Blessed Beyond Belief

Well, the excitement of the move is wearing off, and the loneliness is settling in...this happens everytime we move to a new place where we don't know anyone. I think I feel it more than Kevin does, especially this time since he was more than happy to leave the people he was interacting with every day. And the girls and I are the ones that left behind our good friends.

We were talking the other night about how thankful we are to be here...we feel at peace here. While you can learn to be content wherever you live, we have experienced a feeling that is rooted in the soul...a feeling of rightness and peacefulness about a place. We felt that about Vermont, both when we lived there and when we visited, and we are feeling that about this new place.

For those who don't know the whole story...here it is....we loved living in Vermont. It was a place that we chose as a couple to make our home after graduate school. The cost of living there is high and we struggled financially, especially at first, but we loved it there. Our second home that we bought was our "dream home". It took us a year to find, but we were happy to have it. I had students that I loved, a church with friends and Kevin had a good job. But he was wanting to do more in his career and it wasn't going to happen in Vermont. So he started interviewing....he interviewed here and was offerred the job, but turned it down because it was a cut in pay and more or less a lateral move. A job at Mayo opened up and it really seemed like that would be the place to advance his career. Although we had never imagined living in Minnesota, we thought it would be a smart move for us...at least for 5 years. And so we did it! It started out great, but quickly turned into Kevin's worst nightmare. His job situation was literally sucking the life out of him.

But God has graciously given us a second chance here....it's almost as if He knew all along that we were supposed to be here, but He let us try what we wanted first. And He has blessed us more than we could ask or imagine....we have a beautiful house and neighborhood, more water than we know what to do with!!!, more beauty than we can capture in pictures, we have already found a church (we never connected with one in MN) and probably more snow than we will have ever wanted! I know He will bring people into our lives that we can connect with, but that will take time. I am so thankful for this fresh start.

Looking back, we don't regret our time in MN. We both grew as individuals and we definitely grew as a family. We are better people because of our experience. And we are thankful for new beginnings and new opportunities.