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9 In Colorado/ Colorado Springs/ Faith/ Family/ Finding our place/ Friendship/ Moving

Finding our new home and saying good-bye to our old home

“Always in the big woods when you leave familiar ground and step off alone into a new place there will be, along with the feelings of curiosity and excitement, a little nagging of dread. It is the ancient fear of the unknown, and it is your first bond with the wilderness you are going to.” – Wendell Berry

Our moving date was one week away, and we had NO idea where we were going to live. (Click here to read about it!)

The ONE family we knew in town mentioned that their neighbor had just moved out. She called to see if the home was available for rent. Thankfully, miraculously, the person who had been renting that home had moved out two weeks early, providing an opening for us to move into the home in SIX days!

“Living at risk is jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down.” – Ray Bradbury

Ted had to fly back to Chicago, so our sweet friend offered to meet the agent at the potential rental home in Colorado Springs to give us an iChat walking tour. The house was PERFECT! It was a four bedroom house on a cul-de-sac, in a great neighborhood, with a gorgeous view of Pike’s Peak – and within our budget! We immediately signed a 12-month lease, waited for approval and FIVE days before we were scheduled to move, we had a home!!

Thank you Lord! I can breathe again!

Saying the actual “good-byes” to our Illinois friends, and my Indiana family, was harder than I expected it to be. These are the people who loved us, encouraged us, worked with us, supported us through the births of each of our four sons! They had watched our boys grow and had loved them so well. My Indiana family had only been 3 hours away for the last 13 years. I could pop over any weekend and for any event. Now everything was changing. Our DREAM was being realized, but we were leaving a part of ourselves behind. And that was hard. (Honestly, it’s still hard. There are so many good people that we miss in Illinois, and I still miss not being able to drive over to see my family in Indiana whenever I want.)

(Saying good bye to family⇑ and friends ⇓)

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

In September 2015 – we left Illinois, the place that we had called “home” for the last 13 years, to make a new start in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

When we arrived, something happened that shocked me. I’ll tell you about it my next post. (Subscribe→ so you won’t miss it)

September 5, 2017 By Kathryn

0 In Colorado/ Colorado Springs/ Faith/ Finding our place/ House Hunting/ Moving/ Traveling

Taking a Leap of Faith

Come to the edge, He said.

They said: We are afraid.

Come to the edge, He said.

They came. He pushed them,

And they flew…

GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE

We decided to put our house on the market, and it sold in three weeks (Click here to read about that).

NOW WHAT?

Well, the week we put our house on the market, a friend reached out to my husband to tell him that a company in Colorado Springs was hiring and that Ted would be a perfect fit. My husband immediately applied for this position.

We wanted to get to Colorado as soon as possible, but it would be several months before my husband knew if he got the job in Colorado Springs. How could we move there without any definite work or way to provide for our family. We discussed staying in Illinois and renting until we had things lined up perfectly.

Instead, we stepped out in faith. We believed that Colorado should be our new home and we were just going to take that LEAP. We would move forward and trust God to open the doors and go before us.

This “leap of faith” stuff is frightening. Imagine closing your eyes and jumping off into an abyss. How does that make you feel? That’s how I was feeling at that moment.

Where would we live?

How would we provide for our family?

How long until we found a job?

“I’ve spent my whole life trying to get less comfortable. I don’t think God wants us to be comfortable. I think God wants you and I to live right on the edge of YIKES.” – Bob Goff

Ted told his current employer about our decision to move. Instead of giving him the ‘two weeks notice,’ they let him keep his job! They were able to work out an arrangement for him to work remote and travel back and forth from Colorado to Chicago on a monthly basis!

Then we had to decide where in Colorado we wanted to plant our roots.

Colorado Springs was the one spot that, even before ever visiting, seemed to be “calling my name. “ I thought that if Dr. Dobson, Focus on the Family and Compassion International could call this place home, then perhaps, so could we! Plus, Colorado Springs is so beautiful with Pike’s Peak as its backdrop. It’s a city with so much to offer young families, plenty to do if you are seeking adventure, and a reasonable cost of living. After talking it through, that’s where we decided to go.

Once we had chosen our city, we had to find a place to live. Our closing date was soon approaching, and our moving company wanted to know where they were taking our stuff. I wanted to know where they’d be taking our stuff, too!

I had no idea how HARD it would be to find a home to rent in Colorado Springs. As soon as a good one would pop up online, I’d call, and then find out that it had already been rented! It was challenging, but I was at peace knowing that God was going before us. I knew there was a home for us in Colorado Springs.

