Heading West

I read this prayer this weekend in a book, and it mirrors our hearts during this time:

"Lord, I pray that You will reveal to me what I am to do and enable me to do it well. I don’t want my own dreams and plans for the future to get in the way of what You have for me (Ecclesiastes 5:7). I know You desire and knowing You more than sacrifice (Hosea 6:6). I long to know You more and to conform to the image of Your Son. May Your goodness, holiness, and beauty be upon me and establish the work of my hands (Psalm 90:17). Move me into the future You have for me as I walk in Your presence each day. Thank You that You created me with a purpose, and every time I worship You, I am fulfilling that purpose. Heavenly Father, I worship You as my Lord and King. I praise You that You are all-knowing and can see the end from the beginning. That You uphold all things by Your power. That You hold my life in Your hand. That You see my past and my future. I life up to You all that I am and offer my life to You. Make me an instrument through which Your will is accomplished on earth. Use what I have for Your glory. Lift me to see things from Your perspective, and help me to rise above my limitations. I don’t want to limit what You can do in me and through me because I don’t have an adequate vision of what Your heart desires to accomplish."

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10

Many of you know about all the changes that are going to be taking place in our family, but we wanted to send this email out to make sure that no one is left out. We have so many wonderful people that we love, and we are sorry if you are hearing this via mass email instead of us telling you personally.

Since December, we have been talking about David going back to school. He has struggled to enjoy his work and can only go so far in his current field. At this point he needs to go to school in order to have a career that he can grow in and find fulfilling. We talked about him working part time and going to school full time with me also working part time. But the more we talked about it, it seemed to make more sense for me to work full time nights as a L&D nurse and for him to go to school full time so he could finish more quickly. We looked into us staying in Knoxville, but financially, it would be a struggle for us to do so. We then looked at different hospitals closer to our family in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, Georgia, and North Carolina. But all the hospitals I looked at weren't necessarily close to a school for David to attend. Then we both starting htinking about Arizona. I had lived there for almost 3 years, and I moved to Tennessee to be closer to David when we were engaged. I had loved it there, and David had enjoyed Arizona when he had come to visit me. After talking about it, I applied for rehire at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, where I had worked in labor and delivery before moving to TN. I was offered a position that will provide for us financially while David is going to school without us having to go into debt. We will also be able to save for our future, and hopefully even buy a home. The hospital is paying us to relocate as well which is an added blessing. David will be able to concentrate on school and care for Trey at night while I work (3) 12 hour night shifts a week. Banner Good Sam said they will work my schedule around David's school schedule. I am excited to go back there to work although I will miss the friends that I have made at Parkwest Medical Center and East TN Children's Hospital. I know David will miss friends he has made at Sprint, and we will both miss our friends from church and our family that is here in Knoxville.

Despite all the people we will miss, we are very excited about this new opportunity God has provided for us. We have talked with many of you who have given us great feedback and support for this big move. We don't see ourselves being out in Arizona for the long term, but we also don't know what God has in store for us. We plan on David finishing school while we are out there - I'm excited to be able to work again at Good Sam but I'm not looking forward to working full time. I enjoy being home with Trey and caring for our home and for David and Trey. I am thankful to be able to work night shift, so I won't have to miss much of Trey's awake time. As far as college, David isn't exactly sure what school he will be attending. He has been interested for many years in aviation, and he has been taking flight lessons for a couple months. He has talked about a desire for working with missionary aviation maybe in the future. He will probably start out taking general education classes,and then concentrate on a specialty area later on.

We went out last weekend to look for housing, and we put an offer on a couple houses. The housing in Phoenix is even more affordable that here in Knoxville. We didn't get the house that we originally had hoped for, but we are continuing to look. I start my job on August 25, so we plan on moving sometime early August. We will make a trip up to Pennsylvania to spend time with family before we move, so the next couple weeks will be very busy. Trey is crawling and pulling himself up to stand which has added another interesting but exciting dynamic to our home.

Please pray for:
1) That we will find the place to live that God has for us
2) That God will grow us closer together in our marriage and that we will have unity in all the changes taking place. We are praying we find a good church home quickly.
3) That Trey will have an easy transition with all the changes and that he will travel well
4) That we have safety moving as we are driving a moving truck out to Arizona (1,600 miles)

We love you, and we appreciate your prayers and support.