Time for a Change

Well, I will come right out and say it. We had a bad week in the Williamson household. For the last couple of weeks, Tommy was getting indication at work that the business was struggling. They were looking at ways to cut costs. They were discussing cuts to benefits and some other things. We had begun having our own discussions that maybe it was time for Tommy to move on. We had begun looking at job openings and talking about what he might want to do, but we felt like we were in a good place to take some time and be a little picky. Well, we are no longer in that place. After some rough days at the beginning of the week, we began to get in more of a hurry, and scrambled to find a digital copy of Tommy's resume so he could start applying for jobs. On Thursday, Tommy was laid off. The company's financial situation apparently snowballed very quickly and they had to take some pretty desperate measures very quickly to hopefully avoid going under. Tommy and 3 other people were laid off this week, including the president's son-in-law. It is difficult as we are friends with the family that owns the company and they felt horrible about letting him go. Our prayers are with the Veras and Bulins as they also deal with a difficult time for their families.
So, we have been scrambling but trying not to panic. Tommy got about a week and a half severance to buy us a little bit of time. He has already filed for unemployment so we are hopeful that will be processed quickly. The biggest decision we have had to make was to pull Zane out of daycare immediately. This was really difficult for me on Friday. It just made everything a bit more real to have to tell his school and gather all of his stuff and know that he won't be back, at least for a while. His primary teachers weren't even there on Friday to say good-bye. I know they will be sad. We feel like we will be okay financially with unemployment with no daycare expense. I am still a little nervous about our finances over the next few weeks as we were in no position of "cushion" after I was off work unpaid for a couple of months not that long ago. We should get our tax return in a couple of weeks, so that will at least recover us from the time that I was unpaid. Things will be tight for a while but I know we will get through it.
We know that God will continue to provide for us as He always has. We are keeping a positive attitude and we feel like this will be a blessing in the end for Tommy and our family. There is a great opportunity out there for him that will hopefully be an exciting new adventure. We have had an amazing outpouring of support and prayers from our family and friends. Tommy has quite a few people that are helping him with job leads and sending his resume to various contacts. I feel like he will find something pretty quickly, hopefully.
He is looking for general administrative-type positions. Human Resources would be ideal, but he has applied for several executive assistant-type positions and other things. He has experience with HR, marketing, administration, and restaurant management. His degree is in Communication and Management. If you know of anything in the general DFW-area, please let us know! We appreciate your prayers and job leads!

Crystal