mysterious ways

**I did originally post this on Nov. 8, maybe a little hastily in my excitement. I took it down for a bit but am now putting it back on the old blog.

Today has been unbelievable....unbelievably good as it turned out.

A little backstory:

5 years ago: A horn player in the ut symphony wins a job in another symphony. Brian tells me he wants that job.
3 years ago: Brian auditions for the opening in the ut symphony and is named runner up.
We move to St. Louis, We move here, yadayada life goes on...turns out the guy who took the ut job is now no longer there.
This past July: ut calls and asks Brian if he would work for them this season, but with no guarantee for the future...a one year contract and he'd still have to audition for the permanent position on their already scheduled audition day of nov. 7-8. After taking a couple of days to toss around the idea of up and moving to slc, we decide it's not the best idea to quit a tenure track position to take a possibly not permanent position. Because if he didn't win the audition, he'd have no job at the end of year.

When he finds out the audition is Nov. 7-8 he tells them it's going to be very hard for him to get there to even take the audition because he is playing a big important concert on the evening of nov. 7 on the other side of the country. They say they'll advance him to the semi finals on the 8th.

August: Brian asks his job here if he could take one concert off and they laugh in his face. His other option was to take 2 weeks off, without pay. (Because this concert series they are performing all over the state over 2 weeks and you can't just take one concert off, not if you're principal horn anyway.) We didn't think we could afford for him to take 2 weeks off. That makes for one expensive audition! So Brian finds a flight leaving from Charlotte (not the city where we live) on the day of his audition at 6AM, going through Detroit, landing in SLC at 10:30.

Nov. 5-7: We keep checking the weather and are so pleased it should be delay-free flying for the audition between here and the other side of the country. However, Brian, who never gets sick, gets incredibly sick. Body aches and pains, fever, no appetite. He lies on the couch for three days, saving his energy for the important Brahms 3 that must go on each night, whether he feels like it or not. And he rocks it. I heard it Friday and I know I'm biased but my husband is seriously awesome at what he does. I wish I could go back in time and listen to it again.

Nov 7 midnight-Nov. 8: Brian checks into a hotel near the airport in Charlotte. 4:53am I happen to wake up to use the bathroom and realize Brian should be on his way to the airport. I call. He answers and says he's just about to leave for the airport. We talk for a minute, he's feeling okay, considering, thank goodness. We hang up and I can't go back to sleep and I am overwhelmed with this feeling that he is going to miss his plane. I try to calm myself, that's just my paranoid self talking. 6:02 Brian arrives at his gate and the plane has already gone. He should have left earlier and is hating himself. Not just him though, 14 other people also missed that plane while they were stuck in the non moving security line. Deep disappointment. I ask if he's coming home now. No, he still has hope. He calls and leaves a message at the ut symphony even though it's only 4am their time, telling them he is delayed by 3.5 hours and hopes he can still play for them. When Brian finally arrived at the concert hall he found out they had already held the semi final round. No one was advanced. Brian is a finalist, the only finalist. The fact that they advanced him to finalist isn't completely shocking because he was runner up previously. It is extremely surprising and kind that they did all come back to the hall to hear him and give him a shot. He warms up, plays the audition, including things he hadn't practiced because he 'didn't think they'd ask for that' (that nugget!!!). It was a short audition and the music director talked to him throughout it, asking for him to do things again, a different way. Brian got the feeling he wasn't liking him. So when Brian called me he didn't sound very confident. The committee was talking. We were hoping they'd have him back to play with the section. Then Brian didn't call me for an hour and a half! But when he did, it was good news. Can I just say, the Lord works in mysterious ways. He never did play anymore for them. He was just chatting with the 13 people on the committee. Apparently they were all super nice and grateful that he came and are excited at the prospect of him joining them.

Usually when you are choosing the right path, things get easier, seem natural. This path was rough the entire way and incredibly roller coaster-ish today. But this hasn't been the first time in Brian's career we've had to keep putting one foot in front of the other in the seeming darkness, waiting for the Lord to light our path as we walked it. And I want you to know that if the outcome had been different, we would still be okay. I kind of would have laughed that 'duh, can't we take a clue?! it's obviously not meant to be if the Lord had to put up so many roadblocks.' But maybe it is meant to be? I am so grateful that we can pray and continue to receive guidance on this important decision. It's not a done deal. There are some big auditions coming up elsewhere in the country this winter for great jobs. We shall see. I know that God is guiding our family as he has been since we were married, and next fall we will be where we are meant to be.

Also, Brian thinks he missed his plane, maybe for the sole purpose that on his flight from his connection to SLC, he sat next to this guy who happens to be in our church's General Sunday School Presidency. He has regular contact with the Twelve Apostles! Brian and Bro. Richardson had a good chat on the plane and I could tell when I talked to Brian next he was in better spirits. So cool!