Life is moving us Forward

Liji got a call Thursday for a really good teaching job offer in Hailey, IDaho. They told him that he was by far their best candidate and were really putting the pressure on him to give him an answer right away, but he put them off for a bit by telling them he wanted to see the school and Hailey first. The job is in a dual-immersion program where he will be teaching sophomore's World History in Spanish and from the beginning he has been really excited about it, it fits his abilities perfectly and they have the best pay by far of anywhere in the area.

Yesterday morning we took off for Hailey to find out what we think of it and we'll be here through Sunday to attend church here and see what the ward is like. We arrived around 10 am yesterday and went straight to the High School to meet with the Principle who wants Liji. Right away it was apparent that they really wanted Liji and what Liji loved the most is how supportive the administration seemed and all the other teachers were of him. He really felt appreciated. He stayed with them till 1 to observe, and I went to tour Hailey a bit. Hailey is a pretty small town of only 6,000 people 75 miles down hwy 73 from Twin Falls and it is 11 miles from Sun Valley Ski resort which is a really ritzy resort so this area is a pretty popular tourist place. We are surrounded by mountains and it is just gorgeous. Everything seems to be kept really nice and clean and the school is so nice. The principle told Liji that their budget is $80,000,000 and they only have 3,000 students so they are really supported by the community. They are the only school district in IDaho that is giving their teachers raises while everyone else is cutting back and laying off. After I picked up Liji from the school and they sent us over to the district office to talk to their Human resources department where they really schmoozed us over with the pay and benefits and all the other perks of living in Hailey. One reason that the salary is so high is because of the high cost of housing. Rent prices are higher than Logan, even though Hailey is in the middle of nowhere. It is however just 12 miles away from Sun Valley which really drives prices up. He got to Liji with a lot of talk of hunting just 5 minutes away and getting huge bucks and tons of birds:) They wanted our answer by 3 so we took it all in and then went to a quiet place to pray about it. From the beginning I felt like this would be good for us even though I wasn't that excited about living in such a small town and we still felt really good about it and went back over to the school where Liji went in and accepted the offer! I waited longer than I expected to and he said it was because the principle had to take him around to practically everyone in the school announcing that he had accepted the job. Liji really likes how supported he feels there.

From the beginning we have worried about this job because it means we will be farther than we planned from a fertility specialist but it just feels right and I guess Heavenly Father will help us with the rest. Boise is just 2 hours away which is how far I'm driving to the clinic now anyways. Hopefully I'm just pregnant before we come here in August. Just thought I'd give everyone an update; we are really excited if you can't tell:) We have always loved and wanted to stay in Idaho but knew that the pay in most districts wasn't enough to raise our family on, well here it is and we're just about half-way between my parents and Liji's parents. It will be about 6 hours either way; which is a do-able drive.

Liji still has to graduate (he'll be defending his thesis on July 19th) and then he has a short contract to teach an ESL class at Utah State until the beginning of August, then we will come to Hailey.