We Are Moving

We are moving!

God has decided to uproot these four hearts and transplant them nearly two provinces over. We will be leaving everything that is familiar and landing in the completely unfamiliar. When we pull into our new hometown there will be no family close by, no grandparents to babysit and no friends to visit with. It means a new church, new schools, new doctors, new grocery stores, new hairdressers and new afterschool activities. It even means a new climate – a much, much colder climate!

This move is an answer to prayer; albeit a much different answer than I originally expected when I started praying.

I married a man who loves teaching woodshop. Amongst the machines, tools, drawings and sawdust is where his passion lies. Yet, for two years, I have watched his woodshop course load be arbitrarily cut in half. I have watched as he was told that his program has no value. I have watched as his ideas and visions were quickly dismissed. And finally, this year I watched as he learned through an e-mail memo that his program was completely cut from the school offerings.

With each storm my heart broke a little more. I prayed so hard for administrative eyes to be opened, for my husband to find joy in a different content area and for a new woodshop position to open up in the district. But, God was not answering those prayers.

The prayer He did answer though was when I asked Him to prepare my heart and mind for what He had planned. Yes, God got right to work on that prayer. 

Before I knew it, God had me encouraging my husband to look at positions outside my comfort zone. I told him I was willing to move anywhere in the country so he could have the opportunity to teach what he loved.

At first there appeared to be nothing that was the right fit for our family. God would shine lights in different areas, but quickly those lights would be extinguished.

We had now reached a point where we were not sure if my husband would even have a contract position in the fall if we were to stay with our current school district. That after thirteen years of working for the same school district on a continuing contract there was a good chance that he would be on the substitute teacher list. It seemed absolutely ludicrous, but it was the reality that we were facing.

Just when everything seemed so dire, when we felt so helpless, when the anger was beginning to swell that was when God revealed Himself once again.

God posted a full-time continuing (we couldn’t uproot our children for a temporary position), high school (oh how my husband wanted to be back in a high school after eleven years in a middle school) woodshop (yes, only woodshop – you just don’t see that in our part of the country) position in a good community (a town with some decent shopping, good schools and more than a 1000 people).

My husband was excited and I was so excited to see him finally excited. And I felt a peace that can only come from God.

As I looked at the qualifications next to my husband’s resume I had this feeling that God had literally taken that resume and rewrote it in the form of the qualifications list. I knew the moment the application was sent that we would be moving.

The posting closed on Thursday. The human resources director had a 45-minute phone discussion with my husband on Friday. There was a Skype interview on Monday. And the position was offered and accepted Tuesday evening. 

In a five-day whirlwind our lives changed and we were finally able to see what God could see all along. 

Our journey with Christ continues.