The Move

“You’re leaving Rolls-Royce?  Are you crazy?”
My co-worker stared at me in shock after hearing the news, and I wondered if maybe I was a little crazy for making this life altering decision.  But it was definitely too late to turn back now.

I distinctly remember my first moments in Indiana.
We had left West Virginia well before dawn and somewhere along the way, shrouded by the darkness of early morning, I fell asleep in the car.  I woke up to see the land rushing past us in a blur.  We were surrounded by fields and flatness, there were no hills to block the view.  The giant orange sun was rising slowly rising in the sky, the pink and purple hues reflecting off of enormous puffy clouds.  It was beautiful, and I was filled with the hope and the anticipation of a new college graduate.  The world was mine for the taking.  I was naive and innocent, believing in goodness and love and dreams that actually came true.  And so excited to start life in a brand new state, which might as well have been a brand new world.
We had arrived in Indiana, our new home.

That was almost 15 years ago.  In that time I've gotten used to the vast expanses of sky, the large buildings of the city.  The traffic, the wide straight roads.  Some parts of me have merged into those of a Hoosier.  How could it not, after living here so long?  In the summer we visit the Indianapolis zoo, with the city skyline in the background.  The state fair with its little hands on the farm display, year after year I watched my kids grow up in that exhibit, donning their bright green ball caps and toting their baskets along the path to gather eggs and grain.  Each time they would drive the John Deer tractors until finally the year came that Hunter was simply too old.  That year, my heart broke just a little bit.

We’re used to this life, it is all my children have ever known.  And for so many years, all that I have ever known.
But my life has not turned out as I had once planned.  When arriving in Indiana that frigid January morning, I had no idea what would happen to my family.  I could not have predicted the struggles, the triumphs, and the loneliness of single motherhood.  I could not have predicted the pain, or how it would affect me.
The pain of divorce changed everything for me.  Everything.
I didn't expect to meet Emmett.  I expected even less to marry a man from a town I grew up in.  Where I was born and raised and left after high school.  A town I never expected to live in again.
But with time came wisdom, and a subtle shift in my outlook.  Home is where your heart is, where your children are.  Where your husband is.
A career is important, it helps pay the bills and raise your kids.  But it’s not everything.  Money isn't everything.
I've been at Rolls-Royce for going on 14 years, and I’m leaving for the unknown in the hills of West Virginia.
And those hills are beautiful.  That is where family is, and family is worth far more than gold.
I don’t know what the details are, I don’t know how everything will work out.  I’m losing my security blanket, but we all have to get rid of it sometime.
I know it’s going to be okay, because God is with us.  He’s always been with us.  One day Callie saw God in the trees behind our old house.  She was two years old, staring through the window during the winter months, and I looked but saw nothing but scraggly branches and dried out brush.  She told me God was standing right next to those trees.  And to this day, I believe that she really did see something that I could not.
I see God now too.  I see him in my life.  In meeting and marrying the man that I love.  In selling my house, the way the puzzle pieces have clicked together.  No longer do I fear an empty picture being formed.  It is full, it is complete, and one day I’ll get to see what it is.
I’m not crazy for following my heart, for following God’s plan for my life.
I’m happy, I’m hopeful, and I’m at Peace.
God will always provide.
“And my God shall supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19
Our future is ahead of us, and it is going to be a great one.