Everything Happens for a Reason

We hear this phrase so often, but I have found it to be so true in my life. It never ceases to amaze me, looking back at the chain of events that led me to this moment in time. What if I had made a different choice 10 years ago...would I be where I am now, or would I be somewhere else? And it's a mish-mash of things beyond my control & consequent decisions I've made that have brought me to this point, each choice building on the last.

When I graduated college, I had grand dreams of being immediately hired & setting up my own elementary classroom...I had absolutely no doubt I would be hired right away. That is, until September rolled around, and I still had no job prospects. But I lucked out...a local elementary school called my mom for a long-term substitute position, not realizing that she had a full-time teaching job already (she used to sub for them in the past). She told them that she wasn't available, but amazingly, her daughter had just graduated with a degree in elementary education, and was available! So off I went...and I ended up subbing part time for most of the fall, then got a seasonal job at Barnes & Noble to cover the gaps. By January I had been hired for a long-term substitute position at another school for the rest of the school year, and was also asked to stay on with Barnes & Noble past the holiday season. With the end of the school year came another round of job applications, and again, no luck until August. I got a call from an elementary school who was looking for a Media Specialist (a fancy name for librarian), a position I had not even applied for...they called me not only because of my education degree, but also because I worked at Barnes & Noble! I ended up working as a Media Specialist in that district for two years. At the end of those two years, certification requirements in NY changed, and I could no longer be a Media Specialist without a Masters in Library Science. I applied everywhere I could, but no luck, and so I turned to Florida, which I had heard was desperate for teachers. Again, I applied for a regular elementary teaching position, but was called based on my Media Specialist experience & promptly hired to fill that position at a brand new school. I worked at that school for a year & a half, before budget issues forced the school to cut my position. (Ironically, this was yet another reason I had left NY, as all the schools were severly cutting budgets up north). After a month of unemployment, I was finally hired at a small public library as the Library Director & Children's Librarian, and I've now been here almost 6 years. If I hadn't had a love of books to begin with, and worked at Barnes & Noble, I would never have been hired as a Media Specialist in NY...if I hadn't had those two years experience as a Media Specialist in NY, I would never have been hired for that position in Florida...and if I hadn't been a Media Specialist in Florida, I would never have been hired for my current position.

And here we are in Florida, where the adoption laws are some of the best in the country (incidentally, NYS adoption laws are very difficult to work with). Adoption was the furthest thing from my mind when we moved here 7 years ago...I had no idea I was moving to an adoption friendly state, nor that I would be in need of such a thing down the road. Kind of makes you wonder if there isn't some larger force at work here. Through circumstances and events sometimes beyond my control, I have been led to this point in my life...my job led me to move to an adoption friendly state, my son's birth led to my hysterectomy, and my hysterectomy led to our adoption plan. Everything happens for a reason.