We're NOT moving to Texas. . .

Yes, that's right! We're NOT moving to Texas after all.


BUT. . . we ARE still moving across the country to. . . *drum roll please*

(press the play arrow)

Yep!! And we are incredibly excited about our move now! That is a huge answer to our selfish prayers! Really, I'll be quite honest. . . I was dreading the move to Texas. But I was repeatedly telling myself I'd learn to like it there eventually, especially with the development of new online friendships with ladies who already lived there in the town where Rick was sent for training. But really, when it boiled down to it, it felt like an arranged marriage. . . I was NOT eager, but I WAS willing to go where God was calling us, and hoped that someday down the road I'd learn to love it there after all. I'd kept my inner arguments about God's sanity in this move between me and God because I KNEW God was calling us from Idaho, but I didn't want Rick to second guess himself in going to Texas. I had resolved myself to choose to look for the opportunities available to us there, to make the most of it for our family's sake. But it was a chore to even want to sort and pack in preparation for the move.  


Last night, Rick's new company told him they will transfer him/us to central Oklahoma, within a fairly short distance of his whole side of the extended family! Had we still been assigned to the western side of Texas (the brown part), it would have been a long drive (a solid 12 hrs if you count bathroom stops along the way!) from his family. Now we're going to be close enough to make it to Grandpa & Grandma's house, spend the day, and come home after dinner if we want to!!! (In the past, we'd only been able to make this trip about once every 5 years!) This is such exciting news for our family!! And the location we're being sent to in Oklahoma will give our homeschooling family so many more opportunities than our Texas location would have. And there will be so much more green, and water, and hillsides than the Texas location would have offered. I dreaded the idea of trading in my heavily treed, mountainside home in Idaho with all the surrounding lakes, for the just plain dry, sandy, flat, treeless Texas desert. My selfish little heart was willing, but not content with that trade! When I finally reached that point of being more than just willing to follow God where ever He was leading us, even if it were into the desert, He pulled the furry little rabbit out of the black top hat, much to my awe and amazement! When Rick told me there was a new, but very slight chance (discovered by rumor among classmates) that he could get approval to transfer to Oklahoma instead of Texas, we prayed, and the unanimous family vote was to put in the transfer request again, even though it had formerly been denied. We asked God for favor with the company, IF moving to Oklahoma was HIS will. When Rick asked the supervisor about the possibility of a transfer, they approved his request ON THE SPOT!!!! No board meetings, no human resource department ring-around-the-rosie games, no delay in answering... just a simple "YES!". Their only request was that he wait to go until they could get another classroom or two of new trainees out into the field for work. Rick readily agreed to that. So he will head for Oklahoma sometime in the first half of November. As the rough draft schedule is penciled in on the margins of the calendar right now, it looks like we will likely join him around the middle of December. It won't be a day too soon for us either! It's been a very long month apart already. We miss him horribly, and we want to get back into the full swing of our adoption process as soon as possible.


We're so excited to resume the practical work towards this cross country move now. It's like a new boost of energy has overtaken all of us! There's still a lot of tiring work ahead of us, but that desire to "whistle while I work" has come back to my heart!


Thank you Lord for giving us favor, and for teaching us to trust you to work out all the littlest details! You are ever the Faithful Father!


~ Michelle