Is This Real?

(Spoiler: Yes, yes it is real!)

I am currently sitting in our apartment unpacking our things. This time last week I was hanging out with Charlotte at the Fountains completely unaware that I would be packing the next day. (Tuesday is still free train day and she's not in school on that day.) Things happened really fast and the biggest miracle is that I felt minimal stress.

When Jonathan first interviewed for his job at IBM, they made it clear that we would not be working in the office. While we love living in Roseville, we still wanted to try living somewhere new to us and with a lower cost of living. We thought about Phoenix, Tuscan, El Paso, and finally settled on the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I did lots of research on each area and found apartments. With the final plan, I made an extensive spreadsheet with all the apartments we wanted to check out that included the ward meeting times and building location. I also made a map of many stores and restaurants that we already like that are in the area. We were going to stay in Roseville until Jonathan got paid and take a trip to visit the apartments and have it set up for when we would move. I honestly thought we wouldn't leave until November.

Last Monday Jonathan talked to the headhunter and asked if he could be in Austin on Wednesday. As in TWO days later. Jonathan told him that he would need more time, but that he was told he would work remotely. The headhunter didn't know about it and said he would call as soon as he got more information. I got rather stressed thinking that there is no way we could get out there, but I still looked at flights for Jonathan thinking that they just might need him in the office for a few days to get him set up and then have him work remotely. There was no call with more information, so I convinced myself that we weren't going to actually be moving. Jonathan played it safe and reserved a moving truck just in case if we needed it. I spent the evening with Amy and Mike's kids because they both had parent meetings with Garrett's school. I got to help Garrett do his homework and it wasn't too terribly painful. Charlotte was upset though that I wasn't able to play with her as much as she wanted.

On Tuesday I decided to make it up to Charlotte by taking her to the Fountains for a train ride and some sweet treats. Moving to Austin wasn't even in my head as a real possibility. On Wednesday morning we finally got a call back from the headhunter. The team at IBM wanted Jonathan in the office because of his lack of experience. We started getting things ready. We got the truck and started packing what we already had at my parent's house in the morning. By that night we had everything out of our storage unit (thanks to help from Thomas) and everything else ready to be loaded the following morning. We went over to Andy and Amy's house to say our goodbyes. As we were hanging out, Andy pulled up pictures of Austin and places we could move to since we didn't have an apartment lined up. Tyler was pretty upset about our move, but I reminded him that this time we will have enough money to come back and visit.

The next morning Amy brought Spencer and Charlotte over and then got Garrett out of school for a "doctor's appointment". When she told Charlotte that we were moving to Texas she said, "What?! Texas?!? Dey are gonna die therr!" Her kids are very informed about the natural disasters that have been happening. After they left, we got the rest of our stuff packed and we hit the road.

Before we left Jonathan said a prayer for our safety and gratitude for this opportunity. He felt like things worked out the way they did because of our faithfulness over the years. From going to the temple, to magnifying our calling in nursery, to following the revelations we have received for our family.

Our last California sunset for awhile.

The most eventful thing that happened along the way was accidentally hitting a bird somewhere in the middle of Arizona.

In evening in Arizona, we saw two rainbows and just like our previous move I took those to mean that we were making the right decision.

We drove through New Mexico in the dark, so I still have yet to really experience it. We made it to El Paso safely though.

It took us all day, but we finally made it to Austin. The day started out with on and off down pours, but then it was a beautiful day. It's hard to comprehend how massive Texas is, but it took us just as long to go from El Paso to Austin as it did to go from Palm Desert to El Paso and we were in four states.

First thing we did Sunday morning was find a ward and go to church. It was a wonderful service and we were sitting behind some of the funniest kids. The two oldest were very intent on getting their snacks. We left a little bit early because we were switching rooms at our hotel and it was getting a little too close to check out time. Since Jonathan was going to be at work the next day, we went apartment shopping. It was weird doing it on Sunday, but we knew that Heavenly Father was aware of our time crunch and we felt like we should go ahead and do it.

I looked at apartments online before going to church so we would have a good idea about where to start looking. The last one I saw was the first one I wanted to check out. We say it and loved it. We filled out all of the paperwork and got the keys to it that same day. Jonathan is literally 4 blocks away from work.

It's not the biggest place we've lived in, but we really don't need much and it is still so new.

After we left our apartment for the night, we drove by IBM to see exactly where Jonathan would work.

Everything felt so surreal that on Jonathan's first day I had him text me just to verify that it really was happening.

I posted last night on Instagram about how Monday was a day that we lived our dreams. I hope it wasn't too boastful because that's not the point. The point is that we worked with God to get to where we are today. Nothing in these past two months happened by accident even though most people would say it was just a bunch of happy coincidences. I know it wasn't. For all of these years we have been very careful about our decisions and made sacrifices that we would never have made without Heavenly Father asking us to make them. He really does want to make our dreams come true, but it requires something on our part. More than just thinking it would be really nice if this happened. It takes dedication and obedience. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to push my will on the Lord. I am so grateful for His patience with me during those times. He truly understands us and has a glorious future for each of us. I know that we are still going to have hard times ahead, but I'll be prepared to continue to follow Him because I know He has a plan for me.