Fork in the Road

“It’s happening,” Papa said, when he called after work yesterday. This can’t be good, I thought, and I cautiously asked him what was happening. “As of next Tuesday, I will no longer be working for K.B.”

The economy is no longer a bunch of numbers on the computer screen, or even a few dollars more on the grocery receipt. People aren’t building or remodeling their homes anymore, and there is not enough work going around for carpenters now.

The blessing in disguise here is that we’ve been prepping for this since before the crash of ’08 when Papa’s boss paid his employees to remodel his own camp just to keep them busy. A 30 year old construction company that just a few years ago had a 3-4 year waiting list of customers and is now trying to keep its crew busy for a week at a time is a sure sign that the money isn’t traveling downstream any longer.

We are very grateful for Papa’s boss, and how hard he has been working to keep the jobs coming in, but people are now coming to the realization that sooner or later the inevitable cannot be fought off any longer.

We are defeatists, but we are also survivalists. Being unemployed with three children to care for might be a scary thought to most, but the preparations we’ve made will give us a bit of breathing room, and now Papa has the time to invest in other asset-building ideas he’s had. It won’t be hard to find odd jobs here and there, Papa is an experienced and skilled carpenter, but he has also been brainstorming ways that he can use his creativity to a greater extent in his bread-winning, and what better time to try them then when you get laid off?

Don’t get me wrong, even though I anticipated this change of events, it was still with a tight feeling that I took a deep breath and thought, okay, now that we’re here, let’s take this head on.

And so closes another chapter of 0ur family adventure, only this is one of those chapters that ends with suspense, leaving your fingers itching to start the next chapter to see what happens.

Where do we go from here? First off, I think Girlie is going to have to potty train! But really, we have no idea. We’ve got a cushion, some ideas, God’s abundant grace, and lots of hope, but you’ll just have to come back to find out what happens next.