August 1, 2012 my house was full of our family who had come to town to watch Shelby in her summer theater performance. Late afternoon while sitting around waiting to leave, I received this text from Nate: I think I need to start looking for a new job. Ahhh what?!? I was sort of annoyed that he didn't wait till the next day to mention that and I wondered why out of the blue he was saying it? That day was the first day he had met the new VP who had plans to make some big changes in the Athletic Department at Heartland. Many people found out about this in the spring, but few were aware of what had been going on since August. It truly was a long school year. My personality is not one that gets worked up too much about things. We went about our daily routine and was sort of a sounding board for Nate as he addressed some of his frustrations and/or concerns. A few weeks passed and the girls returned to school. Early one morning I had prayed that the Lord would give me peace regarding the situation and that I wouldn't over think or worry about it. I took the girls to school and came home. I went to turn on my TV which sits in front of the windows that look out at my deck and back yard. My eye caught this huge bird sitting on the base of the deck. I quietly walked away to get the camera and was happy to see it was still there. I considered this my answer to my morning prayer as I had never seen this kind of bird in our back yard before, and I thought it looked like a hawk. Typing this 1 year later I must say I have not seen one since.
I wasn't sure what the bird meant but knew my prayer had been answered and that the Lord was in charge of this situation, just like everything else. In case you are reading this and are thinking, what is the big deal about a big bird?, they are the Heartland HAWKS. Fall turned to winter, winter turned to spring. Spring brought the announcement from the President that he was going to absorb Nate's AD position (which is the main source of our income). The baseball community and other athletic supporters (people, not the equipment - ha just keeping it light here!), did not support this idea one iota. In days a facebook support page grew to 100's of supporters. At the May Board Meeting two days before the team left for their third consecutive trip to the Jr. College World Series, over 200 people crowded the room we use for our baseball team family potluck in August. Several people spoke in support of Nate and the Athletic Department in general before Nate had his chance to speak to the board in closed session. Somewhere around 1:45am the next morning the board overturned the President's proposal to cut the budget in this way. The next good news came when the President announced he was moving on! Nate still has to work with a clueless supervisor on a puppet string and a sport hating VP (the 1 he met on August 1, 2012), but the man on the top is not going to take whatever they advise without doing some further study of his own. Nate is still working without a department secretary as she left in December for a different job. And considering they don't think they need Nate, they are not in a hurry to fill that position. So I along with a few other folks are helping out to keep him from completely losing his mind!
This fall I'll be participating in my 13th or 14th year of BSF, Bible Study Fellowship. Last fall Nate started going to the men's class for his first year. Our study was the book of Genesis and the lessons were packed full of very timely applications to help Nate keep focused on righteous actions and responses and working for the Lord and not for man. On August 1, 2013 the situation is not completely resolved and it will never be what it was. But I'm confident that the Lord had control and still does and it will be alright.
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