The Investigative Process

You know when you were in sixth grade (or maybe earlier; my memory isn't that great) your teachers taught you the six questions to ask in order to receive the most information?  That's what I'm doing here...

What: Moving

Where: to Iowa

Who: my family

When: the last week of January

How: packing up the entire house, renting a giant van, and driving twenty hours.  (Plus, a little forty hour jaunt next week to Iowa and back to hopefully find and purchase a house.)

Why:  Why.  Now that's the million dollar question.

The easy answer? Because it is time.

The much longer, but I don't have the energy to explain every little bit, answer: We have always felt that we would either retire in our small southern Utah town, or move back Iowa, where my husband did his internship for his Ph.D. We have been excited to put down roots, to watch our children grow, and to give them stability.  Last year, the opportunity to apply for a job in Iowa arose, and Christian and I spent hours (and hours and hours) weighing the pros and cons, even making a list and taping it to the fridge, praying about it, and agonizing over it.  We finally decided (the day before applications were due) that the timing just wasn't right.  The pros of living in our current town and the pros of living in our future town* were virtually equal (as were the cons).  So we let it go.  But we said that the next time the opportunity came around, we would take it.  The place he will be working does not have job openings very often.  Rarely, in fact.  And the job is very competitive, with many fabulous applicants.  So when an opening was announced this time, we decided to apply. And yada, yada, yada, long story short, Christian got the job.

We feel very blessed with the way everything has worked out.  (And I feel very stressed out. But I believe that comes with the territory of moving halfway across the country.)


*Can you tell that I'm trying to protect the actual names of these towns as well as I can?  I don't need stalkers in my life.