A New Chapter
Let me first apologize for leaving the lovely 5th grade picture up for 3 weeks. I was quite the blogging slacker over the holidays!

As many on you know by now, a chapter of our life has thankfully been closed and we are eagerly anticipating what the next will bring. As of Friday, Mitch was laid off from his job. Some gasp when they hear the news, yet we are truly relieved. We have known for sometime now that our family was not a good fit for his company and vice versa. We knew that we wanted to stay in Birmingham and really felt like God was leading us to do so. For us, Mitch losing his job is wonderful confirmation of our desires to remain here. The road we have travelled with his company has not been a fun one for us and we are certainly glad it is over.

So what next? We have outlined a "what if" plan for the next several months (what if being "what if it takes Mitch several more months to find a new job") but in general we will take things week by week. His company did give Mitch a severance package which will allow us to not sweat the financial side of things until the end of April. So, when you think of the Stephens, please continue to pray for a job for Mitch. He has made several great contacts over the past 3 months and thankfully he has a list of people to call tomorrow. He will also finish up studying the next 2 weeks so he can take his LEED accreditation exam (for green building) at the end of the month. That will be a big deal and something that will look fabulous on his resume. Pray that he will pass because we hear that it's a pretty tough test.

God is good and is loving our family so uniquely. We are excited and hopeful to see what he has in store for us!