Christmas A Little Early

So I will be honest, there has been a bit of a dry spell in Town X, which has made life a little rough. I felt like I was in a rut. Work went along, but sometimes it felt as though little progress was being made. I work in vocational rehabilitation, and it seemed that if anything we were moving backwards. Until Saturday. Then Christmas came a little early this year. I was working with a man we will call Roger. He is a good man, not from this country, who had been in the program almost two years. His English was conversational at best, but he has improved dramatically since he began. He always wanted to work for UPS. Why UPS? I am not sure, but anytime he talked about his dream job, UPS was there waiting. His time in the program was coming to an end last week, and he and I had been working on applications for weeks and weeks. Although he could speak well, reading comprehension and vocabulary were difficult for Roger, so we took time nearly every day working on applications and the required assessments. It seems that no matter where you are applying, there are now accompanying assessments to submit with your application. For many these are inconvenient, but do-able. For Roger, 75 questions would take us 2 hours. To read through and explain the meaning and choose his answer. Where did he apply? Places like Walmart, Kmart, KFC, Pizza Hut, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, you name it he applied there. Then came the listing he had been hoping for. UPS Driver Helper. We applied and received the follow up interview information. We practiced possible questions and scenarios, but ultimately, it was up to Roger. He went in and completed his interview, but parts of his application needed verification. So he went back, and back again. Finally he thought he had another interview tomorrow. Well Saturday the woman that interviewed him called me back from a previous message I had left and informed me that his interview tomorrow was not an interview after all...

It was Orientation!

I could hardly believe it. I was so excited for Roger, tbis is what he had hoped, worked and prayed for. She explained that although his interview was difficult because of the language barrier, that his enthusiasm and dedication shown through. She said she could not live with herself if she did not give him a chance. It is amazing the tender mercies that surround us every day. It may seem like a small thing to most, getting an entry level job at UPS. But to Roger and myself, it was an answer to prayer and hard work. I will miss seeing Roger at work, but I am humbled to know that he is moving on to the next chapter of his life. I could not have asked for a better Christmas gift.