Glenwood Springs
I know I've been going on and on about simplifying life lately but that is what brings us to this big change in our lives. We are moving to Glenwood Springs, CO.
DISCLAIMER: This is kind of a long story- you've been warned.
A few months ago, Brian texted me and said, "Let's move to the mountains". I chuckled to myself and responded with, "You're supposed to be the stable one" and left it at that. That next weekend, I found Brian looking up real estate in various mountain towns in our price range and I still wasn't sure if this was a phase or if this is really something he wanted us to pursue.
Of course, most of the homes in our price range were trailers or shacks that needed more than a little TLC so I just sat with him and said, "No." "No." "No." "No." to every house he pulled up in every mountain town he picked. He asked what mountain town I would want to live in if I could pick any of them regardless of the cost of living and Glenwood Springs came to mind but I knew there was no way we could afford it. He looked it up just for fun and come to find out, housing prices have gone down and he said, "We could actually make this work". We talked about it all afternoon and left it at this: we'll move to Glenwood Springs in two years if it's still something we want to do.
The conversation opened a floodgate in my head and for the next week it was all I could think about. I knew it was crazy. Here we'd been going on and on about wanting to live near downtown Denver for the past 6 years- if we did this everyone would think we were nuts. The more I thought about it though, the more it just felt right. I could see myself living there for the rest of my life. I could see raising a family there and the thought of living in a smaller community actually sounded pretty wonderful. I loved living in the mountains our first year of marriage- it just wasn't practical for us at that time. I also knew that I loved working for Colorado Mountain College for that too short amount of time and was excited about the fact that Glenwood Springs is where their central office is located. I decided I would just periodically monitor the job openings at CMC to see what might come up and then figure things out from there if something did.
I checked for about a week and then one day I saw a new position for a Marketing Specialist in Glenwood so I checked the salary range and saw it would be a pay-cut but I sent it to Brian anyway, basically as a "Haha, what are the chances a marketing position would open up" note. He responded with, "That pay-cut isn't too bad, I'm going to apply for it". I basically endured a mental freak out for the rest of the day. We went from potentially moving in 2 years to potentially moving, like, NOW. I drove home praying like a madman and told God he needed to make it obviously clear if this is a stupid idea. I told him that if Brian applies for this job and he gets it, I will take that as a green light; and green means GO.
We saw the job posting well before they stated they would even start reviewing resumes so it was an agonizing month of just waiting and wondering what might happen before Brian heard back regarding the submission of his resume. During that month we talked A LOT. We talked and analyzed everything, we even drove up to Glenwood one day for dinner just to reacquaint ourselves and verify that it was still a city we could see ourselves living in. I kept waiting for the day to come when one of us (or both) woke up from our spell and realized we were nuts. That still hasn't happened. In fact, we just kept falling deeper into the rabbit hole.
The day the Waldo Canyon fire had destroyed parts of Colorado Springs, I got nervous about the thought of living in a forest and Brian said, "Now that you're doubting it, I'll probably hear back from them tomorrow" and ironically, that's exactly what happened. We spent that day talking about the very real truth that living in the forest does include potential fire dangers. Surprisingly, I still wasn't that deterred from wanting to move there. Brian had a short phone interview and then they invited him up for a face-to-face interview and later that week, they offered him the job. I was in a meeting that morning and came back to my desk to find 9 text messages from Brian and I knew he'd found out. We celebrated and breathed a sigh of relief.
I know to most people who know us, this might sound nuts. I can't really describe it but we feel so confident in this path and we really feel God's hand orchestrating everything. The day Brian got the job, I started to panic because that meant it was my turn to find a new job- a process that stresses me out beyond measure. I've moved on from just being an office assistant at the front desk but my skills as a Success Coach don't really translate outside of my current institution. I started to look online and froze because I didn't even know what category to search in. I became very discouraged and convinced myself I would just learn to survive working in retail or doing basic clerical work. Brian called me from the computer that night and yelled, "I FOUND YOUR JOB!!!!!" CMC had posted some new positions that fit my skills really well and I felt a weight lifted off of my shoulders. Granted, I know I'm not a shoo-in for either position and it might not work out but it felt like God wanted to give me some reassurance that there's a place for me in this plan, too.
Our biggest chore right now is selling our town home so we have been de-cluttering fools this weekend. We tried to sell 2 years ago with not a single offer, but now we feel like it's clear why that didn't work out- it's because we weren't supposed to move to Denver, we are supposed to move to Glenwood Springs.
DISCLAIMER: This is kind of a long story- you've been warned.
