too many possible post titles.....

Literally, there are so many different ideas for titling this blog post. The top contenders were: I heart Trader Joes, my favorite license plates ever, living the life we've always imagined, family!, I'm going home, The Lord does provide, I-85 and woohoo!

From that random assortment of titles, have you figured out what our big announcement is?

We are moving to Charlotte, NC!

That's right! A few months ago we couldn't have even seen this coming. But literally, God has gone ahead of us and worked out the details. Around January, a good family friend named Grant approached David about coming to work for him this summer after his current RA left for business school. Grant is actually the husband of my Young Life leader from high school, Claire, and it has honestly always been a goal of hers and I to make something like this happen! We knew that we had to be patient and wait, but our interest was certainly high. Then around February, another good friend of David's, Charlie, approached him about joining his new Private Equity Group. Literally, we had not sought out any of the opportunities, but just by maintaining relationships with them over the years David was high on their list!

Throughout this whole time, we still believed that we might need to stay in Houston - we were really committed to our jobs and had some cool opportunities to serve in our church (me on the Events team and David on the Men's Ministry team). Although Houston has often been a lonely place, there were definitely still reasons that we thought the Lord might want to keep us here for longer. So David interviewed with both Grant and Charlie while holding on to those opportunities very lightly. And we just had to trust that the Lord was going to lead the next step.

And then this month, He has revealed everything step-by-step. First, David got the offer to come work for Charlie! A huge blessing but with some concerns about a long commute to Kinston. Then I got some news about my job at Village next year that would basically add more responsibilities to my plate (where I am already feeling SO stretched) with no additional help. Overall, I just felt taken advantage of by my school. Then on the same day as receiving those emails from my boss, David gets the offer to come work for Grant!

At this point, we feel that doors are closing in Houston and that my staying in my job could possibly be a less than ideal situation and that with these two great offers we should really consider going back to North Carolina. Then the hardest part of all - deciding between the two jobs. Both with incredibly smart, hardworking, godly men. The Charlotte job is with a large company, pretty similar to what David is doing now but with a new challenge and obviously in a city we both love. Charlie's job is currently in Kinston but will move to Raleigh with an exciting Private Equity Group. It was honestly a win-win situation because we would have been happy in either job, but we really prayed about where we felt the Lord would be able to use us the most. And although it was still a very hard decision to make, ultimately we felt that the Lord was making the path to Charlotte clear!

So, we have about 2 months left in Houston. We have been working on a "bucket list" of things we want to do before we leave. I definitely feel like the Lord led us to Houston for a reason and I am glad that we have made the most of our time here. I am still so excited about this next season of life - to live near family, close friends, to work under a great guy, and to shop at Trader Joes! Our last day in Houston is July 1st and then David will start at Wells on either July 5th or 6th! Of course my head is swimming with logistics and trying to figure out how to make this move happen, but I am confident that the Lord has led us every step of the way so far, and He will continue to do so.