I put it out there, and there it is...

Husband has been wanting me to get a job since DD2 started 1st grade.

Sort of.

He makes enough for us to live on, but really feels like I should have something now that the kids are out of the house. When the discussions first began (ahem... 2 years ago), I explained to him that I really did not ever see myself returning to an office full time, and we discussed that with the kids outside commitments and his erratic travel schedule that a part time job would be all that I was capable of taking on. I've never been a working mom... I didn't want a job where I had to call in sick if he couldn't work from home if one of the kids was home sick... and I need to be available to pick then up from school and be flexible in the afternoons because of their after school activities and homework load. In short... it would have to be the perfect scenario or our lives would change drastically and neither of us really wanted that to happen.

An opportunity did come along when DD2 was in kindergarten - but it was more of a 3/4 position working at this woman's home office, and left the kids "uncovered" during the Summer. When we crunched the numbers we discovered that daycare or nanny cost for the kids over the Summer would eat up pretty much all the income... so it turned out to be a "no". As cool as the job was, it wasn't going to work.

I decided a few months ago that it was going to have to be retail - and only if I could make it work the hours I needed. It was going to have to be weekends and some weekly hours (perhaps evening), but I couldn't think of any other jobs that would present me with a perfect working environment... and I liked retail jobs I'd had in the past. The discounts were awesome! The time away from family? Not so much.

Then last Sunday I saw a guy that I hadn't seen in over a year and a half - he is a dad I met when DD2 was in preschool, and he's working remotely for a company in Scottsdale AZ. It is a fairly new company, in start-up phase, that is about simplifying your technology access with Cloud computing. So I said, off-handed, "Hey, if anyone in your company ever decides they need a virtual admin, I'd love to talk to them about a position. I was an admin in my previous life before children."

Three days later he called.

The job is Virtual Administrative Assistant, 4 hours (maybe 3 or 5 depending on the needs) per day, M-F... and I work from home. Actually, I can work from anywhere I can get an internet and phone signal. I can work from the dance studio or the pool in the Summertime if need be. The money is not huge - but it is a foot in the door of a start-up company that could potentially do great things, and for what I need right now it is as close to perfect as I could hope for. I work when my kids are at school, from home. If someone is sick, I'm not going to have to call in sick. The man I will be working for is himself a father of 4 kids - and totally gets that kind of schedule. Because it will be contract work I will have the freedom to take vacations with my family, or schedule lighter work load weeks with him during "recital week" at the dance studio. The absolute best part is that I am still here with my kids over Summer vacation and will be able to remain plugged in as a parent. Husband's travel schedule won't have any effect on my abilities to do this job - and I'm still in disbelief that it all happened so quickly.

It makes you wonder... when you send out a "list" of very specific needs to the universe and you get an answer so quickly - that so very closely meets the requirements you need for it all to work - how can you not at least give it your best shot and see where it takes you?