What My Fabulous Daniel is Doing!

Daniel has finally gotten through the struggle of finishing school while working and taking care of a wife and baby. There was a time period where he was going to school, teaching seminary, working another part-time job, and tending 3-month-old Jaden while I was working part-time. What a struggle those days were! I just remember always being tired, and I can't even imagine what Daniel felt. Most of the time he was trying to prepare a lesson between classes and seminary, with Jaden strapped to his chest in the Snugli. All I can say is phew! We made it!

Daniel, Jaden, and I went to Orlando, Florida this Summer, so he could make some extra money selling security systems and I could quit working and stay home full-time with Jaden. That made things so much easier and happier for the both of us. Then when he graduated with his bachelors degree in December, it was another big sigh of relief!

Daniel has been working hard as a seminary student teacher for a little over a year now. In places where there is a high enough interest, the high schools release the students for one school hour per day, call "release time," and they can take a religion class. Daniel is teaching from the Old Testament this year.

The process of getting hired as a full-time seminary teacher is a very competitive one. It is such a great job that there are lots of people that would like to do it. So the process of getting hired involves a lot of training and frequent evaluations, most of them unscheduled. The evaluator just shows up to your class one day, and you better have a good lesson prepared! For those that make it through the rigorous training and evaluation process, about 1/2 to 2/3 of them actually end up getting hired, depending on how many job openings there end up being on any given year.

Anyway, Daniel has been doing this for a little over a full school year now, and we are finally nearing the end of the process. He had a huge evaluation from the main hiring guy for the seminary program last week (luckily a scheduled one!). It was a little nerve racking, and Daniel stayed up until 2 am preparing. But it paid off, and things went wonderfully! He's got one more big eval coming up soon, from the guy over hiring in Southeast Idaho. It was supposed to happen yesterday, and we were so excited to have it over with...and then we got more snow and wind and school got canceled! So there is still one more to get through in the upcoming days. We will find out if he gets hired on the evening of April 18th. We've got a paper chain we've been using for our countdown, as we are excited that it is finally getting near the end! A few weeks after that, we will find out where we have been placed - it could be anywhere that has a high enough LDS population for a seminary, from Idaho to Arizona to Colorado, who knows!

I have sat in and watched Daniel teach a few times, and he just amazes me. He is teaching kids that are generally already good kids, but he really inspires them to be even better. He helps them resolve and act upon things all the way from keeping all the big commandments, to doing better at all the little things, such as choosing cleaner and more uplifting music and entertainment, treating everyone with kindness, not gossiping, being more loving and patient with their families, recognizing and being grateful for our daily blessings. The feeling in his class is so amazing - a feeling of being uplifted and stronger and better and grateful for all the good things in life. With the help of the Holy Spirit, Daniel is really making a difference and changing lives, and he loves his job!

The last lesson I sat in on was actually about keeping a personal history, remembering the things the Lord does for us and inspires us to do, and passing those things on to strengthen the faith of future generations. Therefore, I decided that I had better get going, since I haven't been very good at keeping a journal lately... and thus the blog was born. It's not all that I need to do, but at least it's a start, and it is helping me preserve some of the wonderful memories and blessing received in my life.

I have such an amazing and wonderful husband and I am more and more grateful every day to have him and to know that I can have him forever if I do my part!