Ben's Job

So, every week day and many weekends for the past 20 months, my husband traveled an hour and 15 minutes one way to Montevallo, AL to manage and oversee the construction of the Alabama National Cemetery.  What started out as a "once a week" visit to the cemetery for meetings quickly turned into an every day trip, sometimes turning into overnight trips.  To say I handled it poorly at times might be an understatement.  Ben would sometimes leave as early as 5am and not return until 9pm or later.  He never knew when he would be able to leave the job and could only give an estimated time at which he may be able to be home for dinner.  Drove. Me. Nuts.  

Ben is the type of person who, when he does something, he does it right and he does it to the best of his ability.  As the project manager of this phase of the cemetery, he wanted everything to be perfect to the extent that he would get out in the field and do some of the work himself in order to keep things going, keep people happy, and make things happen.  This is one of the things I love the most about him and at the same time, drives me crazy.  However, at the age of 25, Ben has an 11 million dollar (plus) job under his belt which is a huge accomplishment.  Not only did he get the job done, but his company received the highest ratings that can be given by the VA and those records will be stored in Washington. I am extremely proud of him.  

A separate company created a book about the cemetery which includes pictures of the cemetery and some of the buildings that Ben was in charge of. When Ben left C and C Contractors (the company Ben worked for when building the cemetery) two weeks ago, the owner of the company presented Ben with a copy of the book.

The cemetery was completed the week that Mason was born.  One of these days I hope to take photos of it myself and see the final product. Ben worked tirelessly to make sure that they met their deadline so he would get to be home with our new baby with no worries.  After Mason was born, it became more obvious that Ben needed a job closer to home with no traveling involved.  (aka I was an emotional wreck) So, we prayed a lot about it (and had been for a while) and a perfect opportunity presented itself... a company literally right down the street from our neighborhood.  I couldn't be more thrilled! What an answered prayer!!  Ben was sad to leave the people at C and C but they were very understanding about his desire to spend more time closer to home.

I have to say that God has gone above and beyond in the way He has taken care of our family and our job situations since Ben and I got married.  Things didn't always go as we would have planned, but we have been able to see the good things that have come from each situation and see that God's timing is perfect.  Now Ben and I have the opportunity to be home more and be closer to home and to spend lots of quality time with our little man and each other.  We are so thankful and consider ourselves so blessed!

We are loving the experience of our most important job yet, being parents.

Here is Ben with Mason in my hospital bed the  2nd night we were in the hospital.  I couldn't get around very well because of the C-section and I am certain that Ben changed more diapers than I did and got up almost every time I did during the night.  I was the feeder but Ben was the master swaddler.