Goodbye Texas

Almost 15 years ago to the date, we loaded up our two dogs and our six week old newborn, and followed a moving truck as it drove away from my Midwest hometown toward a new life in Texas.

We rolled into DFW right before a record breaking summer (100 consecutive days over 100) to what felt like an alien planet, or the surface of the sun.

At the peak of the housing crisis, our Illinois home stood unsold and we moved into a small rental with a family of rats who lived in the walls. I had gone from working full time as nurse to being freshly postpartum, staring all day at this baby I couldn’t believe they let me take home. The people showed all their teeth when they smiled and everything was huge, flat, dry, and bright.

I hated it immediately.

We would go on to experience two and a half of the most difficult years of our lives as God and Texas completely dismantled what we once were and slowly reassembled us into our own family.

Our home eventually sold, we said goodbye to the rats, and with another baby on board we moved a few miles across town to the house that would become home.

It was here where I started to understand the draw to this dry, dusty state and whether I wanted to or not, we started growing roots into its cracked and sandy soil.

I learned: be inside or in water anytime in August, to eat chili with cinnamon rolls, all things home remodeling, how to smoke a brisket, where to find the best Czech kolaches, cowboy boots are far more than fashion, to interpret the 14 different dialects of “Bless your heart” (only two of which are positive), and that Texas grows some of the finest people I’ve ever known.

In neighbors, teachers, lifegroups, and co-workers we’ve developed a support system of friends who are like family.

We’ve slowly worked on every room of our house to get it to fit our growing boys and priorities.

Our boys have flourished in the school system and volunteer roles at church.

So when about a year ago I started to get this tug on my heart, I completely ignored it. It turned from a tug to a pull I couldn’t shove away anymore so I turned my prayers toward Psalm 37:4-7 and tried to find some peace. Eventually, it was keeping me up at night so I broached it to Steve one hot August morning. Turns out he’d been feeling the same pull but for longer and full time ministry kept rising to the surface.

Since then he's had lots of interviews that eventually turned into a few really neat visits where he recently accepted an executive pastor position at a church in rural Maryland off the Chesapeake Bay.

The next six weeks will be a whirlwind of packing, goodbyes, home selling, and house hunting.

Mixed feelings abound right now and I’m not ready yet. But, I will be when the time comes because there is a peace and excitement for what is waiting for us in the solid and welcoming community of (aptly named) Friendship, MD.

It was the little things that assured me we were making a good choice. How kind the folks were, particularly to our boys and how cared for they felt, the space to breathe and absolute beauty of the area, how real the church was and solid the teaching. But one of my favorite experiences were the magical directions to one of the homes we were having dinner:

“The GPS will stop working on the edge of the farm. So you'll go down a gravel road, take a hard left at the second barn, drive through the fairy garden and we’re the log cabin on top of the hill.”

When we went inside we were greeted by a beautiful cross-stitched “Welcome” sign under the mounted bust of a velociraptor and I knew right then and there we were headed to a good place with good people.

So come end of May, we’ll pull up our roots, pack up two different dogs and two additional boys and follow another moving truck east toward a new life on the coast.

I’ve never managed to warm up to football or Dr. Pepper, but the people of Texas have wholly won my heart. Know y’all are always welcome at our home and table.

But I suggest August, when your mood and skin are sunburned and extra crispy.

We’ll make sure to have the tea sweet and the crab cracked.

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.

He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.”

-Psalm 37:4-7