There's a reason we're here.....

I was looking for a post on how we actually ended up in CT. I've told the story many of times, but I can't find a post on it. So I'm going to take a minute and tell that story and then continue with more of what's been happening in the past week (this post was actually written last week, but I didn't get it published until today).....sorry this is so long! If you've heard the story you can skip down to the next section.

It all started last spring, Nathan was almost done with his MATS degree, he had two classes left after he finished spring semester....two classes and he'd be done with his degree. At the rate he was going that was another year. I was getting worn out with him being in school, it had been four years and it was getting long. We discussed the idea of him taking two classes in the fall to complete his degree. After a lot of prayer and seeking counsel and talking through it, Nathan talked to his employer about cutting back his hours in the fall and signed up for two classes. About the time classes started Paragon told his group there was going to be layoffs and they should start looking for jobs. The HR person even offered to help fix up their resumes for them. Nathan took the advice and started looking....as best he could while still working 30 hours a week, taking two classes and co-teaching Children's church with me. He only ended up applying for two jobs. We decided at this point if he was going to change jobs he might as well look outside of Houston since we wanted to move to the North East anyway, so he did. One job was in Rochester, the other obviously was here. He didn't hear anything back from the Rochester one, but got a call back from Goodrich and had a phone interview. This was in October. They told him he was a good fit for the job, but they had the perfect candidate, so thanks but we'll keep you in mind. This was good because Nathan had two research papers he needed to work on for the rest of the semester and that would be all consuming of any time he might have to think about job related things. The day he handed in his last research paper Goodrich called him back, Mr. Perfect had not accepted the offer, would he still be interested? He said sure and they said we'll fly you up for an interview in two weeks. Which happen to be after his finals and after his graduation which his parents and grandmother were coming in for. Could you ask for more perfect timing? He went up for the interview the 21st of December. The interview went fine and they said they'd get back to him. While they shut down for the week in between Christmas and New Years and we waited...we finally heard back from them and they offered him the job....well at this point his old boss at Boeing was able to pull together an offer for him in his old group working for as a subcontractor, Paragon also asked if there was anything they could do to keep him. He did the interview with the Boeing subcontractor and got that offer as well. We had a decision to make, stay or go? It was not made lightly, I will tell you that, but we felt God calling us to go. I was super excited, but knew I would miss my friends, as we had been in Houston eight years and had made some very dear friends! In February we started the crazy adventure called moving. We came up to house hunt and made an offer....it was not the house I wanted that we made the offer on. I really liked the other one better but we both felt this was the house we were supposed to buy. It was hard, really hard moving into a house that I didn't want and didn't really like (ask my parents who unpacked my whole kitchen for me because I couldn't deal with it!).

Anyway we've been here five months now and God has done some really cool things, especially in the past week. The beginning of last week I was talking to God saying something like ok, I get it, you want us here and I'm here, now what? Why am I here? I know God doesn't always show us the answers to these types of prayers and I knew I may not see an answer for years to come, but God in His faithfulness answered that prayer in some big ways. Thursday I had just finished making to dinner take to a mom in my mom's group who had just had a baby and put it in the oven when there was a knock on our door. It was our neighbor, who I had talked to maybe five times before, she was crying and asked if I had time to talk. She came in and I listened while she poured out her heart and then asked for prayer. I don't know about you, but I'm not very likely to go to my neighbor and ask for prayer when I've only talked to them a handful of times. Yes she knew I was a Christian, yes I'm close and home a lot, but that was not only God working in her life, but in mine as well. Showing me that yes, there is a reason we have this house. Even if it was just for that one thing. That then brings us to yesterday, I get a call from the campus pastor, we had just had sign ups begin for the new campus that will be starting in September here in Litchfield county, Nathan and I had signed up for two things, working with middle school youth group and tear down. The pastor called and said "I just wanted to call and thank you for signing up for things we didn't have anyone for" That is why we are here. For now at least :-) It has been fun seeing how God works through all the little things to confirm His direction in your life. There are more stories like this, small everyday ways God confirms we are where He wants us. I just want to PRAISE GOD for His faithfulness. He is good.