Djolife's Journey: Job offer!!

Hi!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well what an exciting day for me :) I just got the long awaited phone call from Tracy the British lady I interviewed with last week who offered me a job as a stewardess with Condor Ferries!!!
I feel like it's to good to be true and am waiting for the catch. I don't think there is going to be a catch to this though, I think this is it. After not having worked for a year 1/2, I am finally going to work again. I am so excited!!!

Funny thing is I read something very encouraging yesterday and was planning on blogging about it today anyway.

So as I've mentioned earlier, I've been working really hard to find work here. I spent the first 3 weeks immersed in paper work and all the headaches that come with it. You see even though I'm French, I didn't have a lot of the rights since I've never lived here. It's as if I didn't exist in their system, so in order to get started, I had to fill out a lot of applications.

Once that was taken care, I had to focus on a job target, which I decided would be tourism/receptionist. Once that was done, I had to redo my resume and type out many different cover letters. Once that was done, I mailed them out, went to hotels to drop them off, went to different agencies that help you find work to fill out applications, etc etc...
I even sat in a room full of 50 or more applicants for over 2 hours waiting for one interview for a hotel receptionist at a 4 star hotel.
I also went to a meeting in order to get paid waitressing/receptionist training and took some tests to see if I could enter the official training and be hired by a 5 star hotel. I went to an all day job fair in a town an hour away from where I live. I got a job mentor, and a job counselor to help me along the way. I did mock interviews. I mean I tried it all. God gave me energy and motivation for a solid month and my sister in law to help out along the way.

It was an intense journey. I hated every single part of it. When I finally got this phone call for an interview, my hopes were up because this whole time I thought I hadn't been contacted due to lack of experience (which is a fact since it was the correlating point to all of my rejection letters).

So Condor Ferries, a mini cruise boat that goes to "paradise British Islands" off the coast of France on a daily basis, contacted me for an interview two weeks ago. I got the interview last week and it went above and beyond my expectations. I mean it was unreal. The interview was both in French and English and done by two extremely welcoming ladies, which immediately put me at ease.
The interview went well, and while waiting for my brother to pick me up, one of the ladies came out and grabbed me by the waist and invited me back into the office for coffee. I comfortably sat down with my soon to be bosses over a cup of coffee and we chit chatted until their following interviewee arrived.

I felt great and confident following that. I mean what an amazing environment to work in right?? Work on a boat as a stewardess. haha. It sounds kind of crazy fun!

So I want to talk to you a little bit about my frustrations/experiences/thoughts along this journey.

First of all, I had no idea I would end up in this cute little town called Saint Malo. I mean the Lord totally orchestrated that! Originally, as you all know, I was planning on living with family friends in Paris. I sort of wasted a week while being there mainly because of jet lag and lack of motivation to start the job searching process. I love the girls I lived with, in fact we still call each other to keep in touch; but unfortunately because they each already had lives prior to my arrival, they couldn't help me out with this long paperwork process and I didn't know where to start without any help.

A week after my arrival to France, my sister in law arrived with the kiddos from Senegal. She invited me to spend a week with her in Saint Malo, and so I packed a week worth of stuff and came. It was fun, I loved being with my niece and nephew and since she was in the middle of job searching as well, we tag teamed and did all the work together, which is exactly what I needed to jump start this process. Since all the paperwork got done here in Saint Malo, it just seemed like the job search process would be easier here as well. Plus I'd get to be with family. So I decided to stay :) I picked up my belongings from my friend's house two weeks ago, and here I am!! I do miss my friends in Paris though. womp womp.

I realized this is where God wanted me to be and I thank you all for the prayers because a few weeks ago, that was my biggest prayer request...to be where God wanted me to be.

After getting that prayer answered, of course instead of being content and praising God for answering this important question, I moved on to the next....why do you want me here??

I still don't know the answer to that (which is okay), but the Lord has opened doors for me and will continue to do so. Living here is still difficult but God promises me in Isaiah 43: 2-5 that He is right here with me.

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall no be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. or I am the Lord your God the Holy One of Israel, your Savior."

This is what I read yesterday that I found encouraging. (I'm going to bust out some Max Lucado, since you all I know how much I love him!)

"Make friends with whatever's next. Embrace it. Accept it. Don't resist it. Change is not only a part of life; change is a necessary part of God's strategy. To use us to change the world, he alters our assignments. Gideon: from farmer to general; Mary: from peasant girl to the mother of Christ; Paul: from local Rabbi to world evangelist. God transitioned Joseph from a baby brother to an Egyptian prince. He changed David from a shepherd to a king."

And Dorina: from film major to stewardess. haha. that sounds sort of ridiculous. I know this doesn't answer my question as to why I'm here, but it sure does reassure me and remind me that I don't necessarily need to know but simply to trust and embrace the experience as it comes.

Embrace your experience friends. The ride will be a far better one that way.

Thank you a million times for your prayers. Leave comments as to how I can better pray for you since it was after all, my secret new year's resolution :)

Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Psalm 37:7

Blessings friends.

Oh here are pictures of my future new job: