Through It All

"We went through the fire and through water, but you brought us out into a fruitful place."

 Psalm 66:12. 

I started my job at Enbridge June 2nd, 2014. I still remember my cubicle on the 17th floor of the Enbrige Place high-rise building. My job was great and my bosses were very impressed with my work. Almost two months into my job at Enbridge, I got a phone call from Intelligent Imaging Systems where I had applied for work prior to my interview at Enbridge. They were looking to hiring a Data Analyst with Cognos experience and they were interested in interviewing me for the position. I had many years of Cognos experience, plus it was a permanent job so I decided to give it a shot. I was offered the job shortly after the interview. My goodness, I was confused!! I kept asking God, if I should keep the job at Enbridge, or accept the job at Intelligent Imaging, and God was silent! I had to trust God that whichever one I chose was going to be His will for me. I decided to leave Enbridge and accept the Intelligent Imaging Systems job because it was a permanent job, but unfortunately I realized that after I had started the job in August 2014 that what was advertised on the job ad was not quite what I was assigned. I was supposed to be the Data Analyst, but I ended up doing more of Business Intelligence work on the backend with a database system I was not too familiar with. There was quite a learning curve, and two months later, I was fired.

It was a horrible feeling waking up the next morning without a job and feeling like a failure. Suddenly I began to really miss the good old Charleston days and my job at College of Charleston. "God say something!" I would cry out to God day and night. "God did you bring me here to put me to shame? I was comfortable in Charleston, I had a good job. Why did this happen to me?!" All I heard was, "Trust me!" Many times, I was reminded of the scripture that says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your path." Proverbs 3:5. I held on to God's word and like David, I encouraged myself in the Lord. What I later realized was that none of those jobs were part of God's long-term plan for me and though it really did hurt to loose my job, everything was working perfectly according to God's plan.

For almost a year, I was home with 2 year old Ethan. I had applied for all types of jobs under the sun, yet there were no phone calls. Early 2016, I got a call from Diversified Staffing Agency out of no where to come by their office, drop my resume, and do a quick interview with one of their recruiters so that a file could be created for me and they would try to get me a job with one of their clients. For months, I didn't hear back from Diversified Staffing. In August 2016, one of my church friends told me they were hiring at her workplace. She spoke to her boss on my behalf. I was invited for a brief interview and was hired on the spot as a Customer Representative at Money Mart. Three months into the job, I received an email from Diversified Staffing about a temporary Technical Coordinator position with one of their clients the very next day. When I asked who the client was, I was gasped when I was told it was Alberta Health Services (AHS). I had been trying to get a job a AHS since I moved to Canada. The interview was the most casual, and quickest interview ever. As soon as I got home that day, I got an email from Diversified Staffing saying that I got the job. I was so excited!!

I started working with Alberta Health Services in October 2015 with the Information Technology Department. I absolutely loved working as a Technical Coordinator as it entailed working directly with clinicians and hospital clerks while implementing our legacy Electronic Medical Record System called eCLINICIAN. Meeting new faces everyday was one of the most exciting aspects of the job for me. About two weeks after my first day at AHS, I found out I was pregnant with my second child. As soon as I found out, I was like, "God, REALLY? I literally just started this job and it's temporary!" I knew that as a temporary staff, going on my maternity leave would signal the end of my job and they were going to hire a replacement as soon as I left. Also, nine months was probably not enough time to try to secure a permanent job with AHS before my maternity leave and so I had to trust God's timing, and surrender my own plans and submit entirely to God's plans for me amidst the uncertainty of my future with AHS. My prayer everyday was simple - "God let you will alone be done." Two months prior to maternity leave, God revealed to me my future at AHS in a dream. In the dream, I saw myself sitting on a table with my colleagues wearing an AHS name tag rather than the Diversified Staff name tag that I had. From that day on, each time I stepped in/out of our building downtown, I would whisper to myself, "I'm coming back here after maternity leave!" One month to my due date, towards the end of May 2016, I stopped working based on my doctor's recommendation. I still remember my last day - two weeks after our eCLINICIAN go-live at Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital, I received a farewell card from my colleagues. As I read the card filled with best wishes with the new baby and future endeavors, I said in my heart, "No, not good bye, but see you next year. I shall be back!!" Some colleagues came up to me to say goodbye and good luck and then gave me a weird look whenever I said, "oh no, I'll be back next year." LOL. I didn't know how it was going to happen, but I believed without a doubt that what God revealed to me would come to pass.  

June 2016, Azarel was born. Nothing could possibly describe the joy I had to finally hold him in my arms. I spent a whole year at home with my two boys - my two kings. During that time, I would wake up super early every morning before the kids woke up and head down to my home gym in the basement working out and crying out to God for 1 hour while I watched the kids through a baby monitor. So many prayers were answered as a result of those early morning workouts and time alone with the Lord. Eleven months into my maternity leave, a colleague from AHS added me on Facebook. I reached out to him to find out if there was any openings on the team and he told me that unfortunately there was none at the time. A week later, he sent me a job ad for a 6 months temporary Learning Analyst position with AHS IT and encouraged me to apply. I applied. He spoke to the manager about me and put in a good word for me. I was invited for an interview and few days later, I got a call from the manager saying that I got the job. Few days after accepting the job, I got a call from Alberta Blue Cross about a Reporting Analyst position, but I turned down the interview invite. My husband thought I was crazy. I remembered the revelation I had about becoming an AHS staff so I went with the 6-month temporary job at AHS. I was covering for a lady who had gone on maternity leave and had returned to another position on the same team and also covering for another lady on maternity leave. Confusing huh? So, it turns out that the lady she was covering for decided to accept a permanent position elsewhere, so the lady I was covering for became permanent in her position. Subsequently, my position opened up and I had the opportunity to apply to become a permanent staff in my role. Five months after accepting the temporary job, I became a permanent AHS staff. Exactly one year later, I applied for another job within the AHS IT department and went from being a Customer Support Analyst II to becoming an IT Analyst II (Application Coordinator) doing exactly what I love. These days, 3 years later, I occasionally take a look at my AHS name tag and have a flashback. God is so good. I love my job, I love my organization, and I love my colleagues. I love that I get to make a difference for Albertans by building and supporting a system that is used to make health information easily assessible to health providers across Alberta. My job encompasses everything I prayed and believed God for. Every path God took me through to get to this point was totally worth it. God is not done ordering my steps. Greater things are on the way. There are many more promises yet to be fulfilled and I know that there shall be a fulfilment of everything God has promised. So in the meantime, all I do is trust God, allow Him to guide me, and listen for that still small voice saying, "This is the way, walk in it."

The end, for now :-). Thank you for reading!!!