(One of) The Day(s) That Changed My Life Forever, So Far. . . . . .

It's been one year since we left our families, friends, church, my job, what feels like our entire lives and headed west on a new adventure. At first, I felt so bad for those first women who really did give up everything to pioneer the West with husbands they barely knew. All they had were letters that took probably months, if ever, to get delivered. I, at least, have phones and texting, internet with Facebook and blogging. But it wasn't long before I began to feel pretty alone myself. Thankfully, it did not last for long.


Our first few months were consumed with the move and mostly, for me, with the scare of breast cancer that was delivered just days before leaving (what my husband has conditioned me to now call "old home" because I still call it. . . ) home.  I never knew the first thing I would have to do here would be find a series of doctors. Having walked with my mom through her breast cancer I knew what could be ahead, but although admittedly scared, I was always at peace. God is good. I am healthy. Yes, even though I have Fibro I consider myself healthy, at least in this sense, because I'm not terminal.


However, that experience did get us moving quickly to find a church to sink our feet into. I had imagined us taking our time and visiting several churches. But the morning that we were to visit our third church I just asked Rob "can we go back to the second one? I think it's the one." We quickly got involved, joined a small group, I began attending ladies' Bible study, we went through Financial Peace University again.


It wasn't long though before Rob and I realized that we were having to learn to live together for the first time. Essentially for the first eight years of our marriage we had a long distance marriage. He traveled most of the time and we saw each other on the weekends. We moved here so that he could be home. So now we were living together for the first time really. It was like being newlyweds without all the mushy gushy stuff to get us through. But we made it through, much quicker than the first adjustment to marriage thanks to the prayer and support of our new church friends. The holidays were hard being away from our families for the first time, but both our parents came for a visit and we went home for Thanksgiving.

In the process of decorating the nursery

It was then that Rob and I felt called to start fostering newborns. We've been in that process since January. We've been training for the last three months. But we've just completed training. Yay! Though the paper process seems non-ending. The next step is all the home visits, fire and health department inspections. TB tests, physicals, etc. I am so concerned that I'll have to drive all over town trying to find a doctor that will sign off on me because they have to sign off on us be "able" to take care of up to four children even though I'm only getting one. Good news is they are saying will be verified soon. Then we get licensed by the state.

We have definitely made a new life for ourselves here. I don't know how people make a move like this without God, without being a part of His family. To be able to walk into a church and have a connection with people. They took us in, we made new friends. We're building a new life and a new home. What a difference a year can make.