BIG News!

In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.
-Proverbs 16:9

Guess….what….

We are MOVING!

Not just to a new house across town, but to an entirely new town more than hour away from here!

Allow me to explain…

Some of you know a little bit about how our lives were turned upside down last August…

Shane’s employer announced last fall that they would be closing their office in Waterloo. We were told we would have an option to move to Oak Creek, WI, otherwise Shane would not have a job. This sent us into a spiral of emotions.

Thankfully, a small, select group of people were allowed to keep their jobs in Waterloo…Shane being one of them! Praise the Lord!

When all of this happened, we were on a roller coaster of thoughts and emotions! I was in shock and had pretty much dug my feet in the ground and told Shane I couldn’t move to Wisconsin.

After we found out we could stay in Waterloo, God definitely began to work on me. Shane and I really believe that he had used the “scare” of having to move to open our eyes to his plans for us.

As the months went on, Shane felt as though he should probably keep his eyes open for a new job. The job security of his current job really wasn’t something we could count on.

Shane found a couple job options, but nothing that was panning out perfectly here in the Cedar Valley. He and I decided that we would be open to him looking outside the Cedar Valley. We thought about Des Moines, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago was even a (small) option!

I was a little stressed about the thought of moving to a bigger city, but also knew that at some point we could be in the same position we were in last August…desperate for a job, without the luxury of time to find one. The thought of finding all new doctors for Zay was overwhelming to me as well. We LOVE our doctors in Iowa City, and they’ve known Zay since he was born. Not generally something that is taken into consideration while job searching, however this was a big factor for us.

Then a couple months ago a recruiter contacted Shane. Up until this point Shane hadn’t been working with a recruiter. Like I said before, we weren’t necessarily desperate for him to find a new job, we just wanted to keep our options open and were ready to jump when the opportunity presented itself.

The recruiter worked for Pearson Education in Iowa City.

Shane went through the whole process…phone interview, in-person interview, intelligence test, references, negotiating, and finally ACCEPTED a position at Pearson!

What this all means? We will be eventually moving to the Iowa City area. And Zay and I will be transitioning into spending everyday together! I think I’ll save a whole other blogpost just on my feelings about becoming a stay at home mom! Words can’t begin to describe my excitement, as well as my fears about this new role!

Overall, this is a VERY bittersweet announcement for us.

I’m trying VERY hard to focus mainly on the excitement of this new chapter in our lives, but with moving comes a lot of sadness. The Cedar Valley has been our home for over 9 years. This is where we both went to college. Where we met. Where we bought our first house. Where we had our first baby. Not to mention, we have so many friends here! We have a fantastic church here. We have the most amazing small group here. We have an incredible babysitter right down the street. We have neighbors, families, coworkers, committee members, basketball and volleyball teams, even just acquaintances that we are going to miss so much, it brings me to tears just thinking about saying goodbye. There are SO many things we are going to miss about the Cedar Valley.

With all that being said, we feel incredibly blessed. God has definitely led us through this important decision. He has completely blessed us with the location we are moving to. And one of the biggest reliefs…we don’t have to change doctors!

Now, for the next step…we will be preparing our house to sell! We have a few projects we’d like to complete before we put it on the market, but we are praying for the perfect buyer. I love this house and we have so many memories here. I hope that someone else will come and see our home as a place to make their family’s memories too.

Bittersweet thoughts to say the least.

In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.
-Proverbs 16:9