That was a big interruption!

Hello friends!

Well that was almost a 2 year interruption! But so much good has happened in the last 2 years, its hard to put it all into words. So let me just sum up.

In 2016 my husband spent about a year out of work and we were rocked. It rocked our marriage and our finances and then God intervened in a myriad of ways. First we put our marriage back together and on the right track. Then God gave my husband a good job in town that helped us find our feet again. By Spring of 2017 however, the West Coast started calling. Literally. Out of nowhere my husband started getting calls and requests for interviews from Google, Facebook, Amazon, Indeed and LinkedIn.

Looking back we both see that my husband had really been humbled and chose to humble himself during the year of no work. Was God now lifting him up? Apparently, but these were also my husband's dream jobs and a chance to be with the inventors of the world in Silicon Valley. Most days we could not believe what was happening! So after several months of being flown around for several interviews with these big companies, he took a job with LinkedIN in Silicon Valley. Apple is across the street and Google is down the road.

But here was the kicker; he had to leave while our youngest son was in his senior year of school.

We have always made a strong commitment to our kids during their senior years. My life especially patterns them and we keep them at the center of it all for the entire year. So my husband sat down with our son and had a frank conversation about the ramifications of taking this job out West. My husband and I were willing to live apart for the year so our son could finish his senior year in Indiana if he was ok with it. Otherwise we would all stay together and trust God for another opportunity after he graduated. Our son's response was outstanding. "It sounds like you would be pursuing one of your dreams Dad. You should go for it!" That was a sweet gift to his father!

So for our son's senior year, I lived in Indiana and my husband lived in California.

In the meantime, my son and I also spent most of our time together volunteering and working at our local community theatre. We both appeared in "The Little Mermaid" as Flounder and Ursula. (Wanna guess who was who?) We had so much fun we ended up doing several more shows together all in different capacities. We played together in the pit, worked backstage, and enjoyed the theater together in many more ways. It was a tremendous year together and my husband was able to visit often. Truly a beautiful gift to me, my husband and my son. You just can't write this stuff! Only God can orchestrate such a beautiful story.

But I also learned so much about myself while serving in the theater.

I began to listen to my body and talk about my potential. I no longer felt stifled or boxed in. I was able to expand my world and not feel guilty. I brought my entire skill set to the table and helped the theater in an endless number of ways and no one was competing with me. In fact I found less ego in the theater than I did in the church. That was eye opening to me and heart breaking.

Once my husband took the job, we had real money for the first time and I simply did not need to work. So I quit my job at the church and started to let myself unwind and explore the new adventure of the theater. Most everyone I spoke to said it seemed to light me up inside. I had to agree. What started out as this fun thing to do with my son, became deeply life giving to me in ways I could not anticipate. It was a tremendous gift from God on several levels.

My time in the theater changed me. It felt like a new path had come alive and now I was becoming something much bigger and fuller than anything I had experienced in the church. What was God doing?

So that gets you caught up to the Fall of 2019 when my youngest son went off to college and I was officially an empty nester.

Or was I? The story continues . . . .