Saved

Eric works at Intel. Last Wednesday night our friend John called to say he was watching the news, and heard Fab 20 was closing. Fab 20 is Eric's fab. We quickly went to the computer and found the news segment and watched it. It stated that Intel was closing Fab 20, and laying off 1000 people at the Ronel Acres campus.

Seeing as how it was Eric's weekend, we figured we'd just have to wait until he went back to work on Sunday to find out what was going on. Of course, a million things were going through my mind about the possibility of him loosing his job...I was ready to take action and come up with a back up plan so that we were prepared if he was no longer employed at Intel.

Good news came early this morning. They stated that Eric would be safe - he would transfer to another department. The news blew everything out of proportion (surprise!). 1000 people will be affected at the Ronel acres campus....most will go to other areas of Intel. I was instantly relieved and felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

As I sat down to read the Oregonian this morning (yes, I'm one of the few people left in the world who takes the actual newspaper and reads it cover to cover), the first thing that caught my eye was an article on unemployment in Oregon. Normally, I'd just skim the article, but having had the recent possibility of a job loss in our family, I read the article. It was so sad - totally broke my heart. People who had been out of work for months, people loosing their houses, people not able to provide food or health care for their children.... It was just awful, and it hit so close to home.

I can't help but wonder when and if we will be able to get out of this economic slump. I haven't really known too many people who have been very affected by it, but when the threat is knocking on your door, suddenly you become more aware of your surroundings.

Tonight I'm thankful for all that I have...and for those who don't have, I'm hoping with all my heart that things turn around for them very soon.