After the offer came in we still weren’t sold on relocating to the PNW. We have family, friends, and our church that we had been involved in. We have roots here. The kind of roots that run really deep and would be really hard to sever. We have an incredible church, one that has profoundly changed our faith. Our children attend one of the most incredible schools I’ve ever been a part of (and I’m a teacher so I’ve been in plenty). We have been named godparents to TWO of the babies being born to our sweet family and friends in the upcoming months. It’s a lot to leave.
This weekend we went to our usual church service, took our usual seats, and with conflicted hearts we hoped to hear the whisper of the Holy Spirit give us a nudge towards something. Well, there was not a nudge, there was a forceful shove and the whisper was more like a shout. It came through Debbie’s voice as she preached about…the Holy Spirit. We were celebrating Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit. She started talking about all the times she’d chosen to walk through the doors God had opened for her, and the few times she hadn’t. Cue our cousin and dear friend, Maggie turning around to give us a knowing look. Debbie spoke of how God wants us to walk through the doors, he wants us to “say yes to adventure.” Cue Maggie, again. Little did Debbie know that the phrase she just spoke was one of our family values. Word. for. word. Got it, Holy Spirit. I hear you. That wasn’t it though because the more of the sermon continued around this and then, THEN, our worship leader, Christian, had the audacity to sing a song that repeated over and over the phrase “We won’t move without you.” Yes, you know what’s coming. Cue Maggie. Again. It was if the whole service was directed at us. We hadn’t told anyone outside of close friends and family what was going on and we walked out teary-eyed. Brandon shared what was going on with a church friend. She told us we should just forget everything Debbie had just said. It certainly was not meant for us. But she knew it was, and we didn’t want to admit it any more than she did.
So we have decided to make this leap. We are walking through that door. We are saying yes to adventure. We are trying to lead by example for our kiddos, both following through on our values and listening to the Holy Spirit when He calls. We struggled through this choice and in the end it was clear what we needed to do. In the end the question became, “…but what will it look like if we don’t go…” and the answer to that question gave us the answer we needed.
In need of a push to listen to the Holy Spirit? Check out the sermon that changed the trajectory of our lives here:
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