The easy road can be so tempting.

We’ve been working with Andrea on her life goals and skills. She first came to us perpetually without resources and always in crisis. She decided one of most powerful things she could do for her and her baby would be to find steady employment. Working on her interview skills, however, was tedious, and she wasn’t shy in telling us.

She was delighted this past fall to answer an ad online that promised easy money for minimal hours. The man on the phone told her no interview as necessary, and all she had to do was meet him downtown for details.

She didn’t tell us when she made the appointment, but she was excited to tell us the outcome.

“I was on the bus when I thought, ‘What kind of job doesn’t want to know what I can do? Why meet him on a street corner?’ I realized, it was too good to be true, so I went home.”

What may sound like a small and obvious choice to many of us was a hard-won victory for Andrea. She knew from working with her Catholic Charities case manager that slow, steady progress brings solid results.

We celebrated her news that she didn’t get that job.

And, a month later after slow gains and hard work, when she landed a real job, we celebrated even more.