Where you go, I'll go-- Moving again!

It won't come as a surprise to most that we are moving once again.  In our 7.5 years of marriage we have lived in 2 states, 6 different cities, and 8 homes.   We will be adding another state, another city, and another home with our next move to the Denver, CO area.  It is (per usual) a very bittersweet move for us.  

Though we have been discussing the idea of a move to the Denver area for quite awhile, until very recently (like 4 weeks ago), we were planning it as more of a plan for sometime in the next 2-4 years. Why?  Because we love it here.  We don't actually want to move at all.  

The weather is perfect.  We have an amazing group of faith-filled friends.  My godfather and his wife live here and we have become so close to them in our time here.  We started a Young Families Ministry at a nearby parish.  We each attend a monthly men's/women's Bible study with friends.  I love my mom's group at the local parish.  Our Catholic homeschooling group is a wonderful one.  I love the Charter School that we've been working with this year for Kayla's homeschooling.  Kayla loves her ballet studio.  We live near Disneyland and had the blessing of annual passes for two years.  We live near both the ocean and mountains where we love to hike.  We love the area, we love our grocery stores, we love our library....we LOVE living in our little corner of Southern California.  

(this isn't to say there aren't wonderful things about the Denver area; I know there are.  More on that eventually in another post... This is just to say that we don't want to leave.  We love it HERE.)

And though we have been able to live here on one income (and my little part-time help), we moved here "late in the game" to make it work long-term because the area is just so very expensive.  With the number of kids we already have, we just won't ever save enough in an area like this to ever really expand and grow.   Hence, why we had been reluctantly discussing the idea of moving while still trying to avoid it as long as we possibly could and hope that God would work an amazing miracle so that we could just stay.  God? God??

Alas, God's ways are not our ways, and after diligently looking for new jobs in the area for the last 9 months, and then looking even harder for jobs here recently, we decided to be open to moving to Denver now.  Chris put out a bunch more applications, and we heard back.  Almost immediately.  Hello there, God.  

And suddenly I could feel the air tightening around me.  What have I done?  What did I say yes to? But still there was no actual interview or job offer.  Sigh.  Phew.  A week later, that, too, began though, and I was suddenly very glad that God had brought Fr. Michael Gaitley's book 33 Days to Merciful Love into my life right now.  It has been an incredible help and source of peace.  Chris' current job has been draining him for many reasons in the last year but especially in the last few months, so there is a huge part of me that was praying and I mean, praying hard that he would find something new, no matter where it took us.  I think it goes without saying that this was difficult for me. There was a huge part of us that was still hoping God would work everything out so we could continue our life here.  

So I did the only thing I could think to do in the midst of my whirling emotions surrounding it all: pray.  I prayed a lot and I stopped telling God what I wanted, what I needed, and just prayed the words under the Divine Mercy image, 

"Jesus, I trust in You."  

Sometimes I prayed it through tears of frustration and sadness at the thought of leaving yet another place.  Sometimes I said it in peaceful submission, but I just kept saying it (and I'm still praying it...).  At the times when I'm especially anxious about giving over my will to God and struggle to have faith that His plans for our family are truly better than my own, I pray a favorite Bible verse of mine too, "Lord, I believe!  Help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24).  

These two prayers have been an incredible source of grace and have brought so much peace into my life about this move.  

And sure enough, Chris got the job.  It's better in every way than his job here, so we couldn't hide anymore behind excuses about why we shouldn't move....but more than that, we have both been blessed with an amazing peace about it all.  I know I will shed many more tears before we leave and after too, but by God's grace, I am also able to praise God for this new opportunity for Chris and our family to grow where He is planting us now.  

A random fact:
 None of our 4 girls have been born in the same city, or even county, as each other.  This move makes it official that #5 will keep our accidental trend alive and strong....