One Year (A Long Post)

I can't believe it's been a whole year! One year ago today we moved into our house here in Texas.
A little background...

This is the house we had in Florida. Tim owned this when I met him 14 years ago. He was born and raised in Florida; I moved there shortly before I met him. We had our wedding reception in the backyard, brought home our first baby, had countless family celebrations and holidays, consoled each other through miscarriages and heartaches, had lots of laughter and fights, saw the beginning of my business and the beginning and end of his. We honestly thought we'd never leave.

Because of my business, we'd been coming to Fort Worth once a year for eight years. We always enjoyed it and joked about moving here. Never really serious, we always returned home to Florida. 

After our trip in July of 2013, Tim did a little research about possible jobs in and around Fort Worth. He found a few and, just for kicks and grins, he applied. He was unhappy in his current job in Florida and applied a few places locally as well.

A couple months went by and we didn't hear anything. In September, we found out we were expecting our second baby. After two miscarriages, we were more than a little apprehensive about the whole thing and didn't want to tell anyone. A couple weeks later, Tim heard from the City of Dallas. They wanted him to come for an interview. We took a leap of faith, booked a flight, and he flew out to Dallas. 

The wheels of city government grind slowly (usually). We assumed, if he was considered for the position at all, it would be several months before we heard anything. But God works in funny ways. Tim was hired on the spot and told he needed to start work in 6 weeks. 

I still shake my head in amazement when I stop and think about it. We had no money to move, no place to live when we arrived, and I was 9 weeks pregnant. But, through the grace of God (because no other way would we have been able to pull it off) and with the help of wonderful friends, we raised the money, packed the house, found a place to live through a friend of a friend, and left Florida on December 2.

What a move! We were behind schedule the entire time, and then disaster struck in Mississippi.

My poor station wagon

Tim and Hope were in the U-Haul and I was in the car. We had gotten separated in Alabama due to a low bridge the truck wouldn't fit under, and, rather than trying to backtrack and meet up, we picked a via point to meet. I was trying to change lanes to allow another car onto the highway when a car appeared out of nowhere in the other lane. I swerved to avoid hitting it and my car spun 360 degrees, slammed into a guardrail, spun again and slid down into a ditch.

 

The guardrail I hit and the ditch I ended up in

Don't tell me miracles don't happen. There were no other cars involved. I walked away from that accident with nothing more than a bruised leg that had me limping for about a week and a broken pair of glasses. No other injuries and my sweet baby (Alex!) was perfectly fine.

We were now short a car and a day behind schedule. Another unexpected event met us when we arrived in Texas. Ice! And a lot of it! The whole Dallas Metroplex was shut down. We had to spend another night in a hotel because there was no heat in our house until we could meet with the gas man later that day.

Our house when we arrived in Texas

Our poor Florida dog with no idea why it was so cold

Because of the ice storm, Tim wasn't able to finish his paperwork and testing for his new job on time and didn't start work for another two weeks. It was a lean Christmas.

Our living room that first month

But we continued to hold onto the belief that God had brought us here for a reason. Adversity had struck us but we were all still together and surviving.

2014 arrived, and with it, an invitation from our neighbor to come to her church. We met a small group of people who have become family to us. Without them, it would have been a much more difficult year. 

Our blessings grew as we added two new members to our family and watched them grow.

Hard to believe Smores was this tiny when we got him in April

The same can be said of Alex in May

We've made friends. We've enjoyed outings to zoos and fairs, rodeos and parks. We've celebrated holidays and dealt with postpartum depression. We've seen my business start to grow. We've had lots of fights and lots of laughter. We still miss our friends and family in Florida, and it will always feel like home.

But we've made a home in Texas. We still believe with all our hearts that God brought us here for a reason. And I can't wait to see what the new year brings!

If you made it this far, I salute you. Thanks for reading and looking, and thanks for all the support you've given me over this last year. It's lonely starting over in a new place, and I've really treasured all your comments.

Blessings :-)

P.S. To my ultra best friend in Florida who has always stood by me and continues to give me wings when I've forgotten how to fly (you know who you are!), if I don't say it enough, thank you. I am counting the days until you and the boys arrive in January!

Today's Inspiration

Photo Credit