Beyond the Basics

As a follow up to the big announcement, I want to give a little bit of context.

In the course of a weekend, Andy and I decided to move our whole family to another state. A state that in my mind is about as different from my Pacific Northwest home as you can get. Well, maybe somewhere in the mid-west would be more different, but in my imagining Arizona is about the complete opposite of Washington.

How did we do that?

Why did we do that?

I can tell you one thing, this is not a giant act of obedience or a "God told us to go" sort of situation. It was more like the opportunity opened up and God said, "Here are two good choices. Either one will be fine."

Not cosmic, I know.

But I recently read something that said that God doesn't speak to everyone in the same way, but how he speaks to one person tends to be consistent. I love that idea. It means that I am not responsible to hear God in the same way that my friend or pastor or dad does, but I am responsible to recognize how God consistently speaks to me.

And I am pretty sure he gives me choices.

This last year of our lives has been long and full of strain. Andy and I have both been worn down, but have tried hard to continue in the things we have felt are important.

The problem is, neither of us have had enough in reserve to feel successful in the areas we want to be significant in our lives. For each of us, things that are very important to us have suffered, simply because our capacity has been too small for our vision.

Once Arizona (Tucson) was on the discussion board, we suddenly were dreaming of what it would be like to rest, to dedicate some time to knowing our boys and knowing each other and knowing ourselves better.

The way we have been living didn't leave much space for going slow or much energy for laughing and playing and trying new things. Do you know that feeling when small changes no longer are enough to keep you healthy? And something in your life needs a serious overhaul? That is what we felt like.

Only we didn't really see it until the legitimate possibility of a move entered into the conversation.

We saw where we were in a new light and decided that we would take an opportunity to make some extra space in our lives.

A significant part of the decision to move has also included Andy taking time off of school. Full time work and full time school have been a huge draw on the time and energy of our family. So for the next year, we have committed to Andy being out of school.

His heart is still turned toward teaching and finishing his education, but our hope is that we will all be better able to make it through the last season of his program when we are rested and recharged.

But besides giving ourselves some space we just really feel like, "Why not?"

We have always said we want to be people who are adventurous, and willing to live in a way that isn't quite traditional and here is a great big chance to do it.

So Arizona, here we come!

We are packing our boxes and looking for houses and building up our iTunes account with new music and podcasts and books on tape because, man, is it going to be a long drive!

In the midst of all the details to get us there we are excited and so looking forward to what might happen as we give our family room to grow deep roots and bear sweet fruit.