I pulled the car into the garage and got out, just like every night for the past 16 years. The difference was, I wouldn\u2019t have a job to go to in the morning. I\u2019d known this day was coming, but that didn\u2019t make it any easier.<\/p>\n
I slammed the car door. I was\u2014no, used to be, I reminded myself\u2014a VP in technology for a national bank until it collapsed in the recession.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d put my heart and soul into my job, helping build the tech-support department from a few employees into a division running computer networks at branches all over the country.<\/p>\n
Not only did I work long hours, I was on call 24 hours a day. Weekends and holidays too. If someone had a tech problem, even at 2:00 A.M. Christmas morning, I was on it.<\/p>\n
My kids joked that even though they were the teenagers, I was the one who was glued to my cell phone and had to be told not to text at the dinner table. That\u2019s if I sat down at the table at all. Usually, I would set my plate on the arm of my chair and eat while I checked my laptop.<\/p>\n
I paced the dim garage, wanting to kick something, smash it into a million pieces, the way my life felt like it had been smashed to pieces.<\/p>\n
I knew I was better off than most people\u2014I\u2019d gotten a decent severance package, and my wife, Michelle, had been able to go to back to work full time as an office manager once we heard my job was threatened.<\/p>\n
But our three kids would be going to college\u2014our son, TJ, was a high school senior, and the girls, Sarah and Tara, were in ninth grade\u2014and I wanted to give them the education and opportunities they deserved. God, if I can\u2019t provide for my family, <\/em>I asked, what good am I?<\/em><\/p>\n A shaft of light streamed through the window, as if beckoning me. I opened the garage door and stepped out into our yard. Michelle and I were raising our family in the house I grew up in.<\/p>\n The lawn and flower beds that my mom had tended so carefully were overrun with weeds. There was a Japanese maple in the middle of the yard that I remembered my parents planting when I was a boy. It needed pruning. I kept meaning to get out there but I\u2019d let it go.<\/p>\n Treasure this time.<\/em><\/p>\n The thought came out of nowhere. Definitely not from me. But clear, clear as could be. Treasure one of the worst days and biggest losses in my life? <\/em>I shook my head. I couldn\u2019t get distracted by random thoughts. The clock was ticking. I needed to get busy finding a new job.<\/p>\n I lumbered up to the house, my belly jiggling. I\u2019d put on a lot of weight, let myself go over the years\u2014no time to exercise with my crazy hours.<\/p>\n Michelle greeted me at the door with a hug. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be okay,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ll get through this together. I thought we could have a family meeting. The kids have been worried.\u201d I was the parent; I was supposed to do the worrying. The kids were supposed to enjoy being kids.<\/p>\n We got together in the living room. \u201cI\u2019m sorry, Dad,\u201d TJ said. \u201cI know how much your job meant to you.\u201d His concern was mirrored in the girls\u2019 faces. When had they gotten so mature?<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll take care of this,\u201d I told them. \u201cI\u2019m going to work round the clock to find a new job and get our lives back to normal.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After the kids went to their rooms, Michelle laid her head on my shoulder. \u201cDon\u2019t feel like you have to jump back into something stressful,\u201d she said. \u201cWe can get by on my income for a while. Maybe you should think of this time as a break\u2026a sabbatical. You deserve one.\u201d<\/p>\n A sabbatical? Was she kidding? This was no time to rest. If anything, I needed to work even harder.<\/p>\n The next morning I got up before everyone else, made a pot of coffee and opened my laptop. I searched job sites, companies in the area with big tech departments. I e-mailed friends with connections. By then Michelle and the kids were up, the house bustling.<\/p>\n \u201cTake some time for yourself,\u201d Michelle said again before she left for work. \u201cThis isn\u2019t a problem you need to solve today.\u201d<\/p>\n By midmorning the quiet of the house was driving me crazy. I missed the buzz of the office. I\u2019d updated my r\u00e9sum\u00e9 and applied for a couple of jobs. Now what? I walked outside to clear my head. My gaze fell on those overgrown flower beds. At least that was a problem I could do something about.<\/p>\n I found the hoe in the garage, behind an old deflated soccer ball. I hadn\u2019t even been working an hour before my back and arms were aching. I\u2019d only cleared a small patch.<\/p>\n Winded, I made my way to the backyard. Not the beautiful yard we had dreamed of. I\u2019d always planned to fix it up. Another thing I\u2019d let go.<\/p>\n I went inside and checked my e-mail. Nothing.<\/p>\n The kids got home midafternoon. \u201cI\u2019m bored,\u201d Sarah said an hour later. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n I looked up from my laptop. \u201cI\u2019m sorry, honey,\u201d I said. \u201cI\u2019m busy right now. Maybe later.\u201d She nodded and wandered down the hall.<\/p>\n I turned back to my laptop. But I couldn\u2019t focus on job hunting. I kept thinking about how Sarah and I used to watch a lot of soccer together before I got so busy. Manchester United, in the English Premier League, that was our team.<\/p>\n I went to their web page. There was a game the next day, Saturday, at 5:00 A.M. It wasn\u2019t televised, but we could watch it on the computer.<\/p>\n \u201cHey, Sarah,\u201d I called down the hall. She was thrilled about my idea, even if it meant getting up at the crack of dawn.<\/p>\n The sun was barely peeking over the horizon when we flipped open the laptop the next day. We cheered so loudly I feared we\u2019d wake up everyone else. \u201cThat was awesome,\u201d Sarah said.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s do it again sometime,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n And we did, every week after. I even got us new matching Manchester United jerseys.<\/p>\n I settled into a new routine. I still applied for jobs. Still put in hours every day in front of the computer. But now I took breaks to do other stuff, the things I\u2019d neglected when I was working all the time.<\/p>\n I started putting in a sprinkler system and the new lawn I\u2019d planned for so long. Just a few hours here and there. But it began to take shape. So did I. With the physical labor, the extra weight dropped off, and I felt healthier than I had in ages.<\/p>\n One day I walked into the empty family room and looked at our pool table, which was gathering dust. The kids were always saying they didn\u2019t have anything to do. I decided it was time the room got used. I cleaned off the table and bought some video games while I was at it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Soon TJ, Sarah and Tara were bringing their friends over after school. There\u2019d be so many teenagers hanging out in the family room, I took to calling it \u201cthe kid zone.\u201d But I was the one having a ball. They were loud. And hungry. No problem. I went to Costco and stocked up on snacks.<\/p>\n Weekends Michelle and I gardened together. The flower beds, the Japanese maple looked great; Mom would\u2019ve been proud. On summer evenings the five of us hung out on the deck while I made dinner on the grill.<\/p>\n One day I noticed TJ sitting alone, looking pensive. I knew he had worries about going to college and where his life was headed. Some of his friends had graduated the year before, and he\u2019d lost touch with them.<\/p>\n \u201cTJ, I know how it feels to lose something,\u201d I began. \u201cI wish I knew how to fix it. But with some things, I\u2019ve discovered, you just have to turn them over to God.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know, Dad,\u201d he said. \u201cI learned that from watching you, how you\u2019ve handled being unemployed. You might have been stressed but you never let it affect our family. You kept us together.\u201d<\/p>\n I looked at my son, and it hit me. This was the last year he\u2019d be home. The girls would be off to college soon too. If I hadn\u2019t had this time with them, I\u2019d be wishing for it, praying for it. Maybe God had answered a prayer I hadn\u2019t even said.<\/p>\n He gave me this time to treasure, to be the husband and father my family needed. I\u2019d had the chance to find a healthy balance between work and home\u2014a balance that even after I landed a new position with a great company, I have made sure to keep.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I pulled the car into the garage and got out, just like every night for the past 16 years. The difference was, I wouldn\u2019t have a job to go to in the morning. I\u2019d known this day was coming, but that didn\u2019t make it any easier. I slammed the car door. I was\u2014no, used to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[259],"tags":[76,51],"ppma_author":[1460],"class_list":["post-19509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family-problems","tag-father","tag-inspirational-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n