PackUpandGo

Rocking Chairs

Whenever anyone talks to me about moving to Nashville, their first question is always, “How are your parents taking this?” I thought I would take the time to address this question. My parents mean the world to me.  My favorite nights are when Andrew and I go to my parents and watch HGTV and eat pizza and brownies. My mom and I always go out for random shopping trips and my dad and I spend our Saturdays in the summer at junk yards. To say we are close would be an understatement. They are not the kind of people that would stand in the way of our dreams, but they are definitely sad. They have had their moments of “Holy crap, you are actually leaving…” and “You better have rocking chairs on your porch since you will be in the south!”

I can’t tell you enough about my mom. She is one of the coolest women you could ever meet. She is always helping everyone around her and is a huge part of the community. I admire her strength, courage and her love for others. If you drive through Walkerton, you would know her house by the beautiful landscaping that she has worked so hard on through the years. She is who I get my creativity from and my love for decorating shows! I went into teaching because I have watched her work with children all of my life and been in awe of her compassion and patience. She made my childhood incredible. God matched us perfectly. I am who I am because of her. The biggest compliment someone can give me is that I remind them of my mom.

Knowing my mom, she would not appreciate a picture of her on here. But maybe I will try and sneak one someday! 

When asked in my interview for my current teaching job, who is your hero, I got choked up when I answered, my dad. (I couldn’t believe I still got hired after crying in my interview!) He has been through a lot and is even stronger because of it. Our family has had our ups and downs like most families, but our love for each other has sustained us. My dad puts 150% into everything he does and takes meticulous care of everything he owns. He can fix anything. I mean it. He can completely re-wire a Jeep, build a motorcycle from parts or fix a washing machine, just don’t give him a computer…haha! He knows everything about cars and has instilled in me his love for anything with a motor. The best summer of my life was working on a 1972 Jeep CJ-5 with my dad. We would spend hours in the driveway working on that thing even after the air filter caught on fire and when it continued running after we pulled the key out of the ignition. He believed in me and knew I could do whatever I put my mind to. He believed in me even after I almost ran him over…Don’t ask. Words can’t describe the love I have for my father. 

Leaving them makes me sick to my stomach and at times makes me think I cannot do this. Despite the excitement of this new adventure, I have had some pretty rough days. We are leaving everything behind. We don’t have jobs lined up, we don’t have a home to live in, and we won’t know anyone down there… People think we are crazy, I know. Andrew and I are two of those people. The fact that we are so incredibly happy here with fantastic friends and wonderfully close family members, tells us even more that this is a God thing and we need to move to Nashville. Last year when we first entertained the idea, we wanted to get away from everything and start fresh. It just feels right now and if you have read my other posts, you know that God has been encouraging us the entire way. This is scary and sad, but adventures would be boring if there weren’t bumps in the road. 

Wrenches

We had the pleasure of meeting with a very cool woman this past Sunday. She actually had to write a paper for her master’s class about a couple that was going through a big transition in their lives. She said she immediately thought of us! She interviewed us about the entire process of coming to the decision to move to Nashville. It was a great experience for Andrew and I to just talk it through and hear what each other had to say about everything. It really confirmed things for us that we are making the right decision. Thanks, Geri!

There are always wrenches. (My dad would love that I made a reference to a tool!) The saying “that put a wrench in our plans” has a negative connotation to it. The wrench in that saying is a bad thing; something that has thrown off your plans. So in that case, we had a wrench thrown into our plans a few days ago… Long story short, Andrew emailed me during the day and said I needed to call him at lunch. He said nothing life-threatening, but serious. I knew it was something about the house. I was nervous and mad that Andrew was being so ambiguous! I called him at lunch and he said told me about the possibility that we would have to come up with a lot of money on top of closing costs and what not. We were freaking out to say the least. Can’t afford to stay, can’t afford to go. Lovely situation… So that was Tuesday afternoon…

Wrenches can be extremely helpful tools as well. My dad would say that you should be happy if you have wrench especially if you need one. We need wrenches in that we need to stay grounded and know that although we truly believe that God wants us in Nashville, this is not going to be an easy process in the least bit.

Wednesday evening we got a call from our realtor saying that we had our first showing scheduled for Thursday!! We were really excited and surprised that we had one so quickly! We got a call yesterday that the showing went very well. They had a few questions that we expected. Who knows! We are excited at the possibility that our house will sell quickly along with extremely nervous about being nomads for 3 months until the end of the school year.

Andrew ended up figuring everything out after talking to a few people. We aren’t 100% sure yet, but God has shown us too many signs…The adventure continues!