That’s the term Lockheed used when I worked there.  Whenever a program was cut the employees were declared surplus to company needs.  I guess this was supposed to help with our delicate psyches or something.   All through the 1990’s the buzzword was “outsourcing.”   A really nice way to say, “Hey, we really appreciate all the hard work you’ve put into the company but we’ve found we can pay people in other countries far less.”  I’ve seen lots of jobs at my present employer outsourced to overseas companies. Basically your job was given to someone overseas and then you were out the door.

Now there is a new term; “co-sourcing.”  As best I can this means, “We need you to train your overseas replacement and THEN you go out the door.”  So, for the next few months I will be doing my part to train my replacement at a company overseas until early August.  Now, the company is being as nice about it as they can be, offering a fairly generous severance package and the usual grief counseling.  It’s still rather a shock and a surprise.

So why don’t I feel worse about it?  Maybe because I won’t be on-call anymore?  Maybe this is a good opportunity to finally change careers?  I have to say God has been preparing me for this in ways I didn’t even realize.  About 3 months ago I suddenly felt the need to find my son a place to live outside our home.  It wasn’t just the fact that he was getting violent, it was just time.  God also placed in in my heart to pare down the number of our possessions.  I believed it was for living full-time in an RV but as He usually does, it was also in preparation for something else.  So we’re going to continue in pare-down mode and keep trying to “downsize” our lives.

There are a lot of things to think about such as medical coverage, prescriptions and such.  But we’re pretty sure God has already handled that for us.  We’ll see what it is when the time comes.  I have employment until the first week of August.  After that the world is wide open.  I’ve got several ideas but one thing I’m not going to do like when I got laid off from the bank; I’m not going to panic this time.  God loves me and He certainly loves my family.  He will provide a way for us and I’m anxious to see what that is.