The Big Decision (and Details)

Most of you already know because of Facebook, so it will be anti-climactic (ha!), but we have decided to take the job out of state. This will take us to a grand place called ....drumroll please....



As incredibly hard as it is to leave our Sweet Home Alabama, we are getting excited about what God has in store for us in Mississippi. We already know of good homeschooling groups, churches, and Scout troops, so we are hoping to be able to dive right in. I guess this is where I should mention again that I TRIPLE DOG LOVE the internet!!

Seriously. If it weren't for the world-wide-web I would have had ZERO resource in our trek to Meridian. But as it stands, God saw fit to plop this family right in the middle of the Technology Age, for which I am extremely grateful.

First, I have some precious friends that have either grown up in, or around, Meridian, or that have lived there for a time (2 of whom I met via the internet, incidentally). They have been able to hook me up with some sweet people who live there now. I also have been able to listen to sermons on the internet from some of the churches that we are thinking we'll visit, and have looked at several websites for homeschool groups, scout troops and even piano teachers. I can't imagine what it would have been like if we'd have had to do this 20 years ago. Alot of trial and error, I suppose.

One of the things that Mark's new company is doing for us is leasing us an apartment for 6 months until we can get a feel for the area. We are so happy about this because, "hello", no house-payment! ~I think I just heard the Dave Ramsey angels singing the Hallelujah Chorus~ But, it definitely means some serious downsizing. My job right now is to determine what comes to live with us, what goes into storage, and what just flat-out flies the proverbial coop. We just moved into this house a year ago, so it shouldn't be as titanic of a task as it was the first time around, however, we were moving about 5 miles away, and into a much bigger house.. ;).

Our move-in date is tentatively, October 1, so that gives me almost exactly 6 weeks to pull it all together. We are supposed to start school on this coming Monday, August 23, so I'm pretty sure I'll be tapping into some Supernatural Strength to pull it all off.

I must say, though, God has had His hand all over this. He has made it very clear in so many ways that this is His perfect will for our family. There is great comfort and peace in that. No matter what happens, or how lonely we get for the comforts of our familiar home, we can rest remembering that this move is no mistake or error in judgement on our part. I can't tell you how good that makes us feel.

Plus, right now, we are just happy to be off of the roller coaster ride that has been the last 2 months! Direction + Mark and Gayle = BIG BUDDIES. ;)

I'm planning to blog alot more as we do this thing. I am sad that I failed at that last year because I have nothing to really look back on to remember all the blessings of that time. But, I'll put more effort into it this go round.

Happy Thursday, peeps,