The Story So Far

I've been promising so many an update and apparently facebook does not allow you to email more than 20 people at once. So, instead I am doing a blog and y'all can come read it :)

The last few weeks have been incredible. I mean, seriously unbelievable! I had the opportunity to meet with friends and stay with my dear mentor LeAnn for my last week in Fargo, all the while cleaning and preparing for the Big Move. I had some sweet times of being in the Word and just learning to walk in the steps God placed before me. My move on Saturday April 25 was fast approaching, I had just turned down a good position for mental and moral hesitancies, and I knew Minneapolis living was going to be difficult financially and relationally. Everyone I knew EVER really was here in Fargo. I've never been more than a ten minute drive from Mom and Dad. And what was I going to do if I couldn't find a job?!

Well Wednesday saw me driving back to Minneapolis for another interview, this time with MoneyGram International. I had a phone interview the previous Friday which had gone well. Wednesday would be a meeting with HR and the Manager of the department. It went phenomenally well!! So much so, they called me back for a staff interview about half an hour after I left the building. That too went very well. I was even asked on the spot about the regulations for unclaimed property in Delaware and was able to answer correctly to everyone's surprise. The job I was interviewing for would be Regulatory Specialist working with state licensing requirements, audits and legislation so it was very well suited to not only my current knowledge base but also my aspirations in law. I hoped I got the job as I finished my days in Fargo and looked toward Saturday, now only two days away...

Friday was check-out day for Roxie, Mandy and I. It was the end to a period in all our lives I think. I mean, we've been together for almost two years and there has been a lot of great things about our times. It will be a challenge to maintain that level of closeness as I've already seen this week, but I dearly appreciate and love those girls (hopefully you're reading, I know you don't read my blogs). So with that done, I moved on to time with my grandma and on the way I received the call. I was being offered the position with MoneyGram!! I had done some researching, read all the materials they had sent and knew this is where I wanted to be. So I accepted. Then the biggest surprise of all - the salary was far more than I anticipated and benefits were great! It just worked out that God knew what I needed and I had only to trust. And the thing all along has been that I moved from step to step in peace, I just KNEW God was walking the path with me and before me. Even the apartment I signed for prior to having a secured job, Mom and others really questioned my signing that lease before knowing whether I would find employment. But here we are, with a home and a job. The best part about the call for me was when the HR rep said, "We've been looking and interviewing for this position for a long time and each applicant has just fallen short. We are so glad we didn't settle for someone else and found you. We just knew after interviewing and with the staff that you were the perfect fit for the position." Do I really need more confirmation?

So with life looking good, I made the trek form Fargo to Minneapolis on Saturday. Saying goodbye to Dad was hard in Fargo. Definitely some tears shed. I realized how much I love him and really how much he loves me. When he said the words, "I am so proud of you" in my ear as we hugged, it was like a healing rain reminding me he is my daddy and I am still precious to him. So we say goodbye and my brother, mother and I begin driving. Oh. My. Goodness. We could barely stay together driving leaving Fargo and I started to worry how we would make it to my pace in the crazy city traffic!?

But we did and the apartment was just as homey and cozy as I remembered. We got checked in and I called for my recruited helpers. My dear friend Josh had enlisted some folks to help move my stuff in and I had the opportunity to meet my new friend Ben who happens to live down the street as well making it seem like maybe I'm not in the middle of the huge city alone. I mean I know someone down the street, right? And my friend Lyndsie came as well bearing a beautiful yellow Calla Lily I have since called Camille. Even a visit from an old friend Angie who has been in the cities for a little while. Everything got moved in record time (way to go guys!!) and the unpacking began. So far, my living room looks good and my kitchen is almost there... My bedroom still looks like a natural disaster may have been near.

So Mom and Curt stay overnight, helping with unpacking, moving, nails, buying stuff from Target, etc. When they leave the next morning, it hits me completely. I am here, alone. A little difficult to say goodbye, no tears though from Mom or Curt (they are the more stoic of the family). I decide to spend the rest of my day exploring. So I find the nearest Target in St. Louis Park (thanks Lyndsie for that heads up!!) and get some more essentials and head home to continue making this place a home. On my way, I stop at a red light and the driver behind me decides not to resulting in a rear-ending. It didn't look so bad until the insurance adjuster came to check out my vehicle and showed me where the back end basically folded in on itself under the carpet. So I will be car-less all of next week as that gets repaired. But on the positive side, her insurance claimed 100% liability and I had a minor case of whiplash so all is well (or will be when I get a Lucy, my car, back).

Since that excitement, I've been driving around and spending time reading most of my days. I made a decision early in the week that I want to get plugged in to the The Rock church. So I email the small group guy with a couple of groups that I thought looked interesting to me and he agreed one of them would be a good fit for not only the size but also the location of the house church. The way it works is services are Fridays and small groups or house church alternate Sunday nights. So as I look at attending Hamline in the near future (hopefully!) my Sunday evenings begin in St. Paul anyway so it would make sense to find somewhere I can get relatively quickly. So I email my new friend Ben, who happens to be a small group leader go figure :), and get it worked out. Now I wait for Friday to see how many people I can meet and befriend and hope people like me.

Well, it is Saturday morning and I am happy to report it was a phenomenal time last night of meeting people, a majority of who I will be in small group or house church with. I even received numerous hugs from the other small group leader, Beth, and other new friends which I didn't realize until last night I had been missing. It was truly a blessing to just have people surround me again, and they were all over the age of 14 too!! So, I kinda feel like I'm home now. And that is a great feeling. The rest of my weekend is pretty packed already with a volunteer project, movie, games, small group and more unpacking. So, that's the story so far!!