A few months ago, Brian texted me and said, "Let's move to the mountains". I chuckled to myself and responded with, "You're supposed to be the stable one" and left it at that. That next weekend, I found Brian looking up real estate in various mountain towns in our price range and I still wasn't sure if this was a phase or if this is really something he wanted us to pursue.
Of course, most of the homes in our price range were trailers or shacks that needed more than a little TLC so I just sat with him and said, "No." "No." "No." "No." to every house he pulled up in every mountain town he picked. He asked what mountain town I would want to live in if I could pick any of them regardless of the cost of living and Glenwood Springs came to mind but I knew there was no way we could afford it. He looked it up just for fun and come to find out, housing prices have gone down and he said, "We could actually make this work". We talked about it all afternoon and left it at this: we'll move to Glenwood Springs in two years if it's still something we want to do.
The conversation opened a floodgate in my head and for the next week it was all I could think about. I knew it was crazy. Here we'd been going on and on about wanting to live near downtown Denver for the past 6 years- if we did this everyone would think we were nuts. The more I thought about it though, the more it just felt right. I could see myself living there for the rest of my life. I could see raising a family there and the thought of living in a smaller community actually sounded pretty wonderful. I loved living in the mountains our first year of marriage- it just wasn't practical for us at that time. I also knew that I loved working for Colorado Mountain College for that too short amount of time and was excited about the fact that Glenwood Springs is where their central office is located. I decided I would just periodically monitor the job openings at CMC to see what might come up and then figure things out from there if something did.
I checked for about a week and then one day I saw a new position for a Marketing Specialist in Glenwood so I checked the salary range and saw it would be a pay-cut but I sent it to Brian anyway, basically as a "Haha, what are the chances a marketing position would open up" note. He responded with, "That pay-cut isn't too bad, I'm going to apply for it". I basically endured a mental freak out for the rest of the day. We went from potentially moving in 2 years to potentially moving, like, NOW. I drove home praying like a madman and told God he needed to make it obviously clear if this is a stupid idea. I told him that if Brian applies for this job and he gets it, I will take that as a green light; and green means GO.
We saw the job posting well before they stated they would even start reviewing resumes so it was an agonizing month of just waiting and wondering what might happen before Brian heard back regarding the submission of his resume. During that month we talked A LOT. We talked and analyzed everything, we even drove up to Glenwood one day for dinner just to reacquaint ourselves and verify that it was still a city we could see ourselves living in. I kept waiting for the day to come when one of us (or both) woke up from our spell and realized we were nuts. That still hasn't happened. In fact, we just kept falling deeper into the rabbit hole.
The day the Waldo Canyon fire had destroyed parts of Colorado Springs, I got nervous about the thought of living in a forest and Brian said, "Now that you're doubting it, I'll probably hear back from them tomorrow" and ironically, that's exactly what happened. We spent that day talking about the very real truth that living in the forest does include potential fire dangers. Surprisingly, I still wasn't that deterred from wanting to move there. Brian had a short phone interview and then they invited him up for a face-to-face interview and later that week, they offered him the job. I was in a meeting that morning and came back to my desk to find 9 text messages from Brian and I knew he'd found out. We celebrated and breathed a sigh of relief.
I know to most people who know us, this might sound nuts. I can't really describe it but we feel so confident in this path and we really feel God's hand orchestrating everything. The day Brian got the job, I started to panic because that meant it was my turn to find a new job- a process that stresses me out beyond measure. I've moved on from just being an office assistant at the front desk but my skills as a Success Coach don't really translate outside of my current institution. I started to look online and froze because I didn't even know what category to search in. I became very discouraged and convinced myself I would just learn to survive working in retail or doing basic clerical work. Brian called me from the computer that night and yelled, "I FOUND YOUR JOB!!!!!" CMC had posted some new positions that fit my skills really well and I felt a weight lifted off of my shoulders. Granted, I know I'm not a shoo-in for either position and it might not work out but it felt like God wanted to give me some reassurance that there's a place for me in this plan, too.
Our biggest chore right now is selling our town home so we have been de-cluttering fools this weekend. We tried to sell 2 years ago with not a single offer, but now we feel like it's clear why that didn't work out- it's because we weren't supposed to move to Denver, we are supposed to move to Glenwood Springs.
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| Picture source: http://www.geotimes.org/may04/Travels051204.html |
So happy for you Jaime! God is good and He always has a plan! Your townhome will sell and you will have a job! I will continue to pray for you and Brian as you walk this new path together! : )
ReplyDeleteGorgeous town!! Congrats on what sounds like a great job and move for you guys!
ReplyDelete