We are Moving

When we moved to Salt Lake City almost 9 years ago, we knew that this day would eventually come.  Kevin had to go on an internship for his final year of grad school which would mean that graduation was quickly approaching and his PhD was in sight.

 

He would be applying to internships after many years of hard work in Utah and the sites would ultimately pick him.  He spent much of the fall applying, writing essays and prepping for interviews and much of December/January traveling the country going on interviews.  I spent time proof reading, being his personal interview stylist and helping organize his materials.  We felt fortunate that he got so many opportunities and off he went.  He visited/interviewed at the following cities: Little Rock, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Phoenix, Chicago, Bay Pines, Gainsville, Salt Lake City, Reno and Albuquerque.   We tried to prepare for a move to any of these places as best we could when everything was hypothetical.

I came up with a form for him to fill out for each site... likes, dislikes, overall impression and my reaction to the places he visited based on what Kevin told me.  After the interviews were over, it was helpful to go back and have a good account of each of the places he visited.  I kept our family updated on the process via email and they definitely had hopes for where we'd end up (mostly their vote was "closer to Indiana"). We had to rank the sites in order of our interest and then the sites ranked him.  After a few weeks of ranking limbo, the computer system matched us and we'd know the results soon.

We talked about the different scenarios in all of the various cities across the country.  We love to be together so we knew we could make any city work.  We enjoyed researching fun facts about each place and were hoping for some sites over others.  We just prayed that God would put us in the city that would be best for our soon to be family of five (2 cats, 1 baby and us)!  We realized that this could likely involve a move with a month old baby but were excited for the new opportunity that would be afforded to us.  We have loved living in SLC so we were also excited about the slight possibility of staying here for another year.

We woke up on the morning of 2.22.13 and Kevin checked his email on his phone.  I was getting ready for work and he called me over to his side of the bed.  He had a pleasantly surprised look on his face and said Come over and see where I placed... Side note: not everyone places with a site so we were elated that he placed and placed at a site that was one of his top choices.

His email read:

CONGRATULATIONS!  YOU HAVE MATCHED WITH A SITE IN

LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS

Start date : July 15, 2013

A million thoughts rushed through our heads... moving, leaving my school (let's don't talk about this right now) and going to live in a new city that I've never been to... yikes!  We were both excited but our heads were spinning.  We let our family know and they were thrilled as we will now be about 6 hours from them instead of 25 hours.  We let the news sink in and tried to begin formulating a plan of action to start the moving process.  Slowly but surely we told friends and co-workers.  I'm taking one year off from my job in SLC since Kevin's internship is only one year and we will see where Kevin ends up getting a job after graduation.  We feel like we have a better handle on the situation now, a good moving plan and Kevin is going to make a trip to Little Rock in April to scout things out.  

LOTS of changes headed our way...

The whole family is reading up on this new city...

What do you know about Little Rock, AR?  

I'd love to hear any tips, info or advice to help us settle in

since we will be making this place our HOME this July!