Let me give you a bit of background before I tell you what is ahead for us.
7 years ago I moved to Jonesboro Arkansas (from Bend Oregon) - I moved here because I had fallen in love with a man who lived here, we were long distance for a year and then I moved here for 6 months before we got married. Those first few months were hard, I cried myself to sleep a lot of nights because I missed my family so much (we are close and this was my first time being so far from them).
Shortly after we got married I started to pray that God would move me and my husband closer to home, I prayed that for several years and then decided I needed to be more specific so I started to pray that God would move us to somewhere that is ONE flight from home.
I did my best to make Jonesboro home, and becoming part of a ministry was key to making me feel like I belonged, I became a youth leader at our church and loved it! I did that for 6 years and then I felt this past September that God was telling me to step out of that ministry, so I did.
No ministry and not job - I was in a holding pattern... just waiting...
I didn't know what was next but I started to pray that God would open the doors for a ministry that me and my husband could do together.
Around the same time (sept-october 2019) we began to start looking at bigger houses and getting info on becoming foster parents. We heard someone mention a children's home one Sunday and it sparked a curiosity in both of us, so we started to look into that and learned that couples were hired to be HOUSE parents, meaning that you live in a house full of kids, family style, and you get to love them & that is your Job, I showed the info to my husband (not thinking he would be interested cause he has a job that he loves now, BUT) he was interested, so we started looking at it seriously.
I found a site that listed all the Jobs for Childrens homes (http://www.houseparent.net/Direct1.php)
and through a lengthy process of elimination we had a handful of locations on our list - but ONE OF THEM stood out, among all the others, because of the community feel they had between the houses, we both had a really great feeling about them so we put all the other places on hold and pursued this option.
Skipping forward, several months, many emails, skype calls, prayers and answers we went to visit SUNSHINE ACRES in Mesa AZ in Feb 2020 (which was just 2 weeks ago as I write this post). We came home feeling sure that we were meant to be there, and we were set to wait for a job opening to present itself.
A few days after arriving home we got a call and a job offer to be relief parents and support staff and we accepted! Originally we had 6 weeks to pack and move but some things changed and now we are looking at being in Mesa by March 18th.If it seems like that all happened really quick, it's cause it DID. It's a crazy packing frenzy over here as we get rid of stuff we don't need and plan for our new life and OF COURSE the kitties are coming with us!!!!
We will miss our church and all the people who made this place home. We have people here that we consider family and it's hard to leave them but we feel that it's God who is calling us, so if would be foolish not to go.
and to reference the 2 prayers I was praying - YES mesa has an airport that flies DIRECT to Redmond/bend airport, and this is 100% a ministry that me and my husband will be doing together.
I could go even further back over the last year and show you how every little upset or hiccup was in preparation for this move but I will just relay to you that we are confident that THIS is where we are supposed to go. We would love your prayers as we go through this move, as all kinds of emotions flood to the surface and moving is stressful.
I will end this post by leaving some links so you can check out the website and social media page for Sunshine acres as well as some videos I found on Youtube -they do a great job of showing what they do and I'm sure after looking them over, you will see why we are so excited about this next chapter.
http://www.sunshineacres.org/
https://www.facebook.com/SunshineAcresCH
