If You Don't Come Back, I Understand

Move #11: Los Angeles, CA to Nashville, TN

Several years ago, our family made a big cross-country move from Los Angeles, California to Nashville, Tennessee. To date, we have moved thirteen times and it seems that with every move we have more children, more pets and more stuff. The challenge with this move was that it fell in the dead of winter. We had safely made the drive across the country through rain, sleet and snow with our five children, packed minivan and pet bunny. We were now camping out at an extended stay hotel until our home was ready. After eating near lethal doses of fast food and living out of various hotels for over one month everyone in the family (including the bunny) had frazzled nerves, quick tempers and testy emotions. Remember this was one hotel room, 7 people, a bunny, for 30 days.

One restaurant experience during our trip stands out among the rest. Your family has probably never had this kind of experience. Our three boys were full of energy bouncing up and down in the restaurant booth (one was even hanging from my husband’s neck) when our one year old conveniently had a stinky diaper. My husband, Gregg, handed me the keys and as I ventured out into the icy cold to scrounge the floor of our car for a diaper he calmly said to me, “If you don’t come back, I understand.

In the moment, we were both second-guessing our decision to uproot our family from a comfortable house, stable job and close friends to venture into this unknown territory of big belt buckles and country music. This wasn’t what we had signed up for. This picture didn’t look as glamorous as we thought it would. It would have been easy to give up. It was difficult. Painful. Uncomfortable. Remember: one hotel room, 7 people, a bunny, for 30 days.

As a little girl, I remember having lofty aspirations and dreams of what I would some day become. Big plans to change the world. High hopes for what God would some day use me to accomplish. What had happened? Here I was in the middle of a snowy parking lot in an unfamiliar town searching through my incredibly messy minivan for a clean diaper. What happened to my plans to be different, to make a difference?

Here’s what I learned:

- Don’t quit. When circumstances become difficult, the temptation is to give up and focus on the wrong things. God desires for us to focus on him.

- God is able to provide meaning in even the mundane seasons of our life.

- The painful, difficult seasons are opportunities for God to do a special work in our lives and to draw us closer to him.

You Can Cry Now

Move #7: from Austin, TX to San Diego, CA

Many years ago, when we lived in Texas, Gregg and I had the exciting opportunity to buy and build a home. Our first home. A new home. Brand new.

With the paint on the walls barely dry, we began to feel God’s tugging on our hearts once again. We’d felt that tug before. It was God beginning to pull us into something new. Only months after moving into this cute little home in the Austin suburbs, we sold it, packed all of our stuff and moved our family (at the time, only four of us) to San Diego to help with another church plant.

We had found a home to rent in San Diego. Hadn’t seen it yet. But from everything the owner was describing, it sounded beautiful. Large double doors, a huge backyard, newly remodeled bathrooms, ceramic tile throughout the house. . . We thought we had scored!

After the long cross-country drive, with anticipation we pulled up to our new home.

Immediately, Gregg turned to me and said, “It’s ok, you can cry now.”

This home that had sounded so good, was actually the eyesore of the neighborhood. Interestingly, everything the owner had told us about the home was true!

Gregg proceeded to tell me to not even bother unpacking, because we weren’t going to stay. Funny thing, we lived there for three years—the longest to date that we’ve lived anywhere.

What I learned:

-Just because something sounds good, doesn’t mean it is.

-Change is difficult, no matter how welcome it may be. Believe it or not, when the time came to leave that home, it was difficult because we had made so many memories there.

-God uses change in our lives to grow us, stretch us and prepare us in ways that He just can’t when we’re comfortable.