Tracing our adventure -10 (Final)

If you have stuck around for all 10...kudos to you!  And, of course, thank you.  It is an investment of time on your part to keep up with us and all that has been going on in our lives over the last few months.

To wrap this up, I wanted to write about that position that the church had offered me.  If you remember, the description they sent included a time frame...a minimum of 2 years.  Now, with Kristen's decision made for school, I could re-look at the position through the lens of being here for, yes...at least two years due to Kristen's school.
That was an amazing coincidence, don't you think?

Not wanting to simply say yes because of the time frames matching up, Kristen and I continued to pray about it. Kristen was worried about both of us having the bandwidth to support all of this, and while I understood that, I was feeling drawn to saying yes.  I was really excited about the position and I started to pull books out and started reading about men's ministries from other churches and ministry leaders.  I wanted to be ready to go.

Kristen later came back to me with her thinking just as the church, after being very patient with us, was looking to close on an answer, and said that she had read a devotion that helped her see that God would provide the bandwidth if we were doing what He called us to do.  If He can make a couple fish and loaves of bread feed 5000 men, He could help us and our concerns over time to get everything done.

I was in agreement with her and so, I called up and accepted the position with the church and I am now working with them on how it will be announced to the church and how we transition me into the position and start working with the men's ministry team.

I am very excited and a little anxious...but I truly think that God's hand has been in this all the way and I look forward to seeing what He will accomplish through this.

So, you have followed us on our trip from late winter to early summer and the ups, downs, and round and rounds that we have had.  I know that if you talked to us during that time, you probably wondered about it all and even what you did know about...well, this may help put it into better context since we may have seemed a bit crazy at times.

Until the next adventure then....

Tracing our adventure - 9

As just about everyone knows at this point, Kristen's acceptance letter to the nursing program came in the mail on April 10th, 2010.  She was in!  This was a very big deal and a long time coming.
http://jasonmoffitt.blogspot.com/2010/04/kristens-in-video.html

Third time was the charm and, if you remember, this was for the day program which was shorter and cheaper (at least for the school itself) than the night/weekend program.  This program was slated for two years starting this fall, while the night/weekend program would have been for three years.

Of course, with Kristen now being accepted to the nursing program, we knew that we wanted to get that done.  This was the decision point that we had been waiting for over the last several months.  So we sent in Kristen's placeholder deposit and acknowledged that we were not going to be selling the house or moving in the short term.  The dominoes were now starting to fall.

What a wild ride over the last 3-4 months!

It was not for nothing, as there were many things that came out of looking at our options:
- we realize how much junk we have accumulated in the house and we are actively getting rid as much of this as possible this summer. (more posts to come on this)
- we know about how much of an impact the real estate downturn has impacted us personally and that we really need to finish the addition before we move to ensure we are walking away with money to help us get the next place...whenever that is.
- we realize, again, how much we miss family back in CO
- that God really does close doors sometimes to make sure we see other ones opening

Tracing our adventure - 8

So, Kristen was at odds as she waited for notification from the school.  Was this even what she wanted to do anymore?  There were so many other things to do and school was draining on her and the family.  So many things to consider.

Meanwhile, she was maintaining her busy schedule.  While taking care of the kids, she decided to take them to the library to get some new reading material.(We love the library!)  The library keeps a section of books that they are selling right at the entrance/exit and we will peruse it as we leave sometimes, and on this occasion, Kristen stopped and her eyes caught a book that was titled "Cup of Comfort for Nurses", essentially a Chicken Soup for the Soul kind of deal specifically with nursing stories.  She thought about getting it, but decided against it as she knew it would make her want to do nursing again and she wasn't sure if that was what she wanted to do.

The next day, she was going to a bible study at church with other ladies.  This particular week, she figured she had too much to do and was going to skip it, but when she asked Jude if he wanted to go to church, he said, "YEAH!" and was off to the door to go.  She decided to listen to him, gathered her things and left.  The study that day told her that she needed to be "willing to work for her destiny".  At that moment, things clicked again for her and she raced from the church back to the library and bought the book.  

All the school and time that she had invested in this endeavor up to this point had been eroding her passion, her desire to be a nurse.  As of that morning, her desire was back and now she had a passion to do nursing that was never there before!  She started reading the book and was now extremely anxious for her notice from the school to arrive.  Now, she HAD to get in!

Tracing our adventure - 7

To continue the story...

As we waited to hear about Kristen's school, I got a call from one of the pastors at our church.  The church did not have a person leading the men's ministry over the last year after the previous person had vacated the position.  As they had prayed and discussed finding someone, my name came up as a person they thought would be a good fit.  He asked if I would be interested and my immediate response was yes.

We agreed to meet to discuss and meanwhile he sent me a description of the position that the church had written up.  The first thing that jumped out at me was that the church was looking for someone to commit to 2 years in the position.  I wasn't sure that this was something I could do considering we were in the throes of figuring out if we were moving or not...but, since we were undecided and waiting, I also didn't want to close the door on it.

I went to breakfast with him and while discussing the position, I also laid out where we were and my desire to not accept something and then leave them in a pinch.  Also, I knew I didn't want to take it on, assuming I did, before Bethel ended.  So, we agreed to wait, pray and come back together after Bethel ended.  In the interim, I would also drop in and speak to our senior pastor about it as well.

Tracing our adventure - 6

To recap:
We miss family, Kristen is thinking she doesn't want to do nursing any more, I want to make a move with regard to going to seminary or being in ministry, people are interested in the house and the number that we think we could get could enable us to move and we are thinking that if there was a time to do it, during the spring/summer would be the best because of the kids and school.

A lot of things on our minds and a ton of things up in the air.  And then the answers started to pour in.

The family that was interested in our house completely balked at the number we gave them.  Which not only deflated the conversation and thought of God putting them and us together in the right place and right time...but it also made us question the numbers that our agent had come up with.  She had put in a bunch of work for us creating a market analysis...but where might we really land if we sold?  We didn't want to leave this house and not be able to get something when we moved back to Colorado.

So, we continued to look at the pricing and simply thought that we needed more information overall.  Maybe that hadn't worked out, but we haven't even determined to sell...so that really wasn't a real NO, it simply meant that something that was way too convenient to be reality, in fact wasn't.

From a timeline perspective, this was putting us into the mid-march time frame.  Kristen was expecting to hear about the day nursing program at some point in April, so we decided that we needed to see what would happen with that before any decisions were made and we went any further down this path.  If Kristen got into school, wouldn't we plan on doing that and so all of this would just have been an exercise in chaos?

Tracing our adventure - 5

So, me saying "No." was factual, but of course it didn't end there.  Kristen wanted me to support her no matter what....I wanted to do that too, but I didn't want her to quit.
She explained the virtues of her plan and how happy she would be....I threw in my obligatory "Well, if you do this, I and the kids are not going through the whole nursing school thing again"...you know, being real supportive :)

And that was kind of where we left it.  Kristen still thinking she may quit, but with no real decision made.

In other news, the family interested in our house was wanting to know what type of number we might be looking at if we chose to sell it to them.  Our real estate person was still working up some numbers for us and when she came back with the numbers...yikes...we were not getting much of that money back...but it did seem to indicate that we would sell at a greater value than what we bought...despite the downturn (only because of the huge money invested). But...that meant that this move could still be viable...Had God orchestrated our making the decision to invest in the house so heavily to give us an out at this point?  Not knowing for sure what our number really was, we still knew we had to give them an idea...so, we gave the family a ball park number...at least this would let them know what we were thinking and it would give us some feedback too.

After all, if this was supposed to be, then maybe this was going to work out.

Tracing our adventure - 4

For the last couple of years, I have been batting around the idea of going to seminary. As we looked and prayed about whether to move or not, this came into the decision making process as well. Would this help? Maybe by moving it would give us more options, and more help by being around family as we tried to make that happen?

I have felt that this dream? ambition? calling? has been kind of flailing...with me not really taking action on it, but not letting it go either.

Was this an opportunity to kick me in the pants and get moving on it?

Meanwhile...

Kristen, who was both frustrated with the nursing program and stressed out from the class she was taking went out to breakfast with a friend and did a complete information / emotion dump and ended up discussing other opportunities. All of a sudden, Kristen began to wonder if the reason that she hadn't made it into the nursing program was because she wasn't supposed to go into it at all. She had other things that she wanted to do and class was a burden, a stress that she could relieve herself of!

She came home excited about doing a ministry project and maybe going into a business with her friend. yes, she would finish the class...but no more stressing over grades! She just had to convince me.

She said to herself and to her friend, "I have to deliver this the right way to Jason or he will say no."

Apparently that didn't work...cause the first word out of my mouth was "No."

Tracing our adventure - 3

In order for Kristen to go to school in CO, we would obviously have to be there...so we wondered about selling the house. Obviously, with the market where it is everywhere, we knew we wouldn't be too happy with what we would be able to sell our home for. The question really was, could it work though? Especially since we should be able to get a pretty good deal in CO when we got out there...

So, we started to look into it. Kristen even brought an agent out to talk with us. She is the same lady we used to find the place and Kristen loves her. She wonderfully talked with us and did the market analysis so that we could look at it.

Well, let me just say that we wondered how much of an impact the addition would have on things...we have invested A LOT of money on the house over the last 4 years (way more than I care to think about) and what was the return going to be?

Funny enough, around the time we started discussing what the numbers might be, Kristen had a friend over for a play date...was talking about some of the things going on and our thoughts on the house and they got really interested in potentially buying our place!  They were looking to add on to their house or to just buy a different one that could meet their needs.  They even liked the fact that we were only half done with the construction so that they could tweak what we were doing above the garage to fit in with what they wanted...

Kristen told me it was fate :)  One thing for sure was that our heads were spinning.

