Aspen Grove, August 2011
I have been thinking about posting the story of our relocation to California all summer long, but it just didn't make sense until everything was done. And, even now, as I'm writing this, it's still not over. But, it's as over as it'll be for at least a few more months. I'm writing all the details for my own journaling, but I'll bold the important details, if you want a quick read.
When we bought our house in 2007, the plan was to stay for about 5 years. Morgan wasn't even born yet, so we weren't concerned about schools. Then, once we moved in, we began talking with different people and found out about a few schools in the area that were good. So, when the economy turned sour in 2008/2009, we weren't too concerned because we had school options. By this time, we had realized that we didn't want to be in Colorado long term, but would put Morgan in a good school, and just wait for the economy to turn around.
This past year,
we applied to 5 different charter schools out in our area, thinking that Morgan would be accepted to at least one. By early April, we had heard from all 5.
Morgan was not accepted to any of the schools. We prayed about our current dilemma and felt strongly that Morgan was not to go to school in Colorado. In fact, I remember we were at "the park Megan showed us" (Morgan's official title) when I said to Brian, "What do we do?" and he
confidently replied,
"We're moving." (Note: that's definitely
NOT a Brian thing to say. He and I
both always have a plan, and follow it precisely. We
rarely don't just act without reason, especially on big things, like moving 3 states away!) And so begins the story of summer 2011.
Now that we had decided to move, we needed to actually do something about it. We knew this whole process would require a lot of faith and trust in the Lord's timing, not ours. He always has a better plan, and, looking back, his plan turned out to be better than any we could have made!
The day after we decided to move, I started looking into renting our house and Brian started looking into the Southern California job market. Two days later, we had
found someone to rent our house. The whole situation kind of fell into our laps. Normally, this would be crazy to rent out your house before finding a new place/job. But, it felt right, so we signed a contract and prepared to move out mid-June.
Meanwhile, back on the job front,
Brian arranged to transfer within his company down to Irvine. However, it wouldn't be until the end of the summer. Unfortunately for us, this meant that we needed to find another place in Colorado to live until then. We were fortunate to find an apartment complex willing to give us a short-term (we were only there 10 weeks) lease. However, the timing was such that
we moved the first time (into an apartment) when I was 34 weeks pregnant!
As moving out of our house and my due date quickly approached, I panicked about going into labor. I went so fast with Sadie, I wouldn't have time to take the girls up to a friend's house and then drive back to the hospital in time. My mom wasn't able to come out, and she suggested I talk to my new RS president as soon as we moved. But, I felt awkward moving into a ward with a loaded plate of "service opportunities" for
others to fulfill. Plus, would my girls feel comfortable being dropped off at some stranger's (to them, not me!) house while I went to the hospital?
Enter in another blessing from our Heavenly Father! Our neighbors just across the hall in our complex (like you can open our door and theirs and see into each others' homes) ended up being Morgan's Primary teachers! Plus, they have a little boy Sadie's age, so we got together to play often! We were saved!
{In fact, when I did go into labor (in the middle of the night), Brian just brought the baby monitor to Charlotte with a key to our place and off we went! Plus, because I did go so fast, he was home from the hospital before they even woke up the next morning!}
Four short weeks after
Carson was born, we got ready to move again! We first went to a
family reunion in Utah, and then drove on to California from there.
Morgan started kindergarten and we started
getting settled into my parents' house. Since Brian's official transfer date was September 1st, he flew back to Denver to work for about a week and then I flew back to pack up and ride down in a moving truck with him.
Labor Day weekend, we officially moved to California.
It has now been two weeks and we're starting to get into some sort of a routine. We're so grateful for my parents' willingness to let us stay with them until we figure things out. We're not quite sure what the Lord has planned for our future, so stay tuned for more updates!
