A New Chapter in Our Lives

Sometimes I make the mistake in thinking that we've checked off all the boxes for big life events, and that our lives are going to slow down and be easier at some point. I should probably stop having that mindset, because it basically never happens. We've been living in our new house for a little less then a month now, and already we've been thrown for quite the loop. 

When we first moved in my mind was blown away by all the active church members in our area who were there and ready to help us move in. When I was driving from the attorney's office (where we had just had our closing), to our new home where people were waiting to help us unload our moving truck, I had about three people call me to tell me that they were so sorry they wouldn't be able to come and help us unload. Then I showed up at the house and there are something like seventeen people outside who had managed to make it to our new home before me. As I watched all these people unloading our truck I couldn't help but be reminded of the many, many wonderful people that we went to church with in North Carolina, and our last ward in Georgia. I immediately thought, and continued to think over the next few days, "Yes, this move is going to be amazing."

Three days later, it was Sunday morning and we made the very quick, less than two mile drive to our new church building. It had been ages since we'd lived so close to church, that being there in five minutes just seemed so heavenly. When we walked into the chapel, the ward was so big that 10 minutes before the meeting started the chapel was full, and most of the overflow. It was fast and testimony meeting that day, and there were even Deacons on the stand with microphones waiting for people to raise their hands in the chapel to bear their testimony because they didn't want to overcrowd the pulpit with lines. 

Right before the meeting started, I leaned over to Derek and joked, "The last time our ward was this big was when we were NC and they had to split the wards and make a new one." And then six seconds later, the Stake President took the stand and announced that they were going to be splitting the wards. 

I was immediately stressed out because most of the families that we'd met that first week lived on the other side of the ward from us, and Derek and I were sure that no one we knew would be in our new ward. And sure enough that was the case, except for one family who was so nice to us that first week and let us borrow a ladder from them, which is instant friendship in my book, and they're in our new ward too, so we knew an entire two people going into the next Sunday of church with our new ward. 

Then last Sunday after church Derek and I got a call from our new bishop saying that he wanted to meet with the families in the ward to get to know everyone. So we met with him on Tuesday, were pretty sure that we would be getting a super low key calling in the next couple weeks, and left the building.

Saturday night at 8:30pm, Derek got a call from the Stake President saying that he wanted to meet with us at 8:30 in the morning the next day before sacrament meeting started. Because we'd told the Bishop that Derek's old calling of being a clerk was basically his dream calling, we were sure that he was either getting called to some clerk position, or that I was going to be a secretary somewhere because I had been bragging about my organizational skills to our Bishop too. 

So on Sunday morning when we sat down in front of the Stake President where he told us that Derek would be the new Elders Quorum President, we were both in shock. We knew maybe three families in our ward by this point, and I confirmed with the Stake President, "You know we're only 24 and 27 right?" He apparently didn't seem phased by our age at all. 

We spent most of yesterday laughing and joking about his calling until around dinnertime when the weight and magnitude of the call really started to sink in. We realized that the original closing day on our house was supposed to be July 22nd, and had that been the case, Derek never would have gotten called. Everyