Decisions

Well, this is our last Saturday in Abilene. We currently don't have cable (this happens at Sherrod sometimes...not sure why) so I thought I would try my hand at another post.

In my last post I said I would fill you in on our move to California. Here it goes.

Our goal in coming to Abilene was for Josh to finish his Masters of Divinity, get in to a PhD program near home and try to settle down for awhile. After being here for two semesters as a full time student, Josh was feeling burnt out on school. We decided to go ahead and apply to PhD programs and also begin looking for jobs in Atlanta and Nashville, both cities we thought we wanted to live in. He applied to 7 programs, mainly in the southeast. On a whim right before Christmas Josh decided to apply to Fuller Theological Seminary. To make a long story short, right after the spring semester began Josh found out that one of the really great professors in his field had moved to California and was now teaching at Fuller. Interesting, we thought and stuck this info in the back of our minds.

After several months of waiting we started hearing back from schools, all of which thanked us for applying but did not accept us into their program. We were having very little luck finding jobs in either Atlanta or Nashville and were both feeling a little down, nothing looking very promising. Then Josh received a phone call from the very professor that had moved to Fuller, letting him know that they wanted him to come and study there. They offered him a very good scholarship and the opportunity to be mentored by this same prof. Wow!

As several weeks passed we received rejection letters from every other school Josh had applied and no job leads. We continued to hear positive things both about the Fuller and the opportunity to work under such a great man. We had prayed for God to open the door He wanted us to enter and close all the rest. It was starting to become clear to us that He was answering our prayers, but in a very unexpected way.

Needless to say, after lots of thought and prayer, we made the decision to follow God's leading, accept the offer at Fuller and move to California. We knew housing was going to be expensive and difficult to find, we knew that it might be hard for me to find a job, we knew that it would not be the easiest place to live, but we also knew without a doubt that this is where God wanted us to be.

Josh graduated from ACU with his Masters of Divinity in May of this year. I am so proud of him and feel blessed to be his wife and share in this journey with him. He is going to make a great professor one day!

God never ceases to amaze us in His willingness to provide everything we need if we will simply trust in Him. He has provided me with a wonderful job in Pasadena, an amazing place to live, free tuition and so much more.

I NEVER thought we would live in California! But I am slowly learning to never say never. God's plans are perfect and His timing is just right and we are excited to see what all He has in store for us in Pasadena.

I will leave you with some pictures of our "Graduation" cruise that my parents took us on to celebrate Josh and Ashley's graduations!

We had a blast! It also gave Josh the opportunity to truly relax
for one of the first times in a year and a half!

Thanks Mom & Dad!!