Year in the life of Dez...day 33

How it came to be...

I am asked on many occasions how we found ourselves in Montana. My Friend Lauri Howard suggested I do a blog about it. So here goes...

While I was pregnant with Jack we put our house up for sale in Mississippi. It was no "new" news to anyone how much I didn't like living there. Mississippi never felt like home to me and it took me nearly 10 years to convince my husband that his life-long home was not mine. Sure, I endured it because I love Jason.

It took me at least 5 years to really get settled in and to make friends. Now part of that was due to my personality. If you know me well you know that I have a Brain to mouth filter that sometimes goes on the blink. Not so much now as I used to. But, I had a tendency to offend people very easily. On top of it...you can't make friends when you never leave the house except to work. I just never felt like I was accepted, and then when I was I really knew how to choose them... AHH (I had some real nightmare friendships).

When we put our house on the market it wasn't to move away from Corinth, but more to move away from the area we lived in. I suppose I thought if we could get out from under the noses of my husbands entire family that I could start making a life for us. Never before, till I moved to Mississippi did I see entire families living in the same neighborhood. Me, lacking in the family department, didn't appreciate the over communion.

Well, the house didn't sell so we decided to fix it up. We remodeled the entire house, gutted the kitchen, gutted the bathrooms...it was really pretty when we got finished. It was during this time...which all of this took about a year... that Jason agreed to move. So we started praying about where God wanted us. So one day, after about a month of looking Jason suggested I center my search on Montana.

After about 6 months of applying to jobs...interviewing and getting back answers of NO... did someone seriously give us a bite. We flew into Spokane (SPOH- CAN, for you southerners to learn to pronounce correctly) and had our interview with Monarch School the next day. It was in July of 2008 and for us it was the trip of a lifetime. NEVER, in 1 MILLION years, did I think I'd get to see this part of the country. We fell in love immediately with the mountains and the lake. It had to be the most beautiful place either of us had ever seen.

We flew back home and began packing in anticipation of hopefully moving to the wilderness. We put our house back on the market and began tons of faith filled prayer.

1 Month Seems like an eternity when waiting on news that will change your whole families life. We eventually got the call though and they wanted Jason to start in October. By this time it was close to the end of August. We worried a little about the move, how we were going to afford it and would Jason need to go before us to find a place while we sold the house and I still worked... But ever complex puzzle piece fit together like it was magic.

We said goodbye to all of our friends and love ones and began our trek across the states the week before Jason had to start work. We drove through states we had never been through and saw sights we thought we would never see... Rushmore, the Badlands...
When we arrived in Keystone, SD we received a call from our realtor saying we sold the house.

We have had a whole TON of "firsts" since we have been here. The beauty of Montana and the seasons here have provided the greatest adventure of our lives. This last winter we saw between 10-20 feet of snow. We have gone mountain climbing, quading, swam in the most clear blue-green waters, seen Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, seen animals we never thought we would see... it has really been the most amazing year ever. Jakub, Jack and I flew back home this summer... it was their first plane ride. We drove back across the states and saw even more than we had the first time....making sure we went a different route so the kids could say they have seen and visited new places. On top of it we have created lifelong bonds here that can never be replaced or forgotten. People here are so very accepting and genuine.

Nothing can replace our amazing year here... Now we look ahead to the future and wonder what God has in store for us. Right now we are looking forward to Christmas and hopefully some more snow. We have only had 6 inches or so this year...I am waiting to see some white stuff and hopefully have our SECOND white Christmas.