Taking The Boat to Oregon

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Well, it's a done deal.
Our family is moving to Oregon.

It still hasn't settled in yet.

Our. Family. Is. MOVING. To. OREGON!?!

I haven't ever even been to Oregon, really.
I mean, when we lived in Boise, we drove up to Baker City just across the Idaho border
in search of snow our first winter there, then turned around and went back.
Does that count?

I am so excited I can't sleep. Seriously, I've gone to bed twice tonight and cannot stop the wheels from turning. My thoughts twirling and zipping around so much, I can't quiet my mind.

This has been a long difficult trial of under-employment for years and then un-employment for 14 months.  We have prayed for relief for years and tonight it hit me when saying our prayers that for the first time in literally 7 years, we didn't have to pray for help in finding a new job for Kent.
It wasn't until prayers were over and kids were off to bed that I felt a rush of relief over my body and this weighty burden lifting off. 
The new job is exciting for Mr. Wonderful and a boon for our financial stability--it has exceeded my expectations by leaps and bounds.

Holy smokes, people.

I have no idea why we're meant to be in Oregon--green, lush, hippified, chill, mountainous, coastal, Duck country...but I'm excited to buy some galoshes and a rain coat n' get going!

Neil A. Maxwell said it best: "Faith in God includes faith in His timing."

One of my most favorite apostolic counsel comes from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland:

When we join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we board the Good Ship Zion and sail with her wherever she goes until she comes into that millennial port. We stay in the boat, through squalls and stills, through storms and sunburn, because that is the only way to the promised land. This Church is the Lord’s vehicle for crucial doctrines, ordinances, covenants, and keys that are essential to exaltation, and one cannot be fully faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ without striving to be faithful in the Church, which is its earthly institutional manifestation. To new convert and longtime member alike, we declare in the spirit of Nephi’s powerful valedictory exhortation: “Ye have entered in by the gate; … [but] now, … after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; … press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, … and endure to the end, behold, thus … ye shall have eternal life.”⁵

Waiting on the Lord is hard. Being patient in trials is so dang hard.  Believing that trials will end in one's favor is so demanding on our faith.  It's hard and there's no other way around it.  I said over and over and over again to my self and to my family: "We're staying in the *boat, we're lashing ourselves to it! We will not jump off for there is certain death off the boat! We'll stay in the boat even though we do not know where it's headed. We're in it to the end."

There have been moments when I was laying in the *boat, an eye towards heaven, wondering if we'd ever find a welcoming shore again. My emotional energy so tapped out. So weak.  I'd pray for more faith, more strength and confidence in Heavenly Father's power and love for me and my family.

The truth is, if we gave up, then what?  THEN WHAT???  Where on earth can peace be found outside of faith?  I haven't seen evidence of it anywhere.  The world is a hot mess.  Seeing and believing that the relief I sought was in my faith, helped me to hold on. Hang in there. Be patient. Long-suffering--I know what that means intimately now, that's for dang sure. 

So Oregon, I'm coming your way with eyes wide open and a heart full of gratitude--it seems the boat was always headed that way.  People to love and to serve.  We got this.

*https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2004/04/abide-in-me?lang=eng