Rainbow Signs

Remember when I wrote this post We're Moving! and Change is Hard a few weeks ago?

I said that we had all the big feelings about moving and were really going to miss living in Terre Haute BUT that we knew it was the right decision for our family.

I thought I'd elaborate on that today.

It might not be the most interesting stories, but it's an important story for our family.

There is always a lot going on behind the scenes with Kevin's job that isn't exactly the best blog content.  Things that were struggles, hard and not exactly ideal along with changes that we felt coming.  Combine those with exciting career milestones - getting tenure and being given cool opportunities.  We've been working through some of those things for years.  We have been praying for answers and guidance over the years and most of the time doors were closed, opportunities weren't there and God seemed to be telling us to stay put.  It was very obvious that Terre Haute was the place where we were supposed to be for the past 6 years.  Terre Haute has been really good to our family.  Both boys were born here, the kids have loved their schools, fun friends and I had some really cool opportunities.

June 2021 //

This past summer a job came across Kevin's radar at University of Evansville.  It was the director of a brand new clinical psychology PsyD program.  They wanted to bring in someone to build a program from the ground up.  He said it was a really interesting job opportunity that he felt like he had to explore.  He was shocked that something that seemed like his dream job was coming available in the near future.  He prepped his application, got his letters of recommendation and sent everything off.  I panicked a bit because this was all so sudden and a new school year was beginning.

September //

University of Evansville reached out to him and wanted to bring him in for an interview.

We were a little surprised because it had been months without hearing anything.

He was excited to go and see what their vision was for the program.

He headed out for 2 full days of intense interviews.  

I barely talked to him and he was busy from morning to night.  He was busy talking to everyone from community leaders, people on and off campus, guest lecturing, presenting his research, etc and they made sure he met with all the people.  He bumped into my dad at his favorite breakfast spot and had to quickly tell him why he was there.  Then my cousin on campus.  So much for flying under the radar.

Kevin was on information overload after two days and a couple hour trip each way.  He liked what they had to say and was impressed with what they had to offer.  He thought everything went great so we waited to see.  A few days later they offered him the position!

We had a week or so to decide.  We weighed ALL the pros/cons and talked through the idea of chasing big dreams for our family.  We talked about what opportunities we wanted for the kids as they got older and the pros and cons of relocating now.  We prayed a ton, went back and forth with offer details and then felt like we should take the job.

October // 

We visited Evansville, saw tons of houses and I kept saying a million things needed to fall into place for us to make a quick move - ie in January 2022 vs June 2022.  Slowly, but surely, all of our plans felt like they were been green lighted by God.  Every single thing that were conditions of a quick move were being taken care of - new house, quick sale of our current house, great schools for the kids, etc.

Then I realized I started seeing rainbows everywhere.  That was unusual for me and quickly reminded me of Genesis 9:13 (I have set my rainbow in the clouds and and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth) and that God keeps his promises.  God has always taken good care of our family.  Each move has been a blessing to us and a great opportunity for our family.  We've loved all the cities we've lived in and we were excited about the prospect of another new city.  So the abundance of rainbows had me feeling like God was showing me signs that this was a great opportunity for us to trust Him and trust His plan for our family.  

Let me show you some of the rainbows we saw:

We headed to Evansville for the day to look at houses.  We found the one.  We showed the kids and hurried back to Terre Haute.  Shortly after getting on the road to head home we saw the brightest double rainbow I have ever seen.  It lit up the whole sky + fall leaves.  Kevin and I were like WOW that feels like a big sign from God.

I drove the kids to school one morning like I always do and there was a huge rainbow.  I was feeling a little overwhelmed by life and all the potential changes so this rainbow was really encouraging.

Another morning I was out and about with Leo running errands.  This rainbow peeked through the clouds to give me a little encouraging boost.

And lastly, we headed up to Wisconsin for Fall Break.  We were deliberating the job decision the whole trip and we saw rainbows the entire trip.  They kept popping up everywhere.

So for us all these rainbow signs were just confirmation that we needed to give this a shot!  We needed to leave the comfortable life we'd gotten accustomed to and be ready to go where God was calling our family to go.  Like we'd always done with moves in the past.  Change is hard and not always fun, but we are confident that God has great plans for our family in our new city.