As if a Baby Isn't Enough Excitement...

If you know me, you know that I like to make drastic life changes. And I usually like to make more than one at a time. So, as if having a baby wasn't enough excitement and change for one year, I have also decided to take a new job! When I took my little blogging break last month and said it was because I had so much going on in my life, I literally meant I had so much going on. It was overwhelming. The job change actually began before we found out we were expecting. The day be before, to be exact.

I had been looking for a new job for several months. While I certainly enjoyed working with cancer patients, Oncology wasn't my passion and I was having a very difficult time working for the American Cancer Society. While I fully support the organization's mission, I disagree with their politics, management staff, and use of fundraising dollars. It became incredibly difficult to go to work each day because of these things. I also knew that oncology wasn't the area I wanted to work in forever and neither was working with adults. I've always had a passion for working with children and knew that was the direction I needed to head in. After turning down several not-perfect-for-me offers, I finally accepted a position with a local child welfare agency doing family preservation work (counseling families at risk of losing children to out-of-home foster care). As I waited to start this position, I received a call from someone at another agency I previously turned down a position at about an Adoption Social Worker position that had opened up (these positions opening up is rare, let me tell ya!). She knew my passion for adoption and felt it would be a good fit. I interviewed and waited several weeks (delaying the start of my new job) waiting for an offer. Well, the offer finally came! I'll be starting my new position as an Adoption Social Worker in a few weeks with Children's Hospital & Health System in Milwaukee and I am thrilled! I feel like only God could have orchestrated this for me.

Now don't get me wrong, I am a little terrified of starting a new job with a baby on the way. In fact, the day after I left my job with ACS, I found out I was pregnant. That may have been part of the reason I cried and cried. I was terrified I had made the wrong decision. I was terrified that nobody would want to actually hire a pregnant woman. Well, thankfully I learned there are laws to help protect women in this type of situation and that in fact, it's a normal part of life. And I'd like to think that God has some crazy plan for me, some crazy logic in all of this happening at once, that is bigger than anything I could ever imagine.

I am most excited about this position because it will challenge me to step outside of my comfort zone. I've never been shy about my passion for adoption but for me, personally, I've always leaned towards international adoption. I still firmly believe that is the direction Dave and I will head someday. But this position will open up the world of domestic adoption for me. Not only that, but I'll be working with waiting children (those already in foster care) and older children (especially Milwaukee's teenagers in foster care/homeless shelters). God is really challenging me to look beyond what I am comfortable with to help the "least of these", those kids who are and have been waiting for families for years, maybe even their whole lives. It'll be an amazing opportunity to unite these children with forever families and to help those families interested in adoption prepare for the the placement of an older or waiting child. I am beyond excited for the things I will learn personally from this position and for the opportunity to turn my personal passion into my career. What a blessing!

So life in the Irish house really is a little crazy right now. But I certainly wouldn't have it any other way!