What a Difference a Year Makes . . .

Today, my husband Mike posted the following on his Facebook status:

“One year ago today, my life (and the lives of my family) drastically changed. It’s the day we found out the office in which I worked would be closing.

We had good options and more than 90 days notice. We could take a severance package based on seniority, interview for a different position within the company, or “move your desk” and keep the same job in a different location.

The first thing I did after the “all hands” meeting where we received the announcement was to call my wife…I did NOT want her to find out first by watching the TV news.

Once I got home, I got on the computer and researched the web site we were given to investigate our options. Lori got on her computer and looked for home school friendly states. We compared notes, prayed, researched and prayed some more…and we decided on Albuquerque.

That was a year ago. We’ve had trials and challenges, victories and defeats. We miss our old friends and old church…but we’re making new friends and love our new church! The center I work in now has a much better morale and is more relaxed then my old one. At this point, I’d have to call this whole adventure a blessing!”

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He’s right, too! For me, it’s been a scary journey, but one well worth all the researching, planning, packing, having the moving sale, etc . . . it was scary when Mike left for Albuquerque at the end of June, knowing the kids and I wouldn’t be leaving for another month. It was really hard to be on my own for that month, without him to help me get us ready and moved. It was scary knowing I had to trust him to choose a place for us to live, too! (but he did pretty well!) 🙂 And it was REALLY scary when the kids and I set out on our cross-country drive, knowing we were about to begin a brand new life, 1700 miles away, at the end of the longest distance I have ever driven without help! But you know, we did it! I had awesome friends back home in Pt. Huron, MI, who helped me get a moving sale set up (thank you, Phyllis Blount and Kim Milton!), and my awesome friend Phyllis who came and stayed with me from early morning all day each day of the moving sale, who kept my kids for me when I needed to do things without them, who took them each day to VBS at our wonderful church back home (this was the first year I couldn’t do it).

There were wonderful ladies at our church (Sparlingville Baptist Church who brought meals for my children and me during the last four days we were there.

There was a very sweet lady at church who asked if I would sing “one more special” before we left, so I sang the special during our final service, Sunday night, July 30, 2012. At the end of the service, I was just floored when Pastor Milton called the boys and me up to the platform and gave us this beautiful plaque:

Which is proudly displayed in our new home . . .

Yes, it has been a whole new journey for me, for us. It is hard to be so far away from everything and everyone we’ve known and loved. But, we are living someplace where I’ve been wearing sandals all winter! God has placed us in exactly the right church for us (Mesa Baptist Church). We are making friends, and we have an awesome church family here, too! Just as when I had surgery back in Michigan, and our church family helped so much, with meals and such, when Mike had his back surgery this past December, our new church family rallied ’round, and we had meals, and someone to stay with our kids for the day (thank you, Charles & Charlie Wright!). Then, when less than six weeks later, he wound up back in the hospital for surgery on his back AGAIN, with less than 24 hours notice our church family was here for us again. We had two ladies here the next day with practically no notice (thank you, Ann Wright & Rose Yates!), to stay with our kids so I could be at the hospital with Mike. They took them to church that night (it was a Wednesday) and I met them there for service and took the boys home. And, again, ladies from church provided meals for us. As did three different people from our Thursday Home school Park Day group.

We enjoy Albuquerque, New Mexico, more than I thought we would. I’m even getting used to the big-ness of it, in comparison to Port Huron, Michigan. I’m getting used to the traffic, and getting used to spending much more time in the car, as everything is further apart than it was in the Port Huron area (hey, Pt. Huron is about seven square miles in area, and Albuquerque is 187 square mile in area! It’s quite a change to get used to, lol!)

Tonight, we went somewhere for supper that we’ve never been before, Chik-Fil-A, where for the first time in over two years, I was in a restaurant where they had something other than water for me to drink! I don’t do carbonated anything anymore, and no sugar drinks. This place has an awesome fresh squeezed diet lemonade. GOOD, GOOD, GOOD!

Since moving here, I even have worked up the courage to do something I’ve wanted to do for some time, I applied for, and was accepted as a member of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Schoolhouse Review Crew. I’ve wanted to get back into writing, and it is helping me to be more disciplined about getting on here more regularly and writing these posts! I have hopes of writing professionally one day . . .

I have made some good friends at our new church, and have been able to be a help via email to the mom of one of them, who back in October had weight loss surgery herself.

I hope my family is as much of a blessing to our new church family as they have been, and continue to be, to us.

I hope we live here in the Albuquerque area for a long, long time . . . I’ve grown to love it here, it feels like home now, and our church feels like home, too. 🙂