With only one week before our closing date and move, Ted flew out to Colorado Springs for an in-person interview. He was also planning to nail down a place for us to live. I had been talking to a realtor, and she lined up three houses for him to tour. Unfortunately, he didn’t think any of them were right for us. When he called me that evening to tell me we still didn’t have a home, I took a deep breath and prayed: “God, I know you have a place for us. Please help us find it…soon. ”

Click here to find out how God answered our prayer! And please subscribe (in the column on the right) so you don’t have to miss an update.

September 4, 2017 By Kathryn

7 In Colorado/ Finding our place/ Moving

Rowing our boat

After our family spent a week in Colorado, we were all in. We knew that Colorado was our place. It would be our future (and hopefully permanent) home. (Click here to read about it if you missed my last post)

But how could we make this happen?

Ted told me about the “Row the Boat” philosophy where we were going to put our oars in the water and get our “boats” to Colorado. We focused on doing everything to get us there, STOP doing anything that won’t get us there.

Our first step was to sell our home. We had a comfortable home, with fantastic neighbors, in a great neighborhood. We loved our community. It was a HARD decision, but selling our house was our first step in rowing our boat and would give us freedom and the ability to move forward.

We put our house on the market.

Have you ever tried keeping a house spotless, every single day, from top to bottom — with four little children? I hope to never have to do that again. They sure are cute, but they are messy! It’s kind of a BLUR about how I made that happen, but it was summer, so we stayed OUTSIDE as much as possible. We also ate way too much fast food and take out so I didn’t have a mess in the kitchen. I think I also hid most of their toys.

Thankfully, our house sold in 3 weeks!

But wait, our house SOLD. Now what!?

Click here to read that story!

September 3, 2017 By Kathryn

1 In Colorado/ Finding our place/ Travelling

Finding our place in this world

For about two years, my husband and I had been talking about where we wanted to raise our sons. We had been living in the Chicago-area for over a decade. We had such a great community of friends and loved so many things about living in Illinois, but we felt like we needed to find “our place” … the place where we would put down permanent roots. We started researching, praying, and traveling!

Ted and I took a long weekend and visited the Pacific Northwest. It was sooo beautiful, we have life-long friends there, we loved it, but it wasn’t our place.

We took our family on a week-long visit to Tennessee. It was a fantastic week, there is so much to love about this state, but it wasn’t our place.

We went back to Tulsa where Ted and I met and got married. We love Tulsa. We have family there and some of our closest friends live in the Tulsa area. We strongly considered moving back but eventually decided … it wasn’t our place.

We talked about and visited a few other places … but none of them were ‘our place.’

Then, we came to Colorado.

Ted had been talking about Colorado for years. I finally told him I’d be open to taking a trip to scout it out and to see if I could imagine our family living there.

We planned our trip for June 2015, packed the car, loaded up our boys(ages 1, 3, 5, and 7 at that time) and set out across the country.

The trip was incredible.

Spectacular.

Soul-filling.

I could not (still can’t) figure out how so much beauty can be packed into one state. It’s really not fair.

And we knew….

Colorado was our place.

Now the question became…How do we get here?

Well, come back tomorrow so I can tell you about some of the CRAZY details about how it happened!

September 2, 2017 By Kathryn

9 In Colorado/ Motherhood/ My Journey/ Welcome

Hello, I’m new here!

“Write your hurts in the sand, carve your blessings in stone.”

This blog is my “stone,” and I’ve decided to start carving. I’m glad you’ve joined me!

Let me introduce myself. I’m Kathryn. A wife to ONE grown man and a mom to FOUR little men – our “cowboys!” Our boys were all born in Illinois, then we took a leap of faith and moved to Colorado. We spent 3 glorious years there, and then moved to Minnesota!

I love Jesus. All the good you’ll find in me, comes directly from Him.

I also love to read. Biographies and memoirs are my favorite.

Here are some things I’ll be writing about in this blog:

My life,
My faith – how I found it and what I’m learning,
Raising four sons and motherhood,
The story of us – how I met and married Ted and some things I’m learning about marriage,
Things to do with kids,
Savings – I’m a “deal finder” and I’ll share what I find with you,
Book reviews and recommendations,
Some of my family favorite recipes,
Stories of hope and joy!

Thanks for stopping by today. Click here to read about how we ended up in COLORADO and the amazing things that happened to get us here. You don’t want to miss this story!

Oh, and if you SUBSCRIBE by putting your email in the side bar, you will get the stories, savings tips and JOY sent right to your inbox and never have to miss out.

I look forward to getting to know you! Leave a comment and tell me your name and one thing you like to do in your free time!

August 29, 2017 By Kathryn

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