Meant to be...

I am a firm believer in the philosophy that everything happens for a reason...it is not always a good reason, mind you, but there is a reason nonetheless. So I found it incredibly exciting when I threw in my hat for the position in the Azores and things slowly fell into place that this is exactly what I needed to be doing.

It was initially confirmed by a sermon that my pastor gave regarding "big adventures." It seemed as though he was talking right to me. Don't limit yourself, don't miss out on new things, and always be willing to open the door and hear him out if Mr. Opportunity comes knocking. Another sense of confirmation came when I did a little research on the internet and actually found the person who is in the current position that I would be taking over, Elizabeth Scherple. She was impressed with my detective skills. But honestly, I am not a super sleuth. All I needed was the Air Base website and the division name that I would be a part of...and low and behold, there her name was. Not wanting to over step bounds and contact her using her base email, I checked on the fabulous social network of Facebook...maybe you have heard of it :) ...and there she was. I just shot her a quick message introducing myself and inquiring about the island, job, etc. Boy, was I delighted not only when she responded back, but she has kept an updated blog on her entire 3 and a half year experience on the island, with pictures included! We corresponded back and forth on the ins and outs of all things job related and living related on the island! She has been a wealth of information, and as a speech-language pathologist herself she likes details and loves to talk! Oh, and she was also the person that conducted my phone interview a month later...talk about already establishing a rapport!

Fast forward a few weeks, and yet another little touch of God, showing me this is all going to work out...renting our house. We were feeling the time crunch of renting our property come the beginning of Sept. Matt and I had already talked with a neighbor of ours about renting vs. selling and had settled on renting in hopes of coming back to Coppell after my assignment at Lajes is complete. Usher in a crazy couple of weeks where Matt accummulated 70 hours of comp. time, me working evenings and my role playing a single mom...boy do I have a lot more respect for those women...we had not had time to put our house up for rent because of all the chaos in our work lives. One night an amazing friend of mine (fellow Stringfellow board member, church member and all around bad ass) texted me asking about the specifics on our house. Come to find out that the new youth minister at our church was looking for a place here in Coppell and wasn't happy with what he was shown. She had instantly thought of me and our house as the timing of us going and them coming seemed to fit. A phone call later, a friend of the new youth minister was coming to look at our house to tell him all about it. Then his in-laws came in that weekend to look at it and by that afternoon we had renters! Only had to super clean my house once! YEAH! The thought of having to keep a spotless house for viewing while managing kids was not a pretty one in my head. We were delighted that it all worked out.

Finally, working out things at work...Matt is going to be able to do some contract work with his department at UT Southwestern Medical Center while we are gone. And I found a fantastic replacement for me to work with the patients and families that I see. She began shadowing me last Thursday and may be ready to go on her own next week, leaving me able to finish up working by Oct. 2nd.

All the cards are falling into place. It is still stressful. There have been a fair share of hiccups with paperwork, red tape, and timelines, but everything seems to be okay as long as I am doing my part to get things completed and submitted in a timely fashion.

So our next week...Movers come Monday/Tuesday to take our household goods and my van, Tuesday/Wednesday clean house for renter, Wednesday move in with in-laws, Oct. 9th finish work (at least for now), Oct. 12-16 meet mother and sister-in-law in Arkansas cabins to say good-bye, Oct. 21st fly the heck out of here. And lots of saying good-bye to family and friends in between! We are going to miss everything Texas and Coppell, but are excited for our adventure!