Al was restless and did not feel at peace working for Beechcraft in Houston. I had felt a long time that he was supposed to apply for a job at Collins Avionics in Wichita, Ks.

I told him what I felt and asked him to pray about it. I also suggested he talk to their representative who had an office where he worked. He had worked with him for several years.

He prayed about it and talked to their factory rep. I updated his resume and he mailed it to the Wichita office. The doors flew open and he could not close them.

We drove up to Wichita and Al had an interview with the Supervisor. The general manager was out of the country and we figured we would have to wait for that interview.

The factory rep highly recommended Al and the phone was ringing when we got home. They wanted him to start work in two weeks. Since the factory rep had never recommended anyone in the 20 years he worked for the company, the General Manager hired Al sight unseen. Highly unusual.

They agreed to pay our moving expenses, pay out our lease and give Al the pay he requested. We had two weeks to find a home, pack and move. They UPS overnighted the papers Al had to fill out and sign.

I packed most of our stuff, got letters of credit from our landlord, electric company, gas company, water company, phone company, picked up my Mom and went to Wichita to find a place to live.

Al's brother Dean and his wife Cindy lived in Wichita. We stayed with them while we looked for a house. Dean and Cindy told us it took 2 - 4 weeks to find a place in Wichita.

Mom and I looked at places in the newspaper in the area where the job was to no avail. One the way back to Dean’s house, we noticed a painter working at a nice looking duplex just around the block from Dean’s house.

We stopped and inquired if the place was for rent. The answer was yes and the painter gave us the owner’s phone number. We looked the apartment over and were very pleased with it.

I called the owner and went to his office to fill out and application and gave him our letter of recommendation from our present landlord. He gave us a two-year lease.

We had found a place 2 blocks from Dean within 24 hours. I paid the deposit and took care of the utility companies. Because I had the letters, it was all done within 5 hours and the only deposit I had to pay was to our new landlord.

Mom and I left for Houston at about 8 PM. We stopped in Paul's Valley OK to get something to eat. I accidentally left my purse on top of the car at McDonald's. We missed it at our next stop and backtracked but someone had already taken it.

I had just given Mom her Texaco gas card back. We used it to get gas and food the rest of the way home. We arrived in Livingston at 6 AM and went to bed.

After we got some rest, I called the police in Paul’s Valley and gave them a description of my purse and everything in it. I call the credit card Company and told them my card was stolen. Then Mom and I went around to the DMV and I got a replacement driver’s licensee.

I spent the night with Mom and then drove home to Houston to finish packing.

Beechcraft’s Avionics shop gave Al a going away party and then followed us home and loaded the truck for us. Our daughter and my brother came over and helped us clean the apartment before we got in the truck to leave.

We were all sitting on the back porch saying goodbye to our loved ones when Dusty (our oldest grandchild/age 2) sat down next to Al and said, "Don’t go Papa." Al almost unloaded the truck. Leaving our grandchildren and children behind was the hardest thing we ever did.

Rev 3:7 "To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.

Learning to Lean

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