(alt. alt. title: The Grooms' go to Glasgow)
Sometimes things happen in life and you can instantly see how a hundred other things prepared you for it. I have made all of the following statements within the last year:
"I really want to live in a city someday."
"I really want to live somewhere that has a real winter with snow."
"I really want to have an adventure."
"I love travelling with our kids because it shows us how resilient they are/how capable they are of adapting to new situations and circumstances."
" I feel like I'm waiting for something to happen, yet I'm perfectly happy with what God has blessed us with and where we are."
So when Thomas came home a few weeks ago and mentioned that his company was looking to send someone abroad to work with one of his primary clients, Oxford University (yep, that one), we were vaguely excited. We decided that he should throw his name in the ring and see what happened since we felt like the timing was good for our family and it was a good career opportunity for T. We started praying in earnest for clarity and vision, and that our lives would glorify God, whether at home or abroad.
A couple of days later, Thomas called me and said, "how would you like to move to Glasgow, Scotland, for a year?" I was instantly ecstatic and terrified. All of the statements I made above raced through my brain, along with visions of my little family with pneumonia, huddled around a fire we made in our tiny, dark flat out of IKEA furniture during an interminably long winter. Although I can't rule this out as a possibility, saying no seemed unthinkable. So we talked it over, dreamed some big dreams, and (more or less) decided to say yes. We clued in our families the next day, and their enthusiasm for this opportunity gave us the courage to make our tentative yes into a resounding YES.
We have long lists of questions, a few big fears (what we will do with Sullivan, SOB; the Scottish winter; and being so far from family and friends, to start), and a huge to-do list before we leave this summer, but all of those are tempered by the knowledge that we serve a big and faithful God who has been preparing us for this journey for years. I am incredibly proud of Thomas for getting this opportunity and expectant that it will be an exhilarating step into the unknown. Some of you probably think we are insane for doing a transatlantic move with kids who are not quite one and three, and you're probably not wrong! We are hopeful that someday our kiddos will appreciate this leap of faith.
(More blog posts to follow soon about the perils of passports, and various other happenings from the last few weeks.)
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| Glasgow! |
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| Scottish flag |
"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." J.R.R. Tolkien
