Continuing on our journey....
Shortly after Brandon and I got married, I'd say about 8 months or so, the economy took a dive. A big dive. It may have been sooner than 8 months but it wasn't too long after Obama took office. And will not be soon forgotten for it was the cause of many changes in the United States. One change being with the newly married Harrell couple. Brandon was still working full-time for his dad but things got slow.... really slow. There would be a week or two that Brandon wouldn't even work because there was no work. He was still shoeing horses and that surely helped and thank goodness for the second job that I worked one and two nights a week. We didn't really quite start feeling the change in the economy until late 2009. After a very slow winter, the beginning of 2010 brought decisions for change. Brandon and I are workers and not the kind to just make it by. We currently had renters in the townhouse, which was barely paying that mortgage. Knowing that our ultimate goal was to have a house on some acreage, we needed to "unload" a mortgage! Since we were already in our house in Montgomery and were better off on it financially than the townhouse, it wasnt a hard decision to list it for sale. It only took a year for me to get to where I was okay with letting it go. I had come to terms with it and knew it was one of the first steps to reaching our goal. I tell ya, the good Lord was guiding us the entire time because looking back at the bills we had and the income we had coming in.... We didn't stuggle and were still able to save money! While we were very thankful for that, we also didnt know how long the economy was going to stay down like it was or if it would turn around and we needed to know that there was going to be a paycheck coming, something steady, secure and stable. During the month of January of 2010, we discussed a lot things. One being selling the house as soon as the renters lease was up, which was at the end of February, and what that would do for us. One of the other things that we discussed was what Brandon could do as far as work was considered. Two of the main things that we talked about was him building his horseshoeing business back up and doing that full-time or looking into fire training to be a firefighter. While the horseshoeing would be good money and Brandon could make his own schedule, we knew it would take time to build the business back up to where he would be full-time with it again. Also, through the time that we talked about it, I could tell that Brandon's heart just wasn't in to do full-time again. It is hard work and very hard on your back and knees. Knowing a change was something I felt the Lord pushing us to do, I did not want Brandon to be unhappy. He truly enjoyed working for his dad! So, we looked into the fire training and talked to one of Brandon's long time friends that had just completed fire training and talked with both of our parents. We thought that if he could complete fire training and go to work for a local fire department, he could still work for his dad on his days off. After looking into it, we decided that was the road to take. Looking back it seems like it was a quick, rash decision... but at the time I felt like we had talked and discussed it so much that it was clear that was what we were supposed to do.
We listed the townhouse for sale the first of March of 2010. We decided to list it by owner, no task too big for the Harrells! Praise the Lord for His timing because it is perfect I say! Because when we decided to sell, it was probably the worst time to sell a house. The housing market was so low and there was so many houses listed on the market I just stressed over it thinking we wouldn't ever sell it. That's not faithful thinking! But one thing that Pres. Obama did that worked in our favor was the home credit that was being offered to home buyers. We got buyers right at three months and right before the home tax credit expired! Date of sale was May 25, 2010! What a relief! I think I cried!
"The Lord's loyal followers receive his guidance, and he revels his covenantal demands to them."
Psalm 25:14
Among our discussions about the fire training, we talked about which would be best for him to attend and decided on one that was referred by one of his close friends; TrainingDivision.com . We decided this would be best because all of the academic portion was online and at your own pace. That way Brandon would be able to work for his dad and study at the same time. This did work out for the best but let me tell you, it was trying at times! I was anxious for him to get as much done as quick as he could and I soon found out that Brandon HATES to study! I became his personal cheerleader, proder, pusher, organizer, study partner, etc. There were times that he got a lot done, and there were times that he didn't. There were times that he got distracted (rodeo) and had to be re-directed and then there were times that work was busy and he was working very long days and came home just barely dragging in. Those days I didn't even say the word study! This fire training was such a journey in the middle of our bigger journey. I remember specifically coming home from a rodeo one weekend in Ft. Worth and talking about this studying thing that was constantly hovering over our heads. Let me just say this first, I know that rodeo and calf roping is a part of Brandon, it's part of who he is are part of why I love him. I would never tell him that he can't rope. With that being said, on our way home and we were talking about the school and studying, I did try and talk to him about sacrifice and that for this short time that he has to do this studying, he may have to sacrifice some things he enjoys like watching TV in the evening or going to some rodeos. He agreed with me and already knew everything we said but I know he felt like, "Grrrrr... I hate this studying but I'll do the best I can even though I'd rather rope!" I totally agreed with that feeling too because I hated seeing him make himself do it. There were times that I wished I could have done it for him. There was a lot of invitations that were turned down because he was off work and needed to use the time to study. I figured out something that helped a lot by setting a time frame to have certain chapters completed by certain dates. It seemed that if he had a goal set, he had something to work towards. That was probably the only time it worked! But that's okay! :-)
Brandon signed up for the training in February 2010 and by January 2011 we were seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with the fire training! That month in 2010 we were invited by some very close and good friends of ours to take a trip to Steamboat, CO. After the past year of all the studying and working we thought it would be good for us to take advantage of the offer and get away for a couple of days. We had the time of our lives and skied for the first time ever for both of us! We were so thankful to our friends for giving us the opportunity!
