A Great Quote

Okay, so first off...I just have to say that it was so good to read all of the 20 something comments on my last two posts. I didn't get them immediately because something was weird on my comment settings, so I just saw them about a week ago! Thank you everyone who commented, it IS good to be back to the blogging world, and it has been so fun to check in on your blogs! I hope to comment more often in the next few months!

So, here's a really quick update on us Thuernagles. Andy signed a 2 year contract with Willowtree Dental in Boise and has been working for them while we opened up our own practice and started building our patient-base. They wanted him to sign a 3 year contract, but we refused because it would interfere with our own business ventures, so they reconsidered and hired him on a 2 year agreement. They knew that we would be starting our own practice, but their office is 25 miles away from ours, so no worries about the "do not compete" clause.

This job has been a real blessing, because Clearwater (our practice) isn't making enough money yet to sustain itself, pay employees, and give us a living! So, we've been using the Willowtree income to live on and help sustain Clearwater. Good plan!

Well, on Tuesday, at the END of the day, Willowtree fired Andy because he started his own practice. Not only that, but they are refusing to pay him his February paycheck, AND they are pressing for us to pay them $30,000 in "damages" because now they'll have to find someone to replace him. Needless to say, Tuesday was not the best of days for the Thuernagle family.

I had called Andy on my way to get the kids from school to ask him something about our practice, when he told me the news. It was a miracle that I made it to the school without crashing the van, and an even bigger miracle that I actually got the kids home safely. I have no concious memory of the drive after the phone call. Shock!!! After the shock, the fear and worry, and then the absolute anger set in. I was ready to march right in to Willowtree Dental and demand paycheck and press for my own amount of "damages" reimbursement.

Well, it's funny (no really, nothing about this is funny...well, maybe it's funny to a few people) that all of this happened because for the past week I've been praying really hard that we'd be able to make enough money each month to pay our huge tremendous bills. :) So I was devastated, how in the world was this going to help with student loan debt, small business loan debt, etc? All Andy and I knew to do was to pray. I left Rachel with the younger 3 kids for a few minutes while I ran Taylor over to his cub scouts activity...and then I just couldn't go home yet. Instead, I went down to the practice thinking that I needed to just have some quiet moments to myself before going home to face the kids. Well, I found Andy at the practice. He had gotten there just a few minutes before me. And so we took that opportunity to comfort one another, and then to sit there in our office, and pray to our Heavenly Father. Then we started writing down names and phone numbers of all of our friends and associates in the area who may have some ideas of how to help us.

Now this is why I posted all of this, not to get sympathy or anything, but to just share this with everyone. Andy got fired at about...3:00 pm on Tuesday afternoon. By 6:45 pm that night he had been offered another position at a dental office much closer to home, with some people that we had met shortly after moving here but AFTER we had signed with Willowtree. I remember after we had met them we both expressed regret that we had already signed that Willowtree contract. Funny. (I know, not really.) To us, it was nothing short of a miracle, and it was a direct nearly immediate answer to our prayers.

So, we're not out of hot water yet. We've contacted a few lawyer friends and associates and are currently working on getting the money out of Willowtree that they owe us, and on having their "damages" forgiven. So to any of our dental friends who may be reading this...stay away from Willowtree Dental like the plague!!! I know a few of you called to ask us about them, and may be considering working there....but DON'T! Our lawyer who helped draw up our Clearwater documents and corp docs said that they are as "crooked as they come."

So, back to the Ensign. This has been a stressful time for us, and I know that there are so many right now who are struggling, or unsure of what the future might bring. I read this quote from Pres. Packer this morning, and had to read it over and over and over. It was such a great reminder.

"If you are helpless, he is not. If you are lost, he is not. If you don't know what to do next, he knows. It would take a miracle? Well, if it takes a miracle, why not?"

I'm so thankful for the miracles in my life.