Grateful

So...we're 10 days into pending doom (loss of paycheck, loss of insurance, loss of the best daycare in the world...) or pending opportunity (a world outside of telecom, more time with the monster...), depending on how you look at it.  And while I'm still confused/conflicted/concerned, more than anything I am grateful. 

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not in complete denial, but as anyone who has worked in telecom can attest, there is no "why me?" when you get laid off.  Why?  Because everyone in telecom gets laid off eventually.  So there's no reason to waste time wondering why. 

Instead, even when I'm trying to throw myself little pity parties, I've been overwhelmed with undeniable awareness of the blessings that have come from the company that just kicked me to the curb.  Here are a few (in chronological order, not order of importance)

1. They recruited a computer major from SMS to intern in the summer of 1998.
2. The brought back said computer major for the summer of 1999.
3. They gave me a temp job back in October 1999 when I had rent, a car payment, no savings and had already quit my other job.
4. They hired aforementioned computer major as a permanent employee in January 2000.
5. They (i.e. a particular Information Services manager) encouraged the regular IS Sr. Secretary's feelings that she wanted to work closer to home now that she'd had a second child and hired me full time on February 21, 2000.
6. They (i.e. the entire IS management team) encouraged me to date the computer major, now Software Engineer.
7. They hired me back to coordinate the buildout of PCS retail stores, saving me from my "dream job" in book publishing which turned out to be a nightmare.
8. They paid for me to travel the country.
9. Many of them attended my wedding to the Software Engineer on February 21, 2004.
10. They laid off the Software Engineer in 2004 (wait for the good part) forcing him to take other IT jobs where he realized that he really didn't want to be in IT for the next 40 years...eventually leading to our relocation.
11. They wooed me over to the local side, then to marketing, my apparent niche.
12. They (i.e a specific Director and Marketing Manager team) concocted a somewhat ridiculous (and expensive) plan to allow me to "transition" out of my job in KC when we relocated to SC.
13. They hired me to work from our new home in SC and gave me a company car and a raise!
14. They allowed the best manager ever to hire me as his analyst even with a new, strict "NO telecommuter" policy -- allowing me to work from home for the first 3 years of my son's life with excellent pay, ridiculous flexibility and no travel!

So, you may be asking...am I sorry to be leaving?  Surprisingly, no. 

In addition to all of the internal career opportunities afforded me by  Sprint Publishing & Advertising/Sprint PCS/Sprint/EMBARQ/CenturyLink, they also did the one and only thing that would get me out of my comfort zone and make me willing to see what else God had planned for me -- they laid me off.