Change is everywhere right now. Especially in our life. For two months now I have been trying to figure out how to write this blog. We have some exciting changes happening, but they are changes that are hurtful to a lot of people and it is difficult to be excited about something when you know it hurts people that you love. At least it feels that way for us.
Most people know what is going on with us - we are moving to Colorado. But I am not sure how many people know and understand how and why we made the decision. First of all, let me say this - WE LOVE CALIFORNIA. A lot of people that I know complain about the state and say that they want to get out. That is not how we feel. We love it here. We are near Disneyland (our second home!), the beach, the mountains and awesome hiking. We live in a great neighborhood that is full of shopping and great restaurants. We are close to so much of our family, we attend a church that we love, I have a great job, Andy is whole-heartedly committed to his softball team... we love our life.
We have visited the Denver area often over the past eight years to see our family and to vacation with friends. We love it there and have often said that if we didn't live in California that would be a place we would like to live and more importantly a place that we would like to raise our family. We had toyed with the idea of me transferring, but it didn't appear that an opportunity would come available any time soon. The HR Managers at both of the locations have been there for a LONG time and didn't seem to have any plans to leave.
In February, Manheim decided to realign the regions within our company and our "West Region" became the "Pacific Region". The only change made was that Colorado joined us. Just a few short weeks later the HR Manager from Manheim Colorado decided to retire after 22 years with the company. Panic instantly siezed me when I learned of this change. I have always said that if a position opens at either of the Colorado locations I will at least apply and see where it leads. But when this opportunity came up I freaked out. It felt like someone was calling my bluff. I mean, how could we leave everything that we have here? We love our life here so much. But God quickly made it clear with sign after sign that this was not only a possibility - it is EXACTLY what He wants us to do. Each time we would question the decision or wonder if we were really hearing His voice, more signs - whether it was scripture, sermons or words from people that we love - would come to us to immediately stop any doubt.
It is for this reason that we are SO EXCITED about this. We feel like it's a calling, even though we don't know exactly what it's a calling to. We just know that our life is going to be the happiest and the most fruitful if we are where God wants us to be, so we are willing to go where He leads us - and we can't wait to find out why! We will miss all of our friends and family here in California, but we plan to be back often to visit and hopefully get lots of visitors in Colorado! Please be in prayer with us as we make the transition. We appreciate all of the encouragement that we have received over the last few months and we are so thankful for such an amazing support system! We are truly blessed!
Then we headed over to California Adventure. Amberlin had a great time walking around the park and getting to explore!
Tara & Phoenix
Me & Amberlin on Mother's Day
