After 22 months of unemployment, a small miracle: a job

In April 2009, my husband lost his job. He likes to remind me that he didn't really lose it, the way I might lose my keys. He just happened to be one of 500,000 workers who got fired one month.

Last year I wrote a commentary about our family's experience and how faith had been an essential part of our lives. Here is an update.

Chip has a job.

It's still hard to believe. After 22 months, more than 200 job applications, 10 interviews and many prayers -- he finally landed a job. Not a dream job. But it's a job -- an 18-month, entry-level, contract-to-hire position.

Even though he'll be earning about what he received on unemployment, we're thrilled. It's a crack in the wall of joblessness, which for a while was looking unconquerable.

In many ways, these past two years have been a gift -- a gift I wouldn't have asked for but I wouldn't give up either. We've grown closer as a family, our faith is stronger, we're more determined to do whatever needs to be done, and Chip has become my hero.

I stopped asking why a long time ago. All I know is that God has been with us.

God has been with us in a grueling and, oddly, joyful exercise in hanging in there. He's been with us in the dull days of waiting and the sad days of receiving, "We regret to inform you" letters and phone calls. Those phone calls had a habit of coming on Friday evenings. Presumably, they are the last thing an HR person wants to do.

God's been with us in the meltdowns, on the days when we just weren't up for it. And in the rage I remember feeling toward an employer who wasn't interested in hiring "anyone with a gap in their resume."

Our faith was a comfort when I've had to explain to Nelly why she couldn't go bowling with the group. And when I told Claire we couldn't fly her home for Christmas.

God has also been in on our happiest days imaginable: Our son Chad's return from Afghanistan and his marriage to a woman he loves even more than we do. When we watched as he received the Bronze Star Medal of Honor just last month. We felt God with us the day our daughter graduated from high school and received a nearly full merit scholarship to the college she loves.

This year, I took on an additional part-time job that I really like, working in a food science lab with some of the smartest people I've ever known. I'm learning new and interesting things all the time.

From the best to the worst, and every ordinary day in between, God has been there.

I have to admit there are things I'm going to miss. There's something kind of vacation-like about unemployment. After the job postings had been scoured, Chip had time for long walks, home improvement projects, and in-depth conversations with our daughters in college about philosophy and literature -- a precious gift. He had time to explore a gourmet cookbook and discover fantastic recipes like tandoori chicken and squash soup. I'm really going to miss his cooking.

Now Chip has a job, and we're scrambling to figure out who gets the car and who takes the bus, who does the laundry, who does the dishes. I'm trying to fix the computer by myself and it's still not working. We're wondering how we're going to squeeze in meaningful quiet time because we actually need God, now, more than ever.

I'd like to think I've become a more compassionate person through this experience. I hope I am. I understand how hard it is. I get why people give up and quit looking for work. I get why marriages fall apart, why people drink alcohol more than they should. I understand why people escape into movies, TV and Facebook. I get that it's easier to worry than it is to trust. It's easier to pull in -- to be a keeper rather than a giver. I get it, because I've wrestled with these things myself. Just as I have been comforted and strengthened and forgiven by a loving God, I hope to show the same to others. Even stupid employers who aren't interested in hiring anyone with a gap in their resume.

This has been my prayer through Chip's unemployment, now in the middle of change, and it will be, whatever happens next:

"God, if you don't give up on me and my family, I won't give up either. Amen."

By the way, Chip got the job on a Monday, early in the afternoon. He started back to work the same week his unemployment benefits ran out.

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Belinda Burkitt of St. Paul is a career mom. She is a source in MPR's Public Insight Network.

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