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| We were SO proud of him!! |
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| Oh man he had a great time & loved it when they got into the "good" training! |
It didn't take too long to make decisions on the EMT training. It was a 5 week course that he got knocked out quick! The final step was to take the National Registry Exam for his EMT certification. This is a VERY tough exam that took more, lengthy studying! And LOTS of flashcards! Once he sucessfully passed the NREMT exam, there was a lot of paperwork to do in order for all of the certifications to be valid, "in the system", etc. before he could be hired for a job. Even still, he started testing for different agencies that were hiring. When fire departments/police departments have postions open they schedule physical fitness test and written tests. No agency does it the same or has the same test either. Except they ususally start with the written test and either the top certain number of people, top percent, or all that passed get to move on to the physical test. Most every agency required you to have all of your certifications "in hand" when you test for them. Brandon still went and tested with several agencies before all of his certifications were "in the system" because we thought it would be good practice and we never knew what God had in store for us and how he had this planned out. We were just going with it and always thought, "You never know...". Among the agencies Brandon tested for was Lufkin, Copperas Cove, Conroe, Montgomery County - Willis, City of Montgomery, Montgomery County - South. He always checked the link for job postings and we had a certain distance we did not want to exceed past. When he went and tested for the city of Montgomery, he passed the written and moved on to the physical, and was scheduled for and went before the interview board. We were pretty excited and anxious however, his certification paperwork was still not complete. It was two or three days after he tested for Montgomery, he got a phone call from them asking him to come in. When he went in later that afternoon and met with the Chief, he was offered the job and asked when he could start. Brandon, being the honest person that he is, advised him that he did not have his certifications in hand but expected them in any day. Being a fair and honest Chief, he told brandon that he would have to talk about this with the main Chief and would call him. He got the call that they were going to have to adhere to the policy and could not hire him until he had his certifications. This meant that out of all of the guys that tested, only 6 of them got hired for the open positions and the ones that didnt got put on a list. Since they had to skip over Brandon he was placed number one of the list to hire if they had another position to fill. His next testing was for Montgomery County - South. The written and physical tests went good for the department and we felt pretty good about it. At this time I'm pretty amazed at my Lord! It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about where he has brought us in this time. We were following where he has lead us and were ready to go whereever that was, be it as far as Austin, San Antonio, Dallas... but here he was getting placed number one on the hire list for MONTGOMERY! A 10 minute drive from our house! Wow! A day or so after Brandon tested for Montgomery County - South, they called him to schedule an interview. We were just as excited about this as well because it is so close to his family and my job. If I remember correctly, the same day that South Montgomery County FD (their actual name) called him, later that afternoon he got a call from Montgomery FD! What?!??! They said that one of their guys left (unsure if it was one of the new hires or someone that had been there) and wanted to know if he was still looking for a job. ----- Yes please!--- We are now in October 2011. I think this was in the middle of the week, sometime in the middle of the month and they said that they wanted him to start that Saturday! Ha! We couldn't believe it! Of course he didn't start for 2 weeks because he was on a big job for his dad and wanted to get further along on it as he could before his schedule changed to something we had never known before. On November 02, 2011, the day after our 3 year anniversay, Brandon started work with the Montgomery Fire Department! And he has been loving it!
This is what the Lord, your protector, says, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the Lord your God, who teaches you how to suceed, who leads you in the way you should go." Isaiah 48:17
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| Easter 2012 - The only picture I have of him (in uniform) since starting work at MFD |