Tracing our adventure - 2

Of course, I wasn't going to quit my job...but, we did think that there was potential to move it...should everything else fall into place. So, with that window open, we considered the other things involved.

As I had said, Kristen was very frustrated with the nursing program. She was getting ready to finish the very last pre-requisite / other class for the nursing program that wasn't an actual nursing class...and if she didn't get into this now, odds were not going to go up as her class hours would be going down and that is one of the factors the school looks at. She had twice before tried to get in and out of frustration, more than choice, switched things up to try to get into the day program (which is a two year program versus a three year program). Without getting into that program, maybe we needed to look at school's elsewhere...Colorado has TONS of great nursing schools and we thought...maybe that is why she hasn't got in....so Kristen cautiously started looking at options while we awaited a response from her school.

Tracing our adventure - 1

I have thought that I wanted to write down some things that happened over the winter and spring to trace how we got where we got to for this upcoming summer and fall...for our own memory and as a fun thing to share.

We passed our 4 year anniversary in Massachusetts earlier this year. We realized that now all of our kids had actually spent more of their lives in here rather than in Colorado! And while we continue to call Colorado home, it began hitting Kristen and I that maybe we were being called back...we had some friends that were moving at this time making us a bit sad, Kristen was getting frustrated with school and not getting into the evening nursing program, and besides simply missing family (which was huge), we really began to think about not only the kids not knowing the rest of the family but how much life might change for all of us by being together...(part of that was considering the free babysitting we were hoping to get since Kristen and I had not been on too many dates over the last 4 years).

So there seemed things that might be driving us home, but there were many things that would have to fall into place for that to happen...so, we were simply thinking about it and praying about it...

Other note on Bethel...

One other part of the final was to share about our favorite study...I thought I would share that as well since I was able to type it up before class:

My favorite study was 'The Empty Tomb'. There is no other study to me that conveys the critical truths of Christianity as powerfully as this study does. Without an empty tomb, Christ would not be our Lord and King. Without an empty tomb, we would have no hope to be raised after our deaths. Without an empty tomb, death would still be in control! But there is an empty tomb, because Jesus did rise from the grave, he did show himself to MANY people so that witnesses could corroborate the story and He did ascend and promise the Holy Spirit to his disciples.

The Holy Spirit is the other amazing part of this study as that promise enables the church, our transformation here on earth and so much more. The Holy Spirit is responsible for the amazing things that occur in Acts, which is one of the most amazing parts of the Bible to me and something that is so relevant to those of us that wish to see the Great Commission fulfilled.

Beyond these two parts, there were 6 other essays to write that night...but I won't post any of those...Unless I get asked to :)

Bethel Completed!

Had my 2nd part of my final last night. I am done! It was two years in the making but it really was a great experience. Part of the final was to write up a testimony on the class in less than 100 words...so I thought I would share it with everyone:

Bethel was a challenging, yet fun walk with fellow believers who I came to know more and more as friends over the two years. Bethel was a reminder that I don't learn things in life by just showing up...as much as I would like that to be the case. Finally, Bethel was an enlightening walk through the Bible that reminded me of things I knew, taught me things I didn't, and increased the awe I have of God's perfect Word and the amazing story that the Bible tells us. Bethel was a blessing.

Mother's Day

I am so lucky to have Kristen as my wife and mother of our children.
The kids are blessed to have her as their mother.  And we were happy to celebrate the day with her.

The celebration actually began early this year as the thing that Kristen wanted was an elliptical machine since we did not have a gym membership right now.  I was able to find one, buy it and pick it up the weekend before.  She was very excited and surprised.

Then, knowing that Sunday would be busy with church and baseball, we took Mom out to eat on Friday instead of Sunday.  We went to Acapulco's (Kristen's favorite) and enjoyed a meal together.

Finally, Sunday came and we got up early and made Kristen breakfast (AND COFFEE) in bed, gave her cards and one additional gift and then got ready for church.  We did that and the baseball thing and enjoyed our day together.

We love you and thank you!  We hope you had a great day and some great memories for this year's Mother's Day.

1st Half of Bethel Final done

Have to post on this....well, because the final is half done of course!

Can't say that I did well...but I did make it through the two sections tonight.

While the test wasn't good, the grading portion was actually enjoyable as we were able to enjoy laughing with one another for our mistakes and it gave an overall sense of peace since none of us did as well as we probably wanted to (it was a bit difficult).

That leaves two sections next week and we will be finished....but I will say this:

When all is said and done on this test, the reality is that we will all be available as teachers for the course and will be able to help each other as we go along. Each of us knows much more than we did to start and I think that is a significant thing to say. Unfortunately, most people haven't read the whole Bible, most people don't really understand the way the Bible is a cohesive whole within the 66 books and very few could probably speak to some of the things that this class has taught us over the last two years...so I will call it a success regardless of my score ( outright or in comparison to my classmates :) )

Jacob's first t-ball at bat

Yes...no ball on the first swing...but he did end up hitting it well.

Final product!

What a handsome kid!