So It Begins

I'd like to start at the beginning of our adventure. It's always a little hard to play catch-up, but I really want this blog to be a complete (ish) account documenting our time here in Texas.

Rather than spelling out the whole story, I'll just let you take a small look at our December and January calendar:

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat
15 (Dec)	16 Finals start	17 Fly-out to Walmart (AR)	18 Return from AR	19 Phone interview with BNSF	20 Blake finishes his degree	21
22 Fly-out to BNSF (TX)	23 Return from TX	24	25	26 Job offer from BNSF	27 Accepted Job Offer; inform Walmart	28
29 A blur of cancelling contracts, signing new contracts, holidays, spending time with family, figuring out documentation for work and relocation packages, tying up loose ends, figuring out when and how to get ourselves and our stuff to Texas, packing, and cleaning.	30	31	1 (Jan)	2	3	4
5	6	7 Moved out of apartment	8 Drove 13+ hours	9 Drove 9+ hours to arrive in Texas. Moved in.	10	11
12	13 Blake started training	14	15	16	17	18

Kind of a wild ride, huh. Blake got the job offer from BNSF and two weeks later, we were sitting in the living room of our apartment in Texas, surrounded by boxes and wondering what in the world just happened.

Through October and November, we were pretty concerned that we weren't really hearing back from the companies Blake was applying for. He had done so much with networking, applying to jobs, following up--everything you're supposed to do--and we just hadn't been able to secure a good job anywhere that would be a good career launch for Blake. 

Remember Elder Bednar's talk from the most recent General Conference?:

We may need and pray for help to find suitable employment. Eyes and ears of faith are needed, however, to recognize the spiritual gift of enhanced discernment that can empower us to identify job opportunities that many other people might overlook—or the blessing of greater personal determination to search harder and longer for a position than other people may be able or willing to do. We might want and expect a job offer, but the blessing that comes to us through heavenly windows may be greater capacity to act and change our own circumstances rather than expecting our circumstances to be changed by someone or something else.

One Sunday in November, we discussed this together and I was so impressed and humbled to see Blake respond the next day with an aggressive push to find and secure a great job for our family--a push that didn't let up. His efforts to change our circumstances were magnified and blessed, and here we are in Texas. Looking back, I'm grateful that things didn't work out right from the get-go... that we really had to work to see this one through. We were able to learn some important things as a partnership about relying on each other and on the Lord.

Our road took us to a different place than either of us imagined, but it's the right place to be. Texas has been good to us and we're ready to make it home for the next little while.