God called. He said He wanted us to move.
Not to a new house in the same small town, which was a stressful enough thought. He had planted the "maybe it will soon be time to sell our small house and move to a slightly larger one - but only slightly larger. And in the same small town." It took about 9 years of my beloved gently encouraging me to accept that we had outgrown our starter home. I had just agreed that he might be right. Maybe we'd put it on the market in the spring, I said. And maybe, just maybe, this time I meant it.
After all, our lives were an exercise in contentment. We could have moved into a larger home, but I didn't want to do that until I was sure we could be happy with the small home God had given us. We could have moved to a bigger town, but I really wanted to be sure we could be happy with the smaller scale life we lived. I wanted our family to be happy with the small yard, the slightly older vehicle, the lower income and less expensive life. I'm not going to lie; I also wanted to stay near our families and friends, our church and doctors and everything else that had neatly fallen into perfect order. Hot Daddy agreed. So surely everything was just as it should be.
Daddy, on the other hand, had told me several times that we should be looking for jobs in a certain town a couple hours to the west. One with a certain major Woo-Pig university. He would miss us terribly. It would not be easy. But he really felt that move would be right for our family's future. Then my dear daddy died, quietly and peacefully passing from this world to his eternal home. He moved and this time I didn't get to go with him.
Life didn't quit changing then, either. There were some major changes at work. I was no longer able to work from home, so Princess Pea Pod spent most of the summer with my Soul Sister and her family. She was happy with her "other family" and often chose to spend the night there with her friends. It was easier than picking her up late and returning her early the next morning, so we spent most of the summer apart. One night Soul Sister called late and said Princess Pea Pod was crying and holding her head. They could get no explanation from her. Something was wrong and they didn't know what to do. I was there in just a few minutes and our sweet principessa curled up with me and went right to sleep. I called in sick the next day and held her for hours. She finally confessed that she was just miserable because she missed me. There were two such episodes over the summer. And then one day I had to ask Hot Daddy to drive me home from work in the middle of the day. I was having a conversation with my supervisor when I was hit with migraine aura and nausea. My head started spinning and my knees were weak. Surely I was about to have a vertigo attack. But after 5 days it had not progressed into vertigo; I simply could not handle any stimuli. Hot Daddy took me to see our beloved nurse-practitioner who thoroughly examined me, discussed our circumstances, and then gave a painfully accurate diagnosis. I had suffered a stress breakdown. She prayed with us and sent me home with the advice to find a way to alleviate stress. Hot Daddy and I discussed it. We prayed about it. We discussed it some more. And then I submitted my resignation. I was going to become a stay-at-home mom.
I have wanted to homeschool our child(ren) since before Princess Pea Pod changed our lives. But our local schools were good and I worked full time, so it just didn't work out. She enjoyed school, but she wanted to homeschool like several of her friends, working at her pace and learning about life by living. Then, in spite of the efforts of a great teacher and wonderful staff members, our principessa had two bullies to contend with last year. There were days she cried to stay home and days she came home hungry because her lunch and snacks had been taken. We got through the year, and she came out like a champ, but the desire to teach her myself had not diminished. She was excelling and would continue to excel if given the opportunity. With the submission of my resignation from work, I was able to submit something exciting and new - intent to homeschool!
Oh! How exciting this new phase of our lives would be! But that wasn't all the Lord had planned for us. Less than a week after I gave notice at work, Hot Daddy had a call. About a job. No joke, friends, it was an opportunity in a certain town a couple hours to the west. One with a certain major Woo-Pig university. A town my daddy had been encouraging us to consider. (He wasn't always right, but I'll be darned if he wasn't ALMOST always right.) The next thing we knew, they were asking when he could come for an interview. We left after work and used a handy-dandy app to book a hotel room on our way over. We were confident as he went into the interview. Princess Pea Pod and I were killing time at the mall and he met us in the food court a couple hours later.
He looked miserable. I wanted to cry for him. He didn't know what had gone wrong. It was going so well and then they said good-bye and that was that. It was a blown opportunity, or so it seemed to him. But if it was a blown opportunity, then why did I still feel so sure of it? We had spent the morning finding an apartment. It had been easy; the very first place we looked was just right. And I had peace, which was pretty strange when you consider that I just knew moving was going to bring a hailstorm of anxiety. I suggested staying in town for a while, but we had plans back at home that evening. I told him to just wait and see; we would be halfway home and they would want to see him again. No joke, we were 10 minutes from the halfway point when they called and wanted to see him again. I am NOT saying, "I told you so." I am saying God was working on me, because I didn't want to leave our comfort zone, but I wasn't even kicking and screaming. In case I haven't given it away, he got the job. Now came the mad dash... he gave his 2 week notice and we had to get busy. But I still had 1 week at work, then Princess Pea Pod and I were leaving with my momma to visit family several states away.
Our new motto became "Give It, Sell It, Pack It, Store It!" We shoved almost everything that wasn't a family heirloom into the garage and had a yard sale. Even though we were "moving" and it could have been a "moving" sale, it was still a "yard" sale. But when I made the sign, my Y turned into an M and the next thing I knew, I had a "Moving Sale" sign. That was surprising enough, but then a woman came up and asked if she could buy our house. We hadn't even considered trying to sell it yet, but when God brings a buyer to your door, you sell! She agreed to come back after the sale was over and sign the papers. I asked for her name and phone number. Maeve, she said. Really? Really?!? Don't roll your eyes when I tell you this... or roll your eyes, but believe me when I say that I'd had the name Maeve stuck in my head for weeks. I had been praying for this Maeve, whoever she may be, because God had placed her on my heart. I had never actually met anyone with that name, but I prayed for her for weeks. Just a couple hours after we met her, I screeched into a parking spot at the title company with a signed contract. God had alleviated a stress we hadn't even considered having yet!
We packed what we could and then we left Hot Daddy at home while we went to visit our family. I hated leaving him, but I told him not to worry too much; we still had a couple weeks to empty the house after we moved. On August 30, Princess Pea Pod returned to our small house in our small town to find that Hot Daddy had packed everything and had already done the work of moving us. Our minivan was loaded in the garage, so we unloaded our few things from Momma's car, loaded them into our van, and drove another couple hours to our new home. Not only had he moved us, but he and his super fantastic parents had made our new apartment a home.
We had a home, we had a job for Hot Daddy and didn't have to worry about transferring Princess Pea Pod to a new school. We had a doctor - a friend's family had moved to the area a couple years ago and opened a medical clinic just a few minutes down the road. The sweet ladies downstairs gave us some suggestions for a church home. And it wasn't our small town with our small house and our families and friends, but it was already home. No kicking. No screaming. All God. He opened the doors and we ran right in!
And P.S. Daddy was right. As usual.
I knew this whole story before I read it. I didn't know about Maeve, but I'm not surprised with everything else! Your writing. Amazes. Me.
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