Saturday, June 3, 2017

Tell the Stories Again

When I was a kid, I always wanted to hear stories about when my parents got in trouble.  Anyone else?  They are easy stories to tell--funny (with some distance), and so very relatable.  Now my kids know the story of when my siblings and I walked down the street to the university track without my little brother and without telling my mom, and how my little brother started down the street after us.  Oops.  There was also an incident with David, his brother, and a hammer, but that's not my story to tell.

There are much, much more important family stories to tell--stories that bind and build our family together.  The Israelites told these stories every year, to help those who did not witness them with their eyes to remember and trust:  the stories about God's mighty power, God's provision, God's incredible plan for them.

No parting the seas over here, but there is the story of how God brought David and me to our fourth (!) choice of duty station, then provided a (perfect) graduate school for me in chemistry, a wonderful church that became our family away from family...when we got to the base, we heard that base housing was a super long wait.  But after looking and looking in town, we decided to check with the housing office.  They just 'happened' to have a 3 bedroom house available that day, and our moving truck arrived an hour after we got into the house.  Good thing we never did another army move!  (which was important for finishing grad school anyway).  There are SO many stories in our family, and I want my kids to know them all.

Which brings me to our latest stories.  David looked and looked for a job closer to Illinois, but nothing was panning out.  He found the IBM job in Cleveland and applied, and they responded within a week.  He quickly went through the interview process and went out to visit at the end of February.  And then the wait began.  In the meantime, he applied to a job in St. Louis--so much closer to my family!!  And they responded!!  But they weren't sure they were going to hire for that position, so we waited on that too.  Maybe this was why IBM was taking so long--so we could take this one!

No, IBM came through, made the offer, and we had to decide whether to take it without knowing about the St. Louis job.  I kid you not, one hour after David and I talked on the phone and decided to take the job, David got an email from St. Louis saying they'd closed the position and weren't hiring anyone.

We got a lump sum for the move, but it meant we'd be packing ourselves up.  Two days after signing the offer, we were helping someone move and asked for the boxes.  One of the other couples there overheard and told us they'd saved every piece of packing paper, every moving box from their (professional) move and we were welcome to have it ALL.  So far, we've bought a few rolls of tape for the move.  That's it.

After telling people I'd never been to Cleveland, I remembered that I'd gone to my cousin's wedding there, and they now live about 45 minutes from downtown Cleveland.  Family will be closer than I thought.

There are so many unknowns still with this move (like where we will live!?), but when I feel trepidation about the future, I try to remember to just look back, and remember the stories. 

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