2011 - The Year in Review

The first 3 months of this year went smoothly for the most part. I was working at MegaMet and taking night classes at UAB like I have been for several years. On January 30th Evelyn Christine Murphy was born, our beautiful little girl a.k.a. Evie, B-girl, or B-precious. The next few weeks were great except one trip to the ER when Lindsey was in great pain and later found out it was a kidney stone. On Friday April 8th I lost my job and remained unemployed for the next 2-1/2 months. I finally landed a part time job doing color editing in Photoshop at a company called Portraits Inc. I was very discouraged at this point and anxious about how our family would survive on my low income. I did not understand why I could not land a good job. In late July I was contacted by Dave Hudson, an elder at our church and owner of the UPS Store in Homewood. He really wanted me to come work for him fulltime. I decided to take his offer and he graciously chose to cover our monthly health insurance bill to help our family. He was the best boss I have ever had; kind, sincere, knowledgeable, fair, respectful, and a great teacher. After 3 weeks went by he went to the hospital feeling very ill on a Sunday evening and passed away about 7 hours later due to an aneurism in his heart. He was in perfect health but his time had come to be with the Lord. The next month was difficult as I tried to cope. Dave had such an impact on the community over the years that many wept in the store when they found out what happened. Just when I felt hopeless and that life could not get any worse, an internship opportunity came to me unexpectedly. I had a long phone interview and then went in for an interview at the BlueCross BlueShield corporate office on Riverchase Pkwy. They basically asked when I could start. I was shocked and cried with joy on the way home. I started the internship in the finance dept. on October 3rd as I worked towards finishing my MBA. I started to feel uncertain that the internship would materialize into anything more and so I began to look at other job postings within the company. I came across a Business Analyst position and made it through an assessment and two interviews. I was called on December 15th with an offer for the job! I was beyond thrilled and called Lindsey to give her the news. She screamed and cried with joy. On January 2nd 2012 I become an associate at BlueCross BlueShield of AL. Words cannot fully express my joy and gratitude to God for His faithfulness throughout this year and always. God is so good… my cup runneth over. Today I say goodbye to 2011 and excitedly await the beginning of a new chapter in 2012.