There is no truly easy way to say this, but it is nearing the end of our time in North Central Indiana. We will be moving an hour and a half away to our hometown in Northeastern Indiana. SO… I know you all want to hear our reasoning and how we got to this decision- here goes.
About a month ago Mom got pretty sick and we had to have different friends and family watch Hope while she was trying to recover. On one of those days, I had a mandatory trip to Indy and on the way back, I was driving with the radio off allowing myself to stop and think in silence. When I did that, the first thing that came to my mind was how much I missed being able to take a highway to get to Indy, then my mind slowly drifted to why are we still living in South Bend. This was a question that I really struggled with and thought and prayed on for the hour and a half that remained in my return trip. I got home and relieved my mother in law, and took care of Hope and Mom for the rest of that evening and made arrangements for the next day for someone to watch Hope. The thought of why are we still in South Bend remained as a constant in the back of my mind for the rest of the day and for the remainder of Mom’s illness. Once mom was well, I took her out to dinner and we had a long chat about how this had been weighing on my mind. When we made our list of pros of North Central Indiana and pros of Northeastern Indiana. When the list was done, our pro staying list consisted of our home (which we can sell), our church, Hope’s sister, and a long list of friends. When we did the list of pros for moving home, we had Mom’s Neurologist, mom’s other doctors, both of our families, a much better school system, and a better job market plus a long list of friends. So when we looked at things, it should have been a relative no brainer, but there was a huge psychological block that was keeping us here.
We prayed and spoke with our pastor and prayed a lot more. Our pastor, thought it was pretty obvious that it was time for us to go back to Northeastern Indiana, but we had concerns about moving back to our previous life, which there is no way that it will happen since we came to our current town as newlyweds, and are leaving as a family with a beautiful 2 year old. We won’t be going to every family event on every possible day, nor will we have people over every day or even every week. We have learned to say no, and we want to do that to continue to develop the strength that we have found in each other while living up here.
In the process of seeking guidance from our pastor, we prayed for affirmation from God while we continued to pray but not tell anyone aside from our pastor what we were thinking of doing. Well, our affirmation came last Friday when my contract with the radio station group was terminated. Now I am fully self-employed, we only have a house that we need to be able to sell for what we owe on our mortgage, and then we are free to move. I am actively looking for a full time position that will be enjoyable and very long term. I don’t want to take just another J.O.B., I want something that will be rewarding in more ways than just a paycheck. Knowing me, I will end up back in banking bridging the technology and knowledge gap between Marketing and IT. Long story short, I want something more that I will be happy doing for a long time in the Northeastern Indiana market.
This post has been delayed by a week because we wanted to let as many of you know in a more personal way than a blind blog post. This has been one of the toughest decisions we have ever had to make. Don’t worry though, the girls will still see each other on a regular basis. We know that it is a very important relationship to maintain and it also gives us a very good excuse to come back and see all of our South Bend friends.
As far as the adoption goes, we have hit a snag with the proceedings, we are about to need to file an injunction against the state, but other than saying that we must remain silent since we are in active litigation. This is not an issue that will stop the adoption, but it may delay it while we lead the fight for adoptive and foster parent rights in the state of Indiana. We have made it clear that if this puts the adoption at risk at all, we will cease the litigation, but we want Hope to have access to everything that the written law says she has rights to.
As we transition out of Michiana, we don’t know what God has in store for us, but he has once again affirmed that we should be in Northeastern Indiana as Sarah got very sick this week and Mom had MS symptoms come up to the point that she had to use a cane. If I was working, we may have needed to have family come up again. There is no question that this move is going to be one of the most challenging things we have ever done in our life, but between working on an adoption and keeping MS at bay, we know God will show us the way. When we moved to Michiana in January 2007, we did so in faith without knowing the true meaning of faith and we were still building a marriage. Now with an amazing wife, daughter and dog, we are going to march faithfully into the direction that God is leading us. We know things may get tougher before they get easier, but we will walk and be strong in faith.
Needless to say, please keep us in your prayers as we continue in this transition. It will be a great thing in the end and we are massively looking forward to being back with family and finding a new home. The greatest fear is selling our home, but we know that with our agent and God’s grace we will make it happen.
We will be very sorry to move away from all of our friends who have come our side in the last four years, but we will be back, and it may be a while before we move. Telling our friends has been the hardest part of this decision, but with all of the advice that we had received from our pastor and feedback from friends before we came to a point in life where we could make this decision, we knew we would have everyone’s support. We love all of you and will not be saying good bye, but see you later as we will be back to visit.
