The Big Move

We are going to be going back through a few of our major "God things" in the past before we start posting what is going on now. We want to give a little background and also record the ones that are important before details start to blur. Having said that, we are going to skip from when we got together to our move to Montana. This is not to say that there weren't plenty of noteworthy times in between those two events.

In the spring of 2004 Jared had completed his first year of college and I had just graduated from CSU-Pueblo. We were living in Pueblo, CO and were starting to plan the next phase of our lives. We thought about building a house in Pueblo West and started trying to get a loan. Even with Jared's dad co-signing on a loan we were still turned down. This was so frustrating for us especially because the lots were like 8k. God had a different plan and I'm so thankful! Can you really see us living in Pueblo West? After that plan fell through we decided to move to Ft. Collins. I was planing on getting my Master's degree and Jared would finish school there. We even went up on spring break and looked at places to live there. Not long after that I was getting my application done for the grad-school program and took my exam. I some how got completely confused on one part of the test and I tanked on the score! I immediately realized the problem after I submitted the scores and was SO mad that I had made such a dumb mistake on such an important exam. Needless to say based on those scores I was denied entrance to the grad-program. Again a frustrating heartbreak. One day a few weeks later, I got a packet in the mail from a graduate school in WA. So I stared looking at this packet and thought "why not?" Why not move somewhere way out of our comfort zone? So Jared the handy researcher went to work. We found Missoula and the University of Montana. This school would allow both of us to finish the programs we wanted to. We fell in love with the town from pictures and what we had read. Jared had always wanted to live in Montana, and I was starting to come around after looking into the town some more. After graduation we took a trip up to see Missoula in May. It was so beautiful! We were hooked. We started praying and praying and really felt that this was meant to be so we told family and friends. Friends were sad but excited for us and family was in a state of shock. They didn't really believe we would go through with it. Someone even said "I remember when we were young and stupid and did stuff like this". So on that note we geared up to prove them wrong (in a good way). One night after a lot of discouraging talk with family we drove the hour drive home to Pueblo. We were having some doubts and were trying to finalize our decision. We talked the whole way about whether or not this was right. Just as we were turning onto the the exit ramp to our apartment a van pulled out in front of us that had big huge sticker letters spelling out TRUST GOD NOW. We laugh and look at each other and then look back and saw that the van was from Montana! How's that for a sign LOL. So we did, we trusted God, packed up and moved to Missoula with no jobs lined out, no house set up, and not a familiar soul in all of Montana.

God's Provision

We stayed in the KOA cabins for a week while we got phones and went job and house hunting. Within a week I was hired as a personal trainer at Gold's Gym, Jared had a job in at the contractor's desk at Home Depot, we found a brand new studio apartment that allowed pets and was in our budget, and we also found a great church that fit us perfectly. We moved in and with in a few months God was showing us his fist opportunity to serve...more on that in another post.