Category Archives: Marriage

Young Love (#81)

Posted on by

August 15-17, 1969

Nate and I had pressed our parents hard to agree to a wedding well ahead of when they thought we should marry. Rather than wait until after he had graduated from law school, we insisted we would be just fine if we married while he was still a student. Being separated had worn down both of us, and we’d had our fill of it.

BaconThe most important piece of that plan, then, was that I find a way to bring home the bacon while he studied. And the best way to do that would be to teach school.

My former teaching position in Chicago had fallen into my lap with very little effort, despite not having a degree in education. So I mistakenly assumed the same thing would happen in Champaign — teacher shortages were still the norm around the country. It was a shock to hear they wouldn’t hire me there, no matter what my experience, because they knew I wouldn’t stay more than a year or two.

There was still one possibility, though.

If I was willing to clock some significant miles every day, I could teach in an outlying district. Danville, Illinois, 40 miles from Champaign, was on a list indicating they had one opening left at a school named McKinley.

My school.

Nate and I went back to the phone booth in front of 7-Eleven, and I called the principal. Talking to him was encouraging. His one opening could be mine, he said, if I wanted it. I was thrilled, and felt God was orchestrating this good fortune for us. But then came the bad news. “I assume you’re qualified to teach 1st grade,” he said.

“First grade?” The job hadn’t been for kindergarten, as I’d thought.

I knew absolutely nothing about teaching 1st grade except that it was a critical year in every student’s education. Children needed to be taught the fundamentals of reading and math among other things, and it was mandatory that a 1st grade teacher prepare them well for the more complicated curriculum of 2nd grade. I felt that if I took the position I’d be in over my head.

So, when the principal asked if I was interested, I was surprised to hear myself say — with gusto — “Absolutely. I’ll take the job!”

At McKinley SchoolNate and I drove out to see the school that afternoon, and the custodian let us in. As I stood in front of 25 empty desks in the 1st grade classroom, I wondered why on earth I’d said yes. But my tenderhearted fiancé put his arm around me and said, “Don’t worry, Meg. It can’t be that much different than kindergarten. And the most important thing is that you’ll love the children, no matter what their age.”

I bought that, and stopped worrying. It would be fun to get acquainted with a roomful of new students and to make friends with the other teachers, one in each grade. Besides, how hard could the job possibly be?

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Young Love (#80)

Posted on by

Swimming poolChoosing places to live, one for each of us, was going to be simple compared to finding a teaching position. So we tackled that happy chore first, quickly narrowing it down to two finalists. One apartment was in a large complex of several hundred units and was only two years old. Best of all, there was a big swimming pool in the middle. The apartment lacked personality and was small, but there were lots of other students renting there… and that beautiful pool!

620 Healey St.The other was a third-floor walkup in a very old brick building. It had glass-paned doors between the rooms, a cute step into the bathroom, built-in glass-front cabinets, leaded windows, and best of all, a wood-burning fireplace. For both of us, it was no contest. We chose the walkup and were given the good news that it was available immediately.

As for a job, my meeting at the Champaign Board of Education started happy but ended sad. The interviewer told me I wouldn’t have any trouble getting a teaching position based on my two years of experience in the Chicago Public Schools, but then he asked why I had left Chicago.

I told him I was about to marry a grad student at the U of I and would be moving just in time for the start of the academic year. That’s when his face fell. “Oh.” he said. “I’m so sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we have a policy against hiring spouses of students. They come and then they quickly go, and it makes for a very unstable teaching staff. You won’t be able to teach in this district or anywhere nearby.”

I was pretty sure I heard a door slam and wondered why God would bring us this far and then say “no way.” So I asked a question.

“Well – would you have any advice for me?”

“The only thing I can suggest is looking in other towns away from the Champaign/Urbana area… that is if you don’t mind a long commute. Do you have a car?”

I thought about our Corvette and the variety of crises it seemed to attract, knowing I probably couldn’t count on it for a long daily drive. But Nate had his VW, so I answered with a yes.

The interviewer pushed a paper across his polished desktop and said, “Call these schools. Last I heard, there were still a few openings.” I thanked him and reminded myself how much I loved road trips.

MapWhen I reconnected with Nate, he was eager to report he’d found a room near the university with a cheap month-to-month rent that would work until we married. He comforted me about my disappointment at the Board of Ed but agreed we should investigate the outlying schools.

The closest one was in Danville, 40 miles away. An 80-mile round trip each day would be a commitment of time, gas money, and wear and tear on a car. So he asked how badly I wanted to teach, and after I said “a lot,” he urged me to call.

When I did, I was greeted with a good-news-bad-news situation.

“You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.” (Psalm 139:5)

Young Love (#79)

Posted on by

August 10-17, 1969

 

Racing through the first week of August and into the second reinforced to Nate and I that we needed to get to Champaign to work on those two important decisions: an apartment for me, which would become our apartment together after November 29… and a job.

City of ChampaignI still held out hope for a teaching position rather than settling for low-paying work I didn’t like. My two years teaching kindergarten in Chicago had been pure joy, and I’d loved my young students like they were my own. But I didn’t even know what day Champaign kids were scheduled to start school — much less have any “in” at the Board of Ed.

Nate’s law classes would resume in September, and he needed to find a place to rent, just for the 3 months before our wedding. We were still determined to wait until after we were married before living together and knew we would fail if we tried to use the same space as platonic roommates.

Just then, as we were making a new list, I got a bad sore throat, earache, and fever. Relatives from New York arrived that day, and Mom suggested we all head for the summer cottage in Michigan… and the beach. Nate surrounded his sick fiancée with tender loving care, insisting on a visit to a Michigan doctor, who prescribed antibiotics. Two days later I was feeling better, and we were back at my apartment, reading encouraging mail from Aunt Joyce:

Aunt Joyce“I’m so glad you and Nate have included the Lord in your relationship. He is the key ingredient to marriage stability, and keeping your love alive and enduring when you face the verities of life on earth. I’m thrilled to know you are putting the emphasis on the Lord Himself, and I’m so excited and happy for you! We are all excited!”

As we drove to Champaign on August 14, we prayed that God would open doors and show us what to do at every decision point. We were at a significant threshold in our lives and didn’t want to make a misstep. And we wanted our bottom line to be exactly as Aunt Joyce had written it: putting the emphasis on the Lord Himself. That was the only way to insure we wouldn’t go wrong.

7 Eleven storeOur first stop was at a Champaign 7-Eleven where we bought a local newspaper and got a dollar’s worth of dimes to start calling on apartment rentals. We used the pay phone outside the store to begin investigating, along with the phone booth’s dangling book of yellow pages to contact the local Board of Education.

After a couple of hours, we had lined up 4 apartments to see the next day and made an interview appointment for a teaching position. But those “verities of life on earth?” We were about to connect with a big one.

“Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is.” (Romans 12:2)