Where We Are Now! (Part 2)

We are now back in Cincinnati and are continuing to pray and talk with family about the big decision we are about to make. Making the decision to take this job in PA would mean a lot for us. We would have to put our home up for sale and pray that in this horrible economy it would even sell, and we wouldn't loose to much money on it. It would mean that we would have to tell our current boss that we were resigning, which would be difficult as we loved our jobs. It would mean telling our kids that we were moving...at this point they had no idea what was happening. Making this decision would mean that I would not be working for a while, that I would stay home with the kids until Mckenna was in school full time. It would mean being between 5 and 7 hours from our immediate families, where it has only been 2 and 3 hours at this point. It would mean leaving all of our wonderful friends and those from Mason that became our "family". 

Thinking about all of that and what we would have to do was tearing me apart, but I knew that this was the right decision. I had come to the realization that I needed to be more submissive to God's calling for my husband. Nathan had wanted nothing more than to preach and reach the lost since he was about 15 years old. If God was calling him to this church in PA to do just that, then I could not hold him back just because I didn't want to leave our house, "family" and friends, and most of all our comfort. We were comfortable where we were. Moving to PA would mean losing that comfort. We didn't know anyone, didn't know the area, didn't know where we would live. But it was something that Nathan had heard a while back that told us that again this was the right decision. He had heard that "If you are comfortable in where you are and what you are doing, then you're not doing what God wants you to do." And that was us...we were comfortable.  

So we began to talk more seriously with the church in PA and told them that we would love to be a part of their family. It was decided at the end of September that we would leave Ohio and move there for the first Sunday in January. That meant 3 months to get things in order, sell our house, pull Blake from Little Miami Schools and get him registered in a new school...which couldn't be decided until we knew which school district we were moving to, which couldn't be decided until we actually sold our house here. The list of "to-dos" continued to grow and my stress level began to rise and at this point, we had not told anyone what was going on yet other than our families. 

Fast forward to November, we are waiting for the call from PA that they were going to offer Nathan a position. It was the week of Thanksgiving and we got the call from the church. They wanted Nathan to officially join their team. However, we would not be able to come in January like planned. (I guess I should add in here that the church was at that time in the process of opening another campus in another part of town. They knew that money would be tight during this and didn't want to get Nathan there and realize they couldn't support us. Thankful that they were mindful of that, but still hard to hear at this point.) He  would not be able to join their team now until June. I was so confused at first at why God would make us wait another 5 more months.

We told the rest of our families at Thanksgiving about what was going on, but still had not told the kids yet. We wanted to wait a little bit longer before we did that. We had decided that we would tell them right before Christmas time. So right before we headed home to be with family again for Christmas, we sat the kids down and told them we would be moving to PA. That was not a fun conversation to have.  Blake was so sad, but then came around once he asked a lot of questions about it all. So the process continued and we resumed getting things in order so that we could put the house on the market the first of the New Year.

The House went on the market the 3rd week of January and that was one of the toughest days of my life. All the unknowns of when, where and what was going to happen in the upcoming months was too much for me to handle at one time. My reliance on God to get me through those months had never been so strong. My faith grew beyond what I could imagine. We had to rely on Him for patience and peace during this time, and it really allowed us to grow stronger not only in our relationship with Christ, but with each other as well. Through all that had happened up to this point, I soon realized why God had wanted us to wait just a few more months before moving to PA. It gave us just that much longer to get things in order, to allow Blake to finish 1st grade in his current school, for us to spend more time with our friends and Mason "family". It gave us time to sell the house as we would not be able to move into anything in PA until ours sold. We could not afford two mortgages on one salary. With at least one  showing each week on the house, we diligently prayed that God would provided the right buyer and provide the right amount of money needed in the end. Keeping a house spotless and "Show Ready" with two kids is not an easy task, but we did it!! This went on for 5 very long months and then June 16th arrived. 

Part 3 Coming Soon!!