The Job Market

So . . . right now our lives are in a state of constant uncertainty.  Ben is graduating in May, and right now his work is nearly 100% devoted to finding a job.  He is interviewing for positions as a finance professor at different universities.  In January, he had his first round of interviews (interviewed with 26 places, mostly all at this one conference in San Diego).  It was pretty exciting the next week as people started calling him back to schedule second round interviews!

This is the list of people who scheduled fly-out interviews with Ben (as well as Duke - they were slow to the game, and BYU, where he already interviewed).

To make a long story short, Ben has become a professional traveler and interviewee, and I have become a professional single mom.  Starting mid-January, he scheduled interviews back to back, basically having him out of town Monday-Friday for 5 1/2 weeks!  So we're right in the middle of it right now.  Today Ben interviewed at Duke and is now on a plane to London!  He won't be back until Friday!

It is an exciting time, and we feel incredibly blessed to have so many job prospects!  We hope some of them turn into actual job offers (and please bless that they're not all in New York), so we can finally figure out where our next adventure will be.  We also hope that the Lord has an idea of where He wants us and that He a) makes it happen, and b) lets us know what the right place is.  It will be an exhilarating process, I am sure.

Meanwhile, I'm just trying not to think about it too much, because it really might drive me to insanity to think of all the what-ifs.  Luckily, being a single mom is keeping me pretty busy!  It is pretty tiring to never have any relief, but then, in some ways it's easier because we don't have to wait for Dad to come home to get dinner started.  I also gave up cooking, which has been very helpful!  So I'm serving dinner (think mac & cheese, Ramen, or quesadillas) at 5:00pm and am getting the kids tucked into bed by 7:45.  It's pretty awesome, and absolutely necessary, since at that point I can't keep up with the boys much longer before losing steam.  We're in a rhythm, a simplified version of our normal lives, and I'm kind of liking some things about it.  Of course, when Ben gets home after a long week, the three boys who instantly trample him are not the only ones who are thrilled to see him . . .