Tuesday, November 9, 2010

The Beginning of a Great Story

I'm surprised it has taken me this long to write this blog post, but life has been a little busy the last week and some change. 

I say "Great Story" because inevitably any story in which you know God has a hand is going to be great, no matter how it turns out or where you end up.  God doesn't do less than "great".

The day after our anniversary, Adam went to a meeting at work where he found out that voluntary separation and layoffs were being offered to hourly and exempt employees.  He originally didn't think much of it as we had no intention of leaving Pella Corp/moving from Pella.  The next day he found out that severance was offered with the separation, and so the story began.

On our drive to Des Moines that night to go out to dinner for our anniversary, Adam told me about this.  We started joking about ha, ha, wouldn't it be fun/funny if, and maybe we should, and well, it wouldn't hurt to try... and so began the task of applying to a few jobs we found online in... Colorado.

Yes, Colorado has been a dream of ours for a few years... ever since we first visited in 2005 and then the dream was not squashed at all by our fly-by visit in 2008 with a child in tow.  It has been in the back of our minds, yes, but we also aren't ones to intentionally rock the boat, so other than planning a "scoping" trip for January, we had no real intention of moving there.  It was a "maybe".

So, we decided that we would take a stab and apply for a few jobs... if there were any bites, we would take that as our sign from God that Adam was supposed to take the separation and we were supposed to move.

No bites.

Fast forward to a week ago Sunday (October 31st), and Adam returns from a weekend of watching the Hawkeyes beat on Michigan State.  We talk and discuss... neither of us was sure if we had really heard God speaking one way or the other about taking the separation regardless of whether we heard back from the jobs or not... sure, we had a few coincidences that week, but nothing STRIKING, and we went to bed knowing we would stay put in Pella for a few more years.  (The coincidences sure were fun, though... a great "statement" in a Bible study I'm doing, a quote from Star Trek, running into our realtor from SIX YEARS AGO twice in one week...)

So, it was a bit surprising when Adam shook me awake Monday morning with the exclamation that he was supposed to take the separation; he "heard" during his prayer/Bible study time that morning... and with a well wish, I sent him off to work and life has been exciting and whirl-windish ever since then.

What we do know right now...
 
Adam's last day at Pella Corp is January 28th.  Contrary to some belief, Adam isn't leaving for any personal or personnel reasons... he likes his boss(es), he likes his work... this simply feels like the right thing for us to be doing.
 
We don't know where we will end up. We like the idea of Colorado; we like Colorado.  But, God might have different plans for us, so we're taking it one day at a time.
 
Because we do feel like we know we won't be staying in Pella, we are putting our house on the market.  We had a good walk through with our realtor today (the same realtor we coincidentally saw twice... ha!), and with a little more work, we will be ready to list next week.  We plan to have our house go on the market next Thursday.  A realtor walk through will take place on the following Tuesday, and we will be praying and hoping for some bites.

Adam has applied for a few more jobs, but as mentioned above, we're taking this one day at a time.  There's a lot that goes into this... more than what I'm willing to discuss on an open blog, but suffice to say that we do feel like we made the right decision and we feel like no matter what and no matter how and no matter where, things will turn out as they should be.  For the most part, while busy, I'm staying stress free... which is a new modus operandi for me!  Heh!

And, if you want to see our house the CLEANEST it ever has been... and I mean, cleanest... as in, it wasn't this clean when we bought it... it is CLEAN... stop on by.  Sign a purchase contract on your way through, please. 

erin

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Good luck to you guys!!

Rayelle said...

Interesting... wait till you read my blog... God is faithful.

Becky said...

You are beginning on a fun and scary journey! I know the feeling about the clean house... I keep wishing that this one was as clean as the one back in La Crosse was all summer!