A Love Story continued ...

He was growing, we were learning and things were going well. So of course that meant it was time to shake things up. So we …moved 3 states away. We didn’t do this just to shake things up. The schools around us were not going to recognize more than one semester worth of my hours. That would mean adding 1 year to my college time and by working full time I was already taking a little slower path to graduation. So we moved. The thought was that I would graduate with my education degree and then go to Seminary for a Masters degree in some type of ministry. Jody’s brother and his family had moved to work at the MNU (at that time it was MANC) the previous year. So we moved out there and actually moved her parents out at the same time. I drove the truck loaded with our meager possessions and all of her parents stuff. She and her sister drove their parents big Buick and had our son as well and off we went.

On the way the truck broke down. So U-Haul repaired it, but it added at least 3 hours to our trip so we stopped and got a couple of motel rooms. The next morning we took off and got into our new community the next afternoon. We unloaded our stuff into a little duplex that we rented sight unseen. Jody’s brother and sister in law found it for us and it fit our financial situation. There were 2 small bedrooms, a bathroom and a combined kitchen/living room. We soon discovered that we had freeloaders as well in the form of thousands of roaches. Home sweet home. We bombed the uninvited roaches out, but we battled them the whole time we lived there. I enrolled in a full load at college, got a job as night time school custodian at an elementary school and we were living the dream. Jody began to watch a couple of other children which kept her at home with our son and added a little extra money.

Our first Christmas in our new place was probably the most depressing and one of the most memorable of our lives. At Thanksgiving we drove back to my parents and had a great time with the exception that the heater in our car went out. With a 7 month baby in the car that is a real problem. So we drove back in my Mom’s car while my Dad tried to get our heater fixed. The idea was that they would bring our car to us at Christmas and drive theirs back home. The problem was that about an hour into my parents trip out to see us at Christmas the heater went out again. Then on Christmas Eve the little wall space heater in our duplex went out. Then to top it off, we were flat broke. We bought our son 1 present for Christmas, not he noticed or remembered but it was devastating to me. We didn’t have any money to get each other a present either, we each had something vital that we needed at that time and had to purchase so we called those a present trying to fool ourselves. My parents brought some presents and Jody’s family gave some presents, but it was a tough Christmas emotionally for this young husband and father.

As tough as that Christmas was it was also a great lesson in what really matters. Keeping Christ front and center, family and helping others are what Christmas is all about. We eventually got the heater in the car fixed. My Dad got the landlord to get our space heater fixed before Christmas morning (hey, don’t mess with grandparents who see a grandchild who might suffer). We had a nice visit with my parents, we had a good time with Jody’s family and our son enjoyed the present we got him.

Change seems to be the norm for us and change was soon in the air again. This time it involved...