means that when I leave work in July I will still get 70% my pay for probably 3-4 months!! HOLY CRAP! I'm so excited! I can't help but notice true blessings when we try to live the best we can and step back and just let God take care of the rest...the hardest part for me in life is just learning to let it go and give up the control!