We've spent eight years here, now, and it is time to move on again.
David has suffered burn-out, I have fought against an anxiety disorder, we have lost friends, said goodbye to family, and faced prejudice. But we've also had some amazing, wonderful moments. We've met beautiful people and watched them develop in their faith. We welcomed our third child to the family, and more recently, a dog. David has finished his distance education courses and been ordained, and this spring will see him finally graduated with a degree in pastoral ministry. I've returned to school. We've gotten better at what we do and seen results that lifted our hearts.
We never intended to retire in this village. This was never meant to be the 'last stop'. In fact, if I'm being honest, I thought it wouldn't even be a place we stayed for more than a few years. But God had other plans, and we've tried to be obedient, and so here we are many more years past the point at which I'd imagined we'd be gone to other pastures.
In some ways I'm excited to see what comes next, but of course the last time we moved it was with a four year old and a two year old. Now it will be with an eleven, nine, and seven year old. It's challenging to explain all of this to the children, and we've already had a few teary episodes. The two healthy cats we stuffed into carriers and carted along with us have become one frail 17 year old cat and a giant standard poodle - not the more straightforward of combinations. We've never been big 'stuff' collectors, and the parsonage is quite small, but we still have the detritus of five people and eight years to sift through. It's all the normal stuff of moving, but we haven't done it before so the newness is a bit intimidating.
We're being asked the same (occasionally hysterical) questions over and over again, so I thought I might try to answer some of them here.
1) Where are you going????
Well, the short answer is: we don't know. David will be applying to various positions as they come up, or we might be appointed somewhere, but there's no indication where that might be at this point. We'll be staying in Ontario, and if we have a church it will be further south (I can say with certainly because there are really only a few churches in the denomination geographically north of us!).
2) And...if he DOESN'T get a church????
Ah, that's where things get interesting. While we hope that he does, obviously, God might not have that in the plan for the next stage, and that's fine, too. If he isn't hired at a church then our next step will be to move 'home', which for us means where we grew up - Ottawa. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, we know the city, and the children know the city. Familiarity is going to be a comfort in the midst of turmoil. Second, all of our immediate family, with the exception of my parents, live in Ottawa. Having people around to lend a listening ear or to spend time with is going to soothe our anxiety - especially for the children. It is also in the 'hub' of the denomination for this province, which means that any meetings, interviews, etc. will be much more easily accessed from our home base.
3) Where will you live and what will you do to make money???
Like most of the questions we're getting, the answers to these ones depends mightily on where we're living. If we move without a church, then we will put our belongings into storage and 'camp out' with my mother in law. This would be a very short-term solution; perhaps on the order of a few months. During that time David and/or I would likely get a job, or each get jobs, preferably in a field we at least liked, and we would move into a house or apartment as soon as we could, and settle in to wait.
4) Will the children still be homeschooled????
Judging by the frequency with which we are asked this, everyone is mightily concerned about it. The answer is: I can't see why not. We chose to homeschool because we believed it was the best education we could offer our children, and we still believe that, so...*shrug* I suppose if that changes, then we'll look at other options. As it stands, yes, to the best of our knowledge, all three little weirdos will continue to be homeschooled.
5) Now that Amy is going back to school, is SHE going to be working, TOO????
It's possible! We're keeping our options open. Maybe we'll end up as a SAHD homeschooling the children while mom goes to work style of family. I don't know, but it's possible!
6) Variations on HOW WILL YOU DO THIS???
The same way anyone does anything, I guess - one step at a time. We'll declutter and pack up our things and load them on a truck. We'll call on the help of friends, and we'll probably overspend on storage, and we'll hug a lot and reassure the children that the world is not coming to an end. We'll cry, and we'll eat a lot of bread products, and we'll worry. And it will be okay in the end.
Well, that's all the news there is right now on this particular topic, so...there you go. The end of an era.
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