You’re moving where…And for what?!
Have you ever gotten that strong nudge that you HAD to go try that one thing or else you’d spend the rest of your life wondering? That feeling of “We could always come back to your comfort zone when it’s all said and done”… but we won’t ever forgive ourselves if we don’t jump out of that zone head first and try? That realization that God’s will can be really scary…and super exciting at the same time? Hiii, that’s us 😉
Dex and I were both born and raised in Colorado, and all of our wonderful family resides in Colorado. So when people look at us like we must be crazy for leaving the state, we get it 🙂 We are surrounded by people we love, we are comfortable, and we have everything we could need for a good life. But we’ve also learned that we are not called to comfort and convenience in this life, we are called to do His will.
Homeschool for the kids and remote work for Dex have blessed us with the ability to be able to move anywhere. For the past three years, we have prayed and prayed to simply hear where God is calling our family to be in life. We’ve experienced the unique opportunity to be detached from desiring to go anywhere in particular but instead have been blessed with an intense desire to go where He leads us. Was I secretly hoping He’d call us to Hawaii or the Maldives or the sandy beaches of Florida? Maybe 🙂
We have spent three years waiting to hear, trying not to force anything amidst the impatience that can come with waiting, but rather just trying to take in all of the beautiful people and experiences Colorado has blessed us with.
In March we started a month-long prayer, specifically dedicated to our future living place and Dex’s future job. Three weeks into that month of praying, a job description popped up for Dex that had a very unique combination of skill sets that Dex happened to have experience in and that also offered the exciting challenge he had been looking for. We didn’t put too much serious thought into it, but he applied for the job and on April 13th with nothing to lose, him and I were flown out to Omaha for the final interview. Because my least favorite thing in the world to do is leave my babies (particularly that sweet age of two that is still always wanting to be snuggled by mama) we were only there for a short 10 hours 😉 From that moment forward, everything started to fall into place and doors started to open too simply, too clearly, and in a manner too convicting to ignore.
When I started to research the homeschool options in the area of his work, I was blown away by the dense population of homeschoolers in the area and the amount of hybrid options (hybrid: a collaborative type of education where kids are home three days a week and at school two days a week with parents and teachers working together). To have more than one option within driving distance is a little bit foreign to us where we live, so the thought of multiple options of part-time school resources, along with a population of like-minded parents, made the prospect of moving there for the job even sweeter.
It didn’t take long into starting homeschool for us to realize that it’s a lot less about school with your kids and a lot more about life with your kids….A lot less about picking the right curriculum and extracurriculars and a lot more about picking the right time and space to explore, be creative, and live 🙂 Given that most of our day is spent playing + exploring after we are done with school mid-morning, we realized that one of our biggest dreams was to have more land for the kids to run on.
Two weeks after the job interview, Dex drove out to look at the house we had caught a glimpse of online. He walked through, pictured our kids running on those two acres next to farmland, and he put in an offer. One month after the job interview, we closed on that house. That action alone lifted an incredibly great burden that had been on my mind and heart, knowing our kids would have a childhood full of exploration…now out their back door. Want to know another, unexpectedly, incredibly freeing part? The level of surrender that came with buying a house I had never seen 😉 I love control, and not even desiring control over that was a great blessing and joy.
We’ve lived in our current Colorado home for six years. This house has gifted us with a wonderful place to lay the foundation of our family and to help us navigate just how we want to raise our kids. It is in this home that our family mission became ever so clear. It was in this home that we learned our kids absolutely thrive in moments of simplicity and peace, so we knew our future home needed to lend itself to that.
Most assume we needed to move for work. Because, let’s be honest, who is eager to give up living by family, temperate weather, and gorgeous mountain views for humidity, bugs, and knowing not a soul?! 😉
(Side note: the last time we picked up and left Colorado to head to the Midwest to a place where we knew no one-college-we found each other so it turned ok;), annnd the last time we went against the norm-schooling-it gifted us some of our greatest joys).
Did Dex have to find a new job? No. In fact, he loves his current job so much that he is sticking with it since it can be done remotely. It only requires part time hours, so he can do both his current job and his future job alongside each other.
Why are we moving? Because He has called us to. He’s called us to a life of simplicity, to a life focused on relationships over things, to a life focused on being rather than doing, on true childhood over the rat race our culture has tempted us with, and on a community of faith-filled, like minded people on this parenting and teaching journey.
Are we scared? A little 🙂 Are we excited? A lot 🙂
It’s been a fast and furious whirlwind of seven weeks from not knowing where and when we will be in life to walking into our new home. While we’ve felt all of the feelings that come with leaving a home we brought three babies home to, where we spent priceless time with grandparents right next door, where we started the rich journey of doing life and school together, and where we realized we’re not called to comfortably settle with our desires but to stretch ourselves for His desires….we are unbelievably excited for what this next adventure will bring us, because we know His graces await.
Another sweet aspect of preparing to leave one place and head to another has been evaluating what parts of us, as parents, we want to leave behind and not take with us, as well of what parts of us we want to uncover and bring out of us to our new home. After a decade of parenting, and continuing to soak in all the wisdom of older parents who have done it before us, it’s been a gift (a painful and a hopeful gift at that) to get a moment to put this fast-paced life on pause to realize + plan how we can strive to become even better versions of ourselves, particularly better parents for the sweet souls God has lent to us for a short 18 years. We’ve learned zoomed out perspective always bears fruit.
Will we be in Omaha forever? We have no idea 🙂 We could be there a year, a decade, or forever. But, after following His will once and feeling the peaceful invigoration that comes with it, we will do again if and when He calls us to. After all, no state or country is our final destination when our eyes are set on eternity, is it?
Thanks for your encouragement, prayers, and love as we transition from sweet home Colorado to sweet home Nebraska 🙂
“The world offers you comfort. But you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness.”
-Pope Benedict XVI
The Cures
We 1000% recommend investing in a family film by Colorado Lifestyle Photography. We will treasure this glimpse into the sweet phase of life we were blessed with in Colorado forever!!
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