things work out, despite my best efforts

 You would think I would have learned by now that I don't need to worry and fret about things. God's plans are always better than mine and I just need to pray and trust that His knows the end of the story. I'm not sure why I'm such a slow learner, but I'm glad He is a patient teacher.

My good friend from school who started teaching there the same year I did decided he needed to leave and find a job closer to home. He commutes over an hour every day each way. His wife started going blind about a year ago and had to quit her job last December. When she did, they lost their good medical insurance and he had to take the expensive and not so great medical insurance our district offers. My husband and I pay $1400 a month for the least expensive insurance and we have to pay up front for all of the doctor visits and prescriptions. Then, once we hit the $5000 cap, the insurance kicks in and will cover any other expenses for the year. So, if we get seriously injured, or have to spend time in the hospital, we are safe, but going to see the doctor costs $140 and even talking to a doctor on the phone is $45.

 I totally understand why my friend decided he had to switch districts. Saving an hour and a half of commute time and making over $10,000 more a year are really hard to turn down, but he put us in a really tough spot with trying to find someone to replace him. We advertised and got one applicant. He was a guy who didn't have a credential, but who was in an internship program. It's like a teaching credential program, but you get paid to learn to be a teacher. He was a great candidate, but it was taking forever to try and work things out with his program.

 I was getting really frustrated and worried because after a week of waiting and worrying our district still hadn't figured out how to make things work. Here we had a great guy willing to work for us and it seemed like everyone was dragging their feet getting things done.

Well, behind the scenes, my friend had started his new job at his new district. Turns out that the money and commute weren't enough to keep him there and he will be coming back. Things must have been really bad. I don't know the whole story and probably never will.

All that fussing and worrying and things are working out better than I could have planned. The new class schedule is going to be better because of the stress caused by the uncertainty made for a few class switches and everyone will be really happy this teacher will be back.

Now I can get busy lesson planning and finish setting up my room. Hopefully the next time I start getting stressed out, I will remember that things will work out and I should put my energy into being productive instead of worrying.