New Job???? Big Move???? What does our future hold?

"I want to move, because I don't want Daddy to go on trips anymore." –RJ

(How heart breaking is that?)

So, we weren't looking for a new job. Jared has a very good job. The INL loves him and they have been so good to him. He has been blessed with high pay raises at the end of each year plus a few random ones during the year. They keep saying he deserves more but management won't let them. He has so much freedom with his job right now. He can come and go when he pleases with little or no questioning, just as long as he gets his job done, no one seems to mind. He gets to travel and experience culture and we get lots of free air miles which equals free plane trips to CA for Christmas and maybe a vacation for Mommy (like when I got to tag along on one of his business trips last year to Paris and Belgium). His benefits are awesome and retirement plan is great. We live in a wonderful area with so many family friendly things to offer. Or neighborhood is awesome and we have a lot of good friends. So why get a new job and move?
Like I said before, we weren't looking. Jared has taken many business trips to Virginia the last two years and the company back there that he has been working with love him. They have been asking him to come join them for the past year. The end of May they called and said they had a job posting up for him and wanted him to submit his resume. So why not? It doesn't hurt to submit a resume, right?
Jared went through all the application paper work last month and even did a phone interview. During this time we started thinking about the opportunity that moving to Virginia might offer our family. He won’t be traveling (as much), most likely a pay raise, a milder climate, more diversity (which we both miss from CA), a new house, fun historical places to visit, closer to the coast (warmer ocean water), the idea of something new.

The downside: much, much farther away from family, the hard process of starting over and making friends again, the possible loss of job freedom, maybe he won’t be as well liked in this new job, a lot of what if’s.

So on July 1^st Jared flew out to VA for a face to face interview and I joined him to see for myself what I thought about the area. (Zachery came with us and Rj and Savannah stayed with my Aunt) This was actually Jared’s first interview ever! And in the end it really wasn’t much of an interview; it was just a get to know you meeting for the new manger and really more of a formality. While Jared was in his “interview” a relater took me around the area and I loved it! It was so lush and beautiful!

Lynchburg, VA is about the size of Idaho Falls, still small but not too small, which I liked. It is clean, well up to date; all my regular stores and restaurants are there. Very low crime rate, very conservative, sounds like they have some great schools and educational programs. Lynchburg it located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains so camping and hiking trails aren’t far away. Also the James River runs through the city. Very low traffic. Comparable cost of living to Idaho Falls, so adorable. And the list of good things goes on and on. So after our short trip we were leaning towards taking the job once an offer came.

The new job itself will be a little different. Where Jared is now working more on research and development, over there he will be working on manufacturing, which he has always been interested in. He will also be working on one of the same projects as he does here, so he would still be able to work with some of his coworker here even though this is an entirely different company. It is still a government contracted job with the DOE so job security is still good. Benefits and retirement plans are also still good. We have heard nothing but good things about this company.

As of right now, no finally decision has been made. But as you may tell, we are leaning towards taking the job in VA. The company gets a week off for the fourth of July so we weren’t excepting a job offer till the third week of July (next week).

Jared has been at scout camp all this week, he returns home tomorrow. He just called and said that BWXT (this new company) called with their offer this morning. However, his phone was in the car charging and he didn’t get the message till later this evening. And with the weekend we won’t be able to get all the info till Monday!

Once the numbers are laid out, Jared will go and talk with his mangers (who don’t want to see him go). They plan on trying to get him to stay, so we might be looking at a counter offer. After and even during all this process, we will be making a decision and going to your knees in pray to determine if our decision is the correct decision for our family. I ask you all to pray for us as well. This is a big decision and we can use all the guidance and direction we can get.