The Offer...

It’s amazing how quickly things can change…and did they ever for the Niemann’s!  Everything was going along in normal fashion in Fresno this spring – school activities, kids’ sports, church, my trainings and John’s variety of activities at the plant.  We had hosted a wedding in March and were actually enjoying a lot of the work we had done to prepare the yard for that event. Then came April 2…

We were hosting a Cargill dinner event at the house with the leadership team and a variety of people who were in town, including Bill Buckner.  The first time he came to town was just after we moved to Fresno and he walked into the house and had to maneuver around the moving boxes to get to the kitchen!  Anyway, after the event John sat down and said, “well, Bill asked to ride over here with me this evening.” His tone and demeanor gave it away…Bill had also mentioned the position of CFD President had opened up and he wanted John to consider moving back to Wichita to help take that business unit into a new direction.  And so the indecision began…

For a month we wrestled with the decision…and finally after praying, talking, more praying, more talking…we decided it was best to stay put in Fresno.  There were some intriguing factors about the job for John, but he just wasn’t sure if there were enough factors to make it worth us moving. So we spent the next week getting back in the groove of staying in Fresno and making plans for the summer.

Then the phone call came…a second offer that had more to it than the first.  So here we went again…praying, talking, praying, talking…Casey was in town for a few days and had to endure our back-and-forth conversations and mind-changing!  Finally after another couple weeks of wrestling with the decision, we realized it was right and in mid-May John accepted the position.