on the other side and would refuse to take a position which would lead to nowhere and being back where I started: laid off. I briefly took a temp job for a few weeks during the summer, sweated out depletion of my savings, my wife and I endured the scam that is individual insurance (try it out and you'll see why the health care system is broken as the policy covered dr's visits for our daughter, but not her necessary immunizations during those visits).

Well, my wife's layoff was just what she needed as she had long been unhappy with work and I'd been encouraging her to look for a more fulfilling position for years. As luck would have it, one of the premier institutions in our area (in the world) had an opening and she was quickly interviewed and hired, with a better salary, better quality of life, better profile for her career.

In all, my wife was able to get six months with our baby and I was able to get a year.

I actually turned down one promising prospect which would have resulted in just a lateral move and ended up with two offers at great offices locally, both more diverse in work and opportunities, and offering significantly more salary than my prior job. Since joining a few months ago, it's been a great move.

I was out of work for fifteen months. Slogged through a lot of personal strains and disappoinments--the toughest time was probably the day after my surgery when I was lying in a hospital bed, in a lot of pain (despite the strong medication I was one), unable to get comfortable enough to sleep, unable to perform the basic dignity getting out of bed and walking 15 feet to use the restroom without the need of a walker. I called my wife in the middle of the night crying and scared about whether this was going to be the way things were from now on.). But life is better on the other side. (Through it all, I was able to meet financial obligations which was difficult but I thought was necessary.)

Keep the faith folks. Even the worst storms, though long, can't last forever. You'll get through this period with determination, focus, persistence, and faith. Things won't happen for you at the times you may want them to, and you will have to weather a lot of difficulties on the way, but have confidence in yourself, your abilities, your talents, that there is an opportunity out there for you; there's an ocean of them and you just need to land one. Through all the disappointments--and trust me, I had a several of them--never lose confidence in yourself. Hope this has been helpful to somebody out there.