A new adventure ahead

The cat is finally out of the bag. We are leaving California this summer and heading to the great state of Washington! After a lot prayer, tears, discussion and research, we have come to a place where we feel like this is the right thing for our family.

When we found out that Adrian might be recruited out-of-state, I immediately started praying. Not really to stay in San Diego, or to go to Seattle or Colorado or anywhere else for that matter. I prayed for discernment. That our path would be very clearly revealed to us and we would feel at peace with our decision.

One by one, doors that we thought were opening kept shutting. Jobs that we thought would be perfect weren't. And very clearly, the path for us to Seattle was laid out. Throughout the process, we were scared. We didn't want to go and we kept saying over and over again, let's just take the easy way. Let's just take that crappy job.

Let's not do it.

Let's not follow the plan.

But something would change and then we would remember that this really isn't in our hands anyway. When we told the kids, they were excited; particularly, Gabriel was ecstatic. He, of course, is thinking of all the fun things in Seattle (the Space Needle and orca watching are one of his current obsessions), but we have still been very frank with him.

Mimi and Tata won't be a 45 minute drive away.

Grandma and Grandpa won't be a 3-hour car ride away.

It rains a lot.

You might not be going to Catholic school anymore.

You'll have to make new friends.

But still, even after hearing all of that, he is game for the challenge. He sees it as an adventure, as do we.

Five years ago, we applied for jobs in Seattle. Adrian's business had failed and we wanted to start fresh somewhere and we didn't really know what to do. We didn't get any leads and so we begrudgingly made the trek down to San Diego and lived with family until we could get back on our feet.

Three years ago, when we live in the Imperial Valley we started applying again in Seattle. Just a handful of jobs to see if anything would happen. Nothing. Then we were back in San Diego and comfortable and we didn't want to leave.

You just never know where life will take you. I feel comforted and at peace. I feel excited and happy and scared and nervous!

One of the exciting things about this new adventure is that we are going to take a week-long trip up the coast to get to our new home. Adrian's company is going to pay for the trip and we get to explore the entire West Coast.

So, when Adrian leaves next week, I will be keeping myself busy by finding the best places to go along the way, delicious restaurants and cool sights, all the while counting down the days until we can make our way to our new home!