My hubby is a dreamer, a visionary, a bit of the grass- is-always-greener-somewhere-else type of guy. I am a steady, don't change things, practical kind of person. See the problem already? Anyways, hubby was always looking for different jobs within his company. He liked his job, but there might be something better out there. He had applied to several jobs and nothing had come of it. So, in April of last year, he casually mentioned that he had applied for a job in Colorado. OK, not too worried. Then while having a meeting at my house to plan our next homeschool co-op, he calls and says that they want him to come for an interview. Uh, oh. A bit worried. We figure out a way to combine a planned vacation to Denver with his interview. At this point I wasn't praying that God would show us his will for our family. I was begging him to close doors as fast as possible and let us stay at home.
So off we go on a combo vacation/job interview:five kids, hubby, and me, 7 months pregnant. The kids and I were not happy about the interview part, but excited to go on vacation. We go first to his interview, spend two days there, now here, and then spend a day at Focus on the Family as we are huge Adventures in Odyssey fans, and then on to Denver. We went to the Denver Zoo one year ago today and had a nice day. As we were leaving, we got a phone call from home saying our basement was flooded. We couldn't even comprehend what had happened. We lived on a hill and had never had any problems with water in our basement. And we were having a seven year draught! So we cancelled the rest of our vacation and returned home the next day. It was a sad trip home as the kids were so disappointed to miss out on our vacation, and hubby and I were DREADING what we would find when we got there.
When we got home, it was even worse than we thought. The guys got busy with a shop vac and moving things and trying to salvage as much as possible. The smell of wet carpet was almost overpowering. We talked to our insurance company and found out that the didn't cover any water damage. Nothing... We didn't know what we were going to do. The next day we borrowed two of the boys friends, so hubby and four teenage boys had three shop vacs going, got a sump pump installed, and moved furniture, bookcases, game tables, toys, playhouses, and all the other stuff we had in our basement. It was a mess. And they figured they got out 500 gallons of water out of there. Couldn't believe it. Hubby took up the carpet, took off the trim, punched holes in the sheet rock in order to save as much as possible. We had a dehumidifier going plus multiple fans blowing down there. It became a matter of time waiting to see how things would dry out and see what was ruined and what could be saved. And we were still waiting to hear about the job.
Two weeks later the two oldest boys went off with the church youth group on a week long bike trip. While they were gone, hubby got the job offer, and we got a severe hail storm. Since all of our basement furniture and other items were stored in the garage, our Suburban was sitting in the driveway. A perfect target for the hail. So, we needed body work on the Suburban and a new roof. And, we now had to get our house ready to sell. We didn't even know if that was possible! And when did they want him to start, could we even sell our house, and where would our baby be born???? Oh, the stress of it all. And, the kids and I did NOT want to move.
Where we were living was both hubby and my hometown. We had moved away for college and grad school and moved back when our oldest was 10 months old. I had no desire to live anywhere else. We had a wonderful life there. My parents and a brother and sister and their families live there, hubby has two sisters that live in the area, we went to the church that I had grown up in, we had a great homeschool group we were a part of that included a co-op that my children thought was the best thing in the world, and we had wonderful friends. And we were living in our house that we had built that I dearly loved. We had a full life with family, friends and support. But God began showing us detail by detail that he did have for us to move, and although everything seemed like a wreck, he would take care of the details one by one.
Monday, May 25, 2009
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can't wait to hear more!!!! :)
ReplyDeletewhere is this headed, Amy, is there some giant surprise at the end??
How true that when we are in His will all the details work out despite us! Can't wait to read the rest of the story.
ReplyDeleteI could relate to so much of this. We've been through the decision twice in the last 5 years. the first time we moved - it was clear we were supposed to. It was only 20 minutes away. How hard can that be? HA. Another school district, which was horrible, so now we are a homeschool family. from half an acre in town, to 141 acres in the country - we're now a farm family. No longer involved in PTA, Jr Womens Club, the sports organizations the kids had been in for years - and my husband had coached... we were completely uprooted, in just a 20 minute drive. And we learned that as much as we loved our friends, once we were not spending time with them at every PTA/School/Sport function, it was hard to keep in touch. Friendships wane. Some would say that means they were not true friends, but I don't believe that. It's a life stage. :-)
ReplyDeleteWe're here 5 years, and Dh's job is eliminated. He can either take a transfer to another state, or a pay cut. As in, HALF his former pay. I didn't want to move here, but we know we belong here... so here we are still. With half the paycheck. I know God has a plan, and we're starting to see it, but you just never know where He is taking us for sure. :-)