When Mark and I were first married we bought a house in my hometown. It was pretty far out in the boonies, so we could afford to buy a house there. At the same time Mark took a job in Anaheim - about 60 miles away from our house. Sixty miles is a lot no matter where you live, but when you live in California it makes for one hellish commute. Mark was driving 1 1/2 to 2 hours EACH WAY to get to work. If he didn't leave our house between 4:00 and 4:30 am he'd get stuck in traffic and his commute would stretch to 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Our first year and a half of marriage saw us going to bed before 8 pm most nights. Worse than that was the constant stress on Mark. That commute was really wearing on him and we knew we needed to do something different.
We'd been trying to get to Durango ever since we got married. Mark had known since his grandparents retired there when he was 10 that he wanted to live there some day. In fact, when we started seriously dating, he brought me to Durango and basically said, "I hope you like it here because I'll be living here some day (with or without you)." I appreciated his honesty - seriously, there's enough about marriage that you don't know you're "getting into" when you get married. At least I knew that part up front! The truth was, when I visited, I really did love it here. It's quirky, homey, and totally mall-free, but I love it!
Anyhow, by the time we entered the second year of Mark's awful commute, we were desperate to make a change. I had left a very unhealthy job situation and hadn't found a new job yet. We thought we'd found a workable solution. There was a satellite office for the company he worked for in Albuquerque. He would interview with them, get a transfer and we'd figure out a way to get to Durango from there. We were all set in our minds to move to Albuquerque. Now, don't get me wrong, there are some nice places in ABQ. But at that time it had one of the highest crime rates in the country. It also lead the country in car jackings, car thefts and murder. We were so desperate to do SOMETHING, we were willing to overlook those minor issues.
Well, we tried and tried. We went out and interviewed, looked at houses, made calls and followed up on every avenue. We tried for about 8 months and we just couldn't figure out what the hold up was! Finally one day I got online looking for a job. I prayed quietly, Lord, if we aren't meant to move to ABQ, please just let me help my husband have a better quality of life! Instead of clicking to ABQ jobs, I selected jobs near Anaheim.
Within a week I had interviewed at a temp agency, been matched with a prospective employer, interviewed with that company and received a job offer. Within. A. Week. We quickly placed our house on the market and it sold in just over a month (a miracle story for another time!). Before we knew it, we were living in the last place I ever thought I'd live. Newport Beach (see above). I remember in the beginning thinking Really Lord? Really? You're going to put us HERE? In the most self-involved, image conscious, materialistic culture ever? Really!?!
I wouldn't trade the time we had in the OC for anything. Ever. Even though it meant putting off our dream of Durango for a couple of years longer, the Lord sure knew what he was doing. We reconnected with several old friends from college who had all ended up in the same area. We joined their life group (small group) and their church.
To this day, those people in our life group are some of our dearest, closest friends (that's you, Cody & Amy, Kevin & Rechelle, Cindy, Alice, Josh, Noah etc.). The church we were all a part of was specifically called to equip and send ministers to the places that they were called to minister (to the right is a picture of one of the art pieces in the church hat I loved). When the time came for us to move, our life group literally prayed us there. I still miss being physically close to them, but I know that we have a bond in the Spirit.
In the end, of course, Mark's commute went down to 20 minutes and we enjoyed some of the quality-of-life perks that we had convinced ourselves we'd get in ABQ. But the Lord had so much more in store for us than that! We probably could have eventually made the ABQ plan happen in our own strength, but we sure would have missed out on God's best for us. In the end, it's true what it says in 2 Samuel "To obey is better than sacrifice."
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