Instructor Jeff Carlson has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? But in truth, he was still a long way from having the hours he needed to apply for a commercial airline.  And that was the goal.  There was no time to celebrate the small wins, we had to keep going.  It was spring of 2005 and we had some big decisions to make.  We knew we didn’t want to be apart for another year, but where would we live?  We couldn’t afford an apartment big enough for the five of us, but we learned the summer before we could live in small spaces and be just fine.  So, instead of looking for a place where each child would have their own room and plenty of square footage, we looked for what we could afford. We figured we’d work out any living arrangements once we found a place; it didn’t have to be convenient or pretty, just affordable and clean.   And this is when the friend we’d made in the front office of the apartment complex, where Jeff had been living, came to the rescue.  Her husband was also working toward his pilot license, so she fully understood the situation.   Miraculously, she found a two bedroom apartment for a reasonable price and helped us with all the paperwork so we could move in as soon as summer arrived.  Apartments were hard to come by around this area because it was such a popular place to live, but, once again, God came through for us in the most practical way.  With the worry about a place to live off our plate, we began to make plans for the kids and I to join Jeff as soon as school was out. 

Jeff spent every waking hour teaching anyone who wanted to fly, and working all the odd jobs he’d picked up along the way.  I finished out the school year substitute teaching and we packed our bags and headed to Florida.  The apartment was very small and all our furniture, minus a few things, was in storage back in Alabama.  We bought a queen size mattress, a full size mattress and a twin mattress and laid them on the floor in the bedrooms.  Jeff and I had one room and the three kids shared the other; the boys shared the full mattress and Abbie had the twin.   That summer was such a sweet one.  We would pile up on the couch and watch TV, eat popcorn and enjoy being together again.  No one complained, and that is a true miracle, I think we all thought of our time as an adventure and it kind of felt like we’d left the reality of life behind.  I don’t know if that makes any sense, since we were facing a lot of hard things, but somehow it all felt like we were living an adventure novel.   That summer the kids and I spent a lot of time at the pool while Jeff built up hours in flight time.  That’s what it had come to, flight hours, he needed A LOT. 

That summer we signed the kids up for new schools, yet again.  They were in first, fourth and sixth at this point and I could tell the carousel of school changes was taking its toll.  We prayed so hard for them during this time, we had devotions every night, anything we could do to help them feel like life was still stable, even though it wasn’t.   The schools in Iowa were a decent size, but not so big you felt lost.  The schools in Alabama were small and you felt like you could never not be seen.  The schools in Florida were nothing like we’d experienced before, they were so very large, and we knew no one with kids who attended.  When I think back on it, they were so very brave.  The middle school Abbie attended had several thousand kids and she had to navigate her way around knowing no one, it was like a college campus.  The boys’ schools were slightly smaller, but they also went in without a single person to play with on the playground.   I remember praying so hard for them every day, and, thanks be to God, they slowly adjusted. 

Once school started, I found a job in a doctor’s office, I worked the front desk.  They were so good to me, I was able to leave every day in time to meet the boys at the fence surrounding the apartment, we lived right across the street from the school, another answer to prayer.  Abbie’s school was right on the way to the apartment, so our morning and afternoon routine worked perfectly.  There were a couple of times the kids had to go to work with me, they would sit in the back room and play games and watch videos, because we didn’t know anyone well enough to babysit them.   There were a few curve balls here and there, but overall, it went well. 

Jeff was flying, building flight hours and working odd jobs.

I was working in a doctor’s office part time and managing the kids’ schedule.

The days and months rolled by, Christmas came and went and before we knew it we were ringing in the New Year. 

2006. 

We had such big hopes for this year, Jeff was close to completing his flight hours and we desperately wanted to get started in the commercial airline industry.    He’d been talking to the guys he flew with and the ones who worked at Regional Academy, where he worked, trying to find out which airline was the best for a brand new pilot with big dreams.   He’d finally settled on Air Wisconsin.  One thing about my husband, he does his research.  He is a BIG believer in reading every review and talking to people he trusts before making a big decision.  And, this was definitely a big decision.  One of the perks of this school was they promised an opportunity to interview with airlines so when you left them, you either had a job or you at least had the chance to get one.  The day was drawing near when Jeff would have enough hours to apply and, hopefully, interview.  He’d chosen the airline he wanted to work for and now he waited. 

In the meantime, the school offered a free seminar on how to interview well.  This was something my husband, who, let me remind you, reads every review, decided to skip.   I think we’d planned a much needed outing on the day of the seminar so he decided he’d take his chances without any real interview prep, how hard could it be, right?   Turns out our outing was cancelled so, without a whole lot of faith in the seminar, he went anyway.  I have lost count of how many times he’s told me how deeply thankful he is that he went; he said he would’ve gotten the interview all wrong and likely missed his chance to be hired.  The Lord is so good, looking back we realize our cancelled outing was no accident and Jeff attending this seminar (he had no faith in) was no accident either, they were both divine appointments.

God knew EXACTLY what Jeff needed.

And then it was finally time.  An airline representative was coming to the school to interview pilots with the intent of hiring.  But, much to our disappointment, it wasn’t Air Wisconsin.  Jeff was so bummed, the only airline coming was American Eagle (the regional airline owned by American Airlines) and he didn’t want to fly for them.   He’d just about decided to skip the interview and wait for the next airline to come to the school, but, at the very last minute, he decided to go through with it just for practice.  Wouldn’t you know it, they offered him a chance to move forward in the interview process, turns out there were several steps involved.  Now he was faced with a dilemma, should he wait for Air Wisconsin or move forward with the interview process at American?  There was no guarantee Air Wisconsin would come to the school, but what if they did and he’d already committed to American?

Jeff genuinely struggled with this decision; was this the company he was supposed to work for?   The deciding factor had nothing to do with what he “wanted,”  it was his ONLY offer to date and he felt he had no real choice.  It wasn’t worth the gamble, he needed a job.  

Sometimes we find out that what we wanted wasn’t what we needed, we are so thankful to be employees of American Airlines, it’s a great company.   Interesting fact, Air Wisconsin, the company we thought would be the best choice, never came to the school to interview pilots and has recently fallen on hard times with a very uncertain future ahead. 

God knows best.

So, in the early spring of 2006, American Airlines gave a chance to a former minister turned pilot and made all of his dreams come true.