dates..

August 11th, 2008.

Today ranks up there with our wedding day and the days the girls were born.

August 11th, 2008 one of the most profound days of my life.

It was a Monday. We were at Tim's parents house in Council Bluffs on our way home/back to Arizona. We had been in Iowa for my cousin Julie's wedding. It had been a whirlwind trip. School had started for me the Wednesday before we came...so I taught Wednesday and Thursday and we had flown to Omaha Thursday night...but that flight had been a disaster....pushed back almost 3 hours! So instead of getting in at a decent 11pm we arrived after 2 am...didn't get in bed til almost 4 am. Did I mention I was traveling alone with a 6 month old and a 4 year old...delays with children NOT good! Friday morning we got up at 8 to drive over to Des Moines..about an hour into the drive Ellie throws up all over Cheryl's (Tim's mom) new car! It was a mess!

We finally meet up with my parents in Des Moines, tired and possibly sick. After a little rest and no more puking we decide it was just car sickness. We head to Hickory Park in Ames to celebrate my now brother in law Noah's graduation from ISU. As we drive around Ames, I say I would love to move back here some day. We show Ellie the hospital where she was born...she was interested because she knew where Cece was born. Saturday is wedding day! It was a beautiful day and we have a great time. Sunday...time for good byes. At this point Ellie won't even say good bye to anyone anymore...just gives hugs and kisses. After saying a tough goodbye to my dad I pray, God I just can't do this anymore! We get back out to Tim's parents sad and tired.

Monday morning...Tim calls like he usually does when we are traveling. But this call is different. He asks me how much I like my house (we had just moved into our house in Arizona 5 weeks earlier. It was a foreclosure and the buying process had been a little complicated...but it was such a great house for such a great deal and we were so happy). I answer yes. He continues "Denise called and said there is opening and they want me to apply". At this point I am not following or understanding at all. He re-explains...there is an opening at Iowa State and they want me to apply. And just like that prayer answered!

However it was not an easy answer....we knew it was what we wanted to do, what was best for our family, but it was not going to be easy. First, he had to get the job. Second, we had to sell our house in AZ and with the market and economy crumbling it was no easy feat. Third, I had to get a new teaching position. Fourth, buy or rent in Iowa. Plus we knew they would want him to start October 1st...If, we could find a quick buyer maybe the girls and I could move back around Christmas...but if we couln't we would be there through the end of the school year...that meant 8 months apart...not easy.

Well, he did get the job. And he moved to Iowa to live with Paul and Shanna. But our house did not sell quickly. After 3 months of the girls and I alone...my sister, Emily, who had just graduated from ISU in December came to live with us through the end of April. I accepted a position teaching Health. The house still did not sell. We scheduled the moving truck to come on May 27....and finally on May 15 we received an offer on the house. Three days later Tim offered on our new house...the house we live in now which I never saw before we owned it. I was just so sick of the whole house thing I didn't really care! I just wanted to be together again!

We would have never made it through without the faith we have in our gracious God. All the prayers....answered. God has his way of doing things and if you just give things to him...pretty amazing things happen. I have said it before and I will say it again....I don't make the plan, I just live it:)

Matthew 7: 7-8 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be open unto you: for every one that asketh receivith; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him who knocketh it shall be opened

August 11th is a pretty big day for us...not only for what it did for our family but what it did for our faith.