A Love Story continued ...

(I know it has been a while but the Love Story really is continuing.)

The goal was reached, I was a college graduate. Now what? I began the process of trying to find a teaching job and that led to … a move half way across the country to North Carolina. My brother and his family were living there and told me that there were jobs available. I looked hard, filled out numerous applications and had a few interviews but there were no teaching jobs in P.E. with a business minor that I could find. After what seemed like a long period of searching we decided that we were ready for a complete change of location. So I made a solo trip to North Carolina to search for work. I didn’t find any teaching jobs but I did find a job and we decided to go for it. The job was at place called Moore’s Building and Supply, my role was mainly as a “yard dog”. That meant I did whatever was needed, including loading and unloading everything in the lumberyard that was outdoors and stocking most items that were inside. I found us an apartment and we prepared to move from Kansas to North Carolina.

This move was not met with happiness by my in-laws, especially my mother-in-law. Not only was I taking their daughter (their baby) halfway across the country but I was taking our son, their grand child, along as well. (I must insert, now that I have 7 grandkids and have #8 on the way I understand this emotion much better. At the time I was not very sensitive to this issue. Plus we were already about 12 hours from my parents while we lived in Kansas.)

So we packed up our few belongings that were worth moving and prepared to make a big move. Just after we made the decision to move we got some exciting and complicating news. Jody was pregnant. So we were now expecting our second child and doubts began to creep in about the wisdom of this move. But we forged ahead anyway.

The day came for the move, with our U-haul trailer behind our car and our 2 year strapped in the back we headed east. What were we thinking?!? We were thinking that we were ready for a fresh start after the struggle of the last few years of me finishing college. As we attempted to say good bye to everyone it was a tough day. My father in law had tears in eyes as smiled, hugged us and wished us the best. My mother-in-law had tears in her eyes but couldn’t bring herself to speak to me. She hugged Jody and Todd and then we got in the car and started a whole new chapter in our lives.

We arrived in North Carolina in late July or early August (can’t quite remember which is driving me nuts). As we moved in, as I began my job and as we found a church, we discovered “we really aren’t in Kansas anymore”. One of the first evidences of that was …