Curve Balls

I am finally caught up on the blog with my more "travel log" type posts and feel like I can finally spew my pent up feelings.  As usual when I am writing about our evolving life decisions, this post will probably run overlong.  Be warned.

Remember how a few months ago I posted this?

And I wrote THIS?

Well, the Lord certainly has a sense of humor.  As soon as I resigned myself to the idea that we might be in Mesquite for a while, He decided to shake things up.  In April we began to pray that if we were going to stay in Mesquite that we would be able to find a house that was affordable so we could stop dumping money down the rent drain.  And you know what our answer was?  Cedar City.  Uh...what?

After much prayer, Burke and I were sitting down on a Saturday afternoon while Daphne was napping, plotting out our budget and discussing the kind of house we could afford to purchase.  And we just felt sick about it.  We could not feel at peace about moving in that direction.  In a matter of minutes the conversation reverted back to a familiar track (one we had repeated dozens and dozens of times before), "Well, if we don't feel good about buying a house and we don't feel good about renting and we still feel unsettled about Mesquite, it sounds like we need to get serious about moving."  But rather than the dead ends this conversation usually led to, we suddenly had this blast of inspiration.  Why don't we move to Cedar City?  As soon as the name was spoken, Burke and I were both overcome with a feeling of utmost peace.  I hadn't had a prompting that strong since the day I was in the St. George temple and I had felt a confirmation (against all my desires) that we needed to move here to Mesquite.

Cedar! Why hadn't we felt drawn there before?  The city's name felt like a puzzle piece falling into place in my heart.  It would be perfect!  A university town where I could start taking evening classes to get my Masters Degree.  Only 20 minutes from Parowan so Burke could go help on the farm any time without making a big trip.  A better education system for Daphne.  1.5 hours closer to Logan.  Close to the mountains (especially Co-op) so we could teach Daphne and our future children to appreciate nature and retreat to their peaceful shelter often.  Not to far from our dear friends and family in St. George.  A place with 4 seasons to enjoy, but close enough to St. George if we needed a winter retreat.  And the kicker...just a few weeks prior in General Conference, President Monson had announced a temple would be built in Cedar City!  This was it.  We felt it down deep.  

That following Monday, Burke told his bosses at Kokopelli that by November (when the new owners move into the house we're currently renting) we would be moving to Cedar City.  It took them by surprise.  They had assumed we had decided to stay put for a while.  Graciously they offered to hold Burke's job through November while we looked for work in Cedar.  Things were rolling into motion at last!

Within just a few days, Burke was offered ownership and a manager position in a virtual office space in St. George.  We were completely thrown off guard.  Wait a minute?  Weren't we supposed to move to Cedar City?  How did this offer fit in with our prompting?  Next my Dad introduced us to Bill Gibbons, a friend of his from Salt Lake with an amazing business proposal idea he was ready to hand over to Burke if he wanted.  Then a potential job presented itself in Cedar with an agricultural manufacturing company that might have a position for Burke in the near future.  But did that near future mean in 3 months, 6 months, a year?  And finally a friend Burke hadn't talked to in over 8 years called out of the blue one night with a job offer in Iowa City, Iowa.

In a 3 week period between the months of May and June, we had 4 different job possibilities presented to us.  Talk about being thrown a series of curve balls!

The most troubling thing for us initially was trying to decide how all of these opportunities fit in with our initial prompting.  On the one hand, we wondered if looking elsewhere or considering options in other cities was almost like ignoring the very clear impression we had been given.  On the other hand, we wondered if the feelings to move to Cedar City were just the catalyst we needed to get us serious about looking for a new job and putting us in the right mind set to be prepared for a move.  As we talked with family and friends, it seemed almost everyone had a story of a time they had felt so certain about something, only to look back and realize that the Lord had lead them in a completely different direction then they initially thought he would.  

As you can imagine, there have been countless hours of discussion and prayers about these opportunities.  The job in St. George didn't pan out, the opportunity with Bill Gibbons was more than we felt capable of handling and a bit of a far reach for Burke's area of expertise and comfort, so we turned it down.  We decided to pursue both the job in Cedar and Iowa for a time and that is where we are currently sitting as we play the waiting game.  When I think of Cedar City, the words that come to mind are: comfort, family, solidarity, and home.  Whereas the words for Iowa are: adventure, growth, missionary work, and distant.  Both areas have their pros and cons, but I feel like we could excel in either environment.

The past two months have been a bit of a rollercoaster ride, but we feel strongly that no matter the outcome (if any of them!) we just want to serve our Heavenly Father, fulfill our covenants, and raise a happy family to be strong in the gospel.  We'll go where He wants us to go!