We’re Moving to Texas!

If you find the news that we’re moving to Texas surprising, you’re in good company! We’re rather shocked ourselves! And if it seems like it came out of nowhere, that’s because it did! At the beginning of May, Clint suggested that we consider the possibility of moving to another state. Whereas Clint still had a job, his work was undergoing massive layoffs and shutting down facilities. It seemed a job change may be on the horizon and that opened the door for us to consider new options.

I was trying to be open to all possibilities, but really, I thought it was very unlikely that we would move. After all, I was sure that God brought us to this house (given the crazy circumstances surrounding our purchase), and I wasn’t going to leave it unless God made it clear that we were supposed to leave. Clint mentioned San Antonio, Texas and showed me how we could get a beautiful home for significantly less than what we were currently paying. That sounded great, but it was not new news to me that it costs less to live in most places than it does to live in California. I grew up here though, and this was home, so I was not inclined to leave. 

As all of this was going down, I was reading the book Your Blue Flame by Jennifer Fulwiler, and she mentioned how one of her goals was to get her family in one place (as a funny note, that place ended up being Austin, TX). I knew that about her because I’ve been following her for a while, but under the circumstances it struck me differently. I had always dreamed of having my family all living near each other, but my plan to gather my people was not going well.

My parents are in California, but without traffic they are over an hour away. Not only did they not want to move closer, they didn’t even plan to stay in California long term. My brother is up in Seattle, and if he left Seattle, it was unlikely he would come here because the job opportunities in his field are limited in this area. Clint’s dad is in Arizona, and it wasn’t practical for him to live here due to the high cost of living. Clint’s brother and sister in law are also in Arizona, and whereas they do not plan to stay in Arizona long term, SoCal was not on the list of places they were interested in moving to. 

That got me thinking, what if we could move somewhere that would work for everyone? My brother had previously mentioned a couple places that he would be open to moving to. I remembered that Colorado was one of them, but I couldn’t remember what the other place was. When I asked him, he said “Austin,” which is very close to San Antonio! Then I asked my parents out of the blue how they felt about Texas. My dad said, “You know the part of Texas that I like? Austin. And what’s the city next to it?” “San Antonio?” I offered. “Yes.” I couldn’t help but laugh—that sure seemed like a sign to me! 

With each passing day we felt more drawn to San Antonio, but I’m a believer in discerning God’s will by knocking and seeing what doors open, or don’t open. In the past, we had thought that we were supposed to move to Arizona. We knocked, and those doors stayed firmly shut, while in the meantime, different doors started to open, leading us to our current home. So we started knocking on the Texas doors, and they shocked us by flying open! Clint began applying for jobs in San Antonio. A position popped up in his job feed as we were getting ready for bed one night that looked interesting, so he submitted his resume. The next morning (Wed, May 20), they called him at around 6:30 in the morning (8:30 CST) as he was on his way into work. That led to a call with his potential manager that afternoon. The manager was so impressed by him that he wanted to fly Clint out for an in person interview! 

That weekend we went to the river for Memorial Day, and we decided to put our trailer up for sale. Our family absolutely loves spending time at our river home, but we were continuing to feel pulled in a different direction, so we kept knocking. We put a for sale sign up on our first morning there, and we found a couple checking it out that afternoon when Clint and I happened to be up at the trailer together sans kids for a few minutes (which NEVER happens). The next morning they made an offer, which we accepted! We couldn’t believe that it sold so fast, and saying goodbye to our beloved river trailer was emotional for all of us, but the way it all went down seemed to be additional confirmation that we were on the right track. 

The following Friday (May 29), Clint, Dillon and I boarded a plane to San Antonio for Clint’s interview while my parents took care of the other kids. The company generously paid for our flight, hotel and rental car, and they were willing to fly us out Friday, even though the interview wasn’t until Monday, so we could spend the weekend checking out the area! As we landed in San Antonio, we were immediately struck by how green everything was! The next day we met up with a realtor, so we could tour the different areas and houses we had been seeing online.

There were so many beautiful areas, and we could not believe all the trees and open space! We discovered that the hill country really spoke to us, and we were particularly excited about a house nestled in the hills of Bulverde (a city on the outskirts of San Antonio). After house hunting, we had dinner in Boerne (another beautiful city outside San Antonio) and enjoyed a walk along a creek! On Sunday, we were able to go to church in person (AMAZING), and then we self toured houses/ neighborhoods and discovered more gems in this area that we were quickly falling in love with! I couldn’t believe how much I liked Texas! On Monday, Clint had a 5 hour interview (WOW), and then we checked out our favorite house (for the third time) before heading to the airport. 

Clint had a follow up call with the company that Thursday (June 4), and then that afternoon he received a job offer! He signed the letter to accept it that night, and the next day he gave two weeks’ notice to his work! His last day was Friday (June 19th), and he starts his new job on July 6th!

The same day that he gave notice, we also made an offer on our favorite house. So many of the properties we had seen over the weekend had already gone to pending, so we wanted to get an offer in on our house as soon as possible! The sellers received another offer shortly after we submitted ours, and there was some back and forth, which was very stressful! However, on Tuesday morning (June 9) we found out that they accepted our offer!

The best part is that the sellers are willing to let us lease the house from them until we are able to get our house here sold! Being able to move our family just once is such a blessing! After we were already in escrow, the sellers received ANOTHER offer on the house, but fortunately they didn’t even consider it as they wanted to honor their commitment to us! As crazy as this whole situation has been, we can definitely feel God carrying us through it! 

So we will be leaving California on Monday, June 29th and beginning the long drive to Texas! We are expecting to arrive at our new house the morning of July 1st! We’re pretty physically and emotionally maxed out right now as we prepare to move our family to another state so quickly, but we are also excited for our new adventure! Clint asked the other night, “How did you go from a hard no to let’s go to Texas?” and I have no idea! I had always said this was our forever home, and I never had any interest in leaving, and then within a week, I was totally on board with moving my family to another state?? And Clint was at his job for 16 years and thought he would retire from there, and suddenly my risk adverse husband was excited to switch to an unfamiliar company in another state?? All I can say is God works in mysterious ways!