The story behind the madness...

First off, just want to welcome anyone that's reading. I'm hoping that this will save Nick from having to answer a billion questions about everything he's up to, and keep family connected to us long after we make our move. So feel free to leave questions or comments or words of encouragement. Nick won't be blogging, but I'll be relaying info from our conversations over the next month. Anyone who's not immediate family may not know the story of Nick's long hiring process with the government, so I'll recap up to where we are now:

My timeline may be slightly off, so don't quote me, hehe. Back in March Georgia Tech sent out an email to some of their graduates about a new position with the Department of Justice. Of course Nick wanted to apply, so he sent in his lengthy application and was selected for an interview. After a very cold and calculated interview and a few weeks of waiting, they called him to let him know that he had been selected as an alternate. There were four open positions in the Atlanta area, and he was number 11 in line for them. He got pretty discouraged, so we started thinking evil thoughts with all our might at the people who were in front of him. Ok just kidding! Kind of.

The government doesn't really tell you much. So there was A LOT of waiting. Ask anyone around Nick. "So Nick, heard anything about the job?" "Nope, still waiting." After maybe a month or two of waiting (and after filling out a ton more paper work documenting everything that's ever happened to him in his life), he was called in for his polygraph examination. Since he was a stock clerk at Publix, he has a lot of late nights. He ended up not getting home until two in the morning the night before the test. Needless to say, he wasn't of clear mind the next day. So after a couple hours of interrogation, the test was "inconclusive". It was sent away for analyzation. Then they called him in for a second polygraph. He passed with flying colors!

More waiting...then one day he started getting phone calls from people in his past about how they had met with someone about him. This went in phases. Then it pretty much stopped. Everyone was asking when he would find out about the job, but he had no idea. More waiting...then one day, grocery shopping, he gets a call. It was from Boston. "Can we consider you for a position here in Boston?" We thought about it for a while, then he said yes. He never heard back from them.

About a month later, he gets another phone call. Atlanta was calling to notify him of a vacancy at the Tampa office. In their words "the position is yours if you want it". After waiting a few days and doing a lot of research on relocating to Tampa, we found out they gave the position to someone who already worked there. This was pretty much devastating.

Through information from different sources, Nick found out that all of the positions for this hiring phases were filled, and that training was starting in late September. So he applied to some other positions and just decided to wait. He had really written off being hired anytime soon.

At the same time all of this is happening, I'm informed that my boss will be closing our business soon. So here we are, both looking for jobs, both getting more bummed about it.

Flash forward to this past Thursday. I had taken a half day at work, because I was to meet my cousin in South Carolina and we were heading to Charleston for a weekend getaway. On my way home to pack (which I luckily had not done yet) Nick calls me to ask if I'm driving yet. Because he has something to tell me. So he proceeds to explain that the Department of Justicce had just called and offered him a job in Washington, DC. And that he had to report on Sunday. This Sunday. I don't think either of us will ever be able to describe the mix of emotions we felt. SO happy, SO scared!

Anyway, that pretty much brings us up to speed. I took him to the airport this morning. It was bittersweet. I'm so proud of him and all of the work that he's done to be able to be where he is. He got on the plane at 11:40 after a 20 minute delay. He should be there in a couple of hours, then he'll take a shuttle to the training site.

Stay tuned for (hopefully) daily updates of how he's doing at training. Thanks to both families for all the love and support that you've given both of us while we've trudged through the last (nearly) 5 years together. We love you guys!