Roller coaster

This past year has been quite the roller coaster in our lives. Last spring, Matt's work announced that they were closing down their SLC office and moving. They didn't even say where...just that they were moving. So Matt started applying for jobs all over the country. It seemed like every week, he would come home and say, "How do you feel about Ohio, Indiana, New York, Boston, and so on."

Eventually his job announced they would be moving to Charlotte, NC. Then they changed their minds and decided on Jacksonville, FL. They offered Matt a nice raise and a promotion and a great relocation package and begged him to stay with the company. Then Matt had to start going to Florida one week of every month. It was hard. During the times he was in Florida, he realized that things were way behind schedule for the move and that it was going to be a very long transition. Things were kind of a mess.

In February, I went out there to check it out, and combined with the way things were going in the company and how I felt about Jacksonville after I went out there, we decided not to go.

In the meantime, Matt was still applying for jobs all over the country. He got quite a few offers, but we just didn't feel right about any of them. We even went out to Indiana and Ohio to check out a few locations, but they just didn't feel right. Even though it was super stressful, I feel so extremely blessed to have had so many options. We ended up turning down job offers in Florida, New York, Indiana, 2 in Ohio, and 2 in Ogden.

The job we ended up taking didn't even exist a few months ago. Matt applied for a job that he was overqualified for at Hill Airforce Base here in Utah. When the boss called him, he told Matt that he was overqualified for that particular job, but thought he would be perfect for their office in California and that he was going to create a job for him there if he wanted it. It's a really great opportunity for Matt's career, and the job is something he is really excited about.

We decided to accept that job, not because it felt right, but because it didn't feel wrong. It was really weird. We didn't feel any inspiration that it was the right job, but we just didn't feel like it was wrong like we had all the others. So we started to move forward with it, and hoped the confirmation would come that it was the right decision.

When we finally made the decision to take the job in California, everything seemed to fall into place. He was able to extend his starting date so that he could get a nice bonus at his current job for staying until they closed the SLC office. We were able to sell our house very quickly, and by owner, and saved a ton of money in realtor fees. Seriously, we put it on KSL and had 2 offers within 2 weeks. We only had the For Sale sign out in front for 2 days. We got a good price on it. I like the family that is buying it. We were able to find a house in California that I'm excited about and can move in quickly.

Seriously, this is such a miracle because I have been looking at houses online for about 6 weeks now in California, and it was super discouraging. Everything we looked at was either way too expensive for our budget, or was not in a nice neighborhood, or if it was in a nice neighborhood the inside wasn't well taken care of. Or it was just plain ugly. I was getting really discouraged because I really wanted something I could be excited about. Because I love our house here in Riverton, and I wanted something I could love there too.

Anyway, I kept praying that we would find something to be excited about. We only had 3.5 days to find a home. The house we found came on the market 2 days before we went out there and they accepted our first offer. It's amazing to me what a miracle this is. I feel so very blessed. I'm so thankful to the Lord for answering our prayers, and knowing what was important to me and making that happen. I know He is aware of the details. Even silly little things that were important to me have seemed to fall into place. I'm so grateful for our family and friends who have been praying for us too. I really can see the Lord's hand in all of this.

It has been so hard to be in limbo this past year. But it's so nice to see everything finally starting to come together. I pray that the Lord will continue to guide us in this adventure, and that things will continue to work out as we move forward with this move. If you would have told me a year ago that we would be moving to So. California I would have laughed in your face! This is not something that we would have chosen for ourselves, but I finally am starting to feel that confirmation that we've made the right decision and I believe it's where we need to be right now. I'm so thankful for the Lord's guidance in our lives.