Move to San Antonio. Blessing or Curse?

My husband and I have moved several times over the past 32 years.  Most of the moves were job-related.  Each time we wonder if the move will be a blessing or a curse, even though we try to remain positive.  My husband had worked as a police officer in a big city for several years when my brother offered him a job in a new company.  We prayed about the move, but had a lot of trouble determining God’s will.  The rotating shifts were really hard on Reed.  He had trouble sleeping more than 4 or 5 hours during the day.  He also had a funeral escort business with other police officers as a side job.  On top of that, he had to mow 2 acres around our house every week and take care of a 2 year old on his days off while I worked.  We finally decided to give it a try.  We figured that he could always finish his college degree if the business weren’t successful.  His VA educational benefits were going to run out in a few years.

We moved to San Antonio in July and bought a house with a 15 1/2% interest rate.  The business went under in November, and I had to find a teaching job.  That’s not very easy to do when school has already started.  Unbelievably, a teacher had just resigned from his job the week before I needed one.  After I was hired I discovered why he had resigned.  He must not have had control of the classroom.  Many of the kids were very disrespectful and didn’t want to learn.  One student rubbed his hand against my leg as I passed his desk.  Fortunately the administration honored my decision to remove him from my class.

Reed was not eager to return to school.  He was banking on a successful business.  When the business failed, he really wanted to go back to his old police job.  The police chief had told him when he left that he could come back anytime.  We decided to put the house up for sale.  Unfortunately, no one wanted to buy a house when the interest rates were so high.  Meanwhile, the air conditioning broke down.  We were so broke that we didn’t fix the air conditioning and suffered through the 100 degree weather with fans.  We slept with the windows open.  We would have been nervous about keeping the windows open at night, but God had provided 5 barking dogs next door.  Reed says that the best deterrent to crime is a barking dog.  Unfortunately, the barking dogs had fleas, which the neighbor girl blessed us with, when she came over to visit.  We even had fleas in the car and flea bites on us!  Our pastor, Bro. Van, loaned us his car to use while we put “flea bombs” in our house and car.  Then he inherited fleas in his car.

Meanwhile, Reed was working on his degree and delivering pizzas at night to help pay the bills.  The car kept breaking down.  We discovered that our Chevy Citation was a piece of junk.  We finally found a buyer for the house.  He put down $500 earnest money.  We moved out, and the buyer and his family moved in.  His loan didn’t go through.  When he moved out of our house he took our ornamental monkey grass with him and left a hole in the bedroom door!  The roof started leaking, and we discovered termites behind the tile in the shower stall.  What else could go wrong?!

Reed finished his bachelor’s degree.  He already had an associate’s degree in law enforcement.  He majored in History since he thought he might like to teach.  He took three education classes, but the last one “did him in”.  He observed students in a history class at the school where I taught.  He was shocked at the disrespectful, lazy behavior of the students.  He wanted to handcuff them and take them to jail. 

What do you do with a History degree?  He thought he might be able to get a postal job since he was a “5 point veteran”.  He had served in the Air Force during the Vietnam era.  He made a perfect score (100 +5 points) every time he took the postal exam, but the post office was only hiring “10 point vets”.

Reed went to the Federal Building in downtown San Antonio and applied for a federal job.  Then he went to the Job Placement Center at UTSA.  The counselor told him that he didn’t have a chance of getting on with the National Park Service.  He didn’t tell the counselor that he had already applied for a job.  He was hired by the San Antonio Missions National Historic Park as an interpreter.  He had taken several Spanish history classes, never realizing that this particular background would enable him to get a job telling stories about the Spanish missions in San Antonio.  The job paid much less than his salary as a city police officer, but at least it got his “foot in the door”.

A short time later he transferred to a National Recreation Area as a park ranger (law enforcement officer).  Finally, after four years in San Antonio we were able to see our move as a blessing.  We made some special friends and enjoyed living near our families.  But the next move would take us far away from family.  Would it be a blessing or a curse?

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