::God Moment::

WOW - What a crazy week it's been.

I had my revelation last week that I was going to start making a more conscious effort to just enjoy my life and all things in it as much as I can and jump at opportunities when I want to and take chances. Seriously, I can't even begin to explain the blessings that I've received just in the past week in accepting this new mode of thought and living my life. It's seriously like God has told me, "Finally! You get it! Just trust me and everything will be alright!"

Starting with last Friday... Not going to lie, I've been contemplating becoming a stay-at-home-mom and the thought has been circling my mind for some time now. I think it has been there because I've been a little unhappy with the "love" I've been feeling from my current employer. Sometimes I seriously feel like I work my tail off (as I'm blogging at work - HA - this is ironic... But, seriously, I do work hard!) and I'm the only one that wants to see us grow and try to change things up and I never get rewarded for my momentum or vision or optimism around here... I know, I know, ya'll are like, "Join the club!" But, it was seriously messing with my mind and was making me start to think that I should leave my career behind. Everything changed when I got a job offer from another company last Friday...

A guy that I've met a few times out at meetings and conferences called me (for the second time, I might add) to offer me a job. Long story short, the job was a "promotion" when it comes to pay (about $20,000 promotion), but was a "demotion" when it came to the job duties. I did write him off on it because I don't want to take a step back in my career. I like being in the sales and marketing seat and being more on the "front lines" of a company rather than "behind the scenes". I flat out told him I thought I was overqualified for the position he was offering me and that I was smarter than what the job entailed. That being said, I mentioned to him that the compensation piece was enticing to me. I have a family to consider and sometimes you just have to make sacrifices when it comes to finances when you're married and have children...

Luke and I discussed the opportunity and he agreed that I would most likely be unhappy taking a step back in my career. He knows that I want to grow and that the opportunities at my current company are allowing me to do that and it has opened doors that have been amazing for me. We both agreed it would seem a bit "unethical" in a way to leave now, especially since I just completed working on our new website, name change and new "brand" to hopefully take our company to the next level when it comes to business and sales prospecting. Leave now? Are you crazy? It just didn't seem right.

But, I couldn't shake this other offer. Maybe it was the money that was making my mind hazy and causing me to question. I couldn't help it! So, I wrote a personal email to the guy that made the offer to me telling him that I'd like to hear more about the company - the pay, the benefits, the atmosphere around there and most importantly, my opportunity for growth there.

Here it comes - This was The God Moment...

That same day that I emailed the guy, I had a conference call scheduled with my boss for 2:00 PM. He's traveling right now and the chances of him calling me on time for a conference call anyway are slim to none. So, here I am at my desk, knowing that he probably wont' call me until 3:00 or later, then all of a sudden, the phone rings at 2:01 PM. It was him! Amazing! He called on time! I was considering giving him some grief about this, but we got to talking and got right down to business. I was needing his approval on some new materials that I'm ordering coinciding with our company name change (business cards, letterhead, envelopes, etc.). When we got done talking about that he said he had one other thing that he wanted to discuss with me. The conversation went something like this:

Boss: I have one more thing I'd like to discuss with you. Normally I'd wait until I was back in the office, but thought we could discuss it now...
Me: (STOMACH TURNING! SO NERVOUS!) Ok, what is it?
Boss: I just wanted to tell you that I think you're doing a great job, you're a great asset to our team, blah, blah, blah, (More nice things, feeding my ego)...
Me: Wow, thank you, that's very nice of you, I really appreciate you saying these things... (At this point I'm expecting him to deliver bad news, like, although you're doing a great job, you can improve here or you should stop doing this or you should stop blogging at work... something along those lines).
Boss: Since you've been doing such a great job, I'd like to offer you additional compensation of $7,000 to your base salary.
Me: (HOLDING BACK TEARS OF JOY AND EXCITEMENT) Wow, that's unbelieveable! Thank you so much! This is so great, THANK YOU!
Boss: You're welcome. You deserve it. I just love the work that you're doing. Keep up the good work.

GOD. IS. SO. GOOD. If that wasn't a sign to stay put at my job, I don't know what is!

And so, tonight, I plan to sip some champagne with my family to celebrate my wonderful news and people let me tell you, this raise came at the perfect time. We've got one little guy going to start montisorri school in the next month and our other little guy going back to daycare full time because Luke's going back to work. I know money isn't everything, but let's face it, you do need it!

To conclude, I have been blessed this week. I'm so grateful to God for providing me a job that I have the ability to grow. I'm grateful to my employer for seeing value in the work that I do. I'm grateful to my husband who is supportive of my career. I'm happy that I can stay with my company for the time being and hopefully, keep this going!

Happy Friday ya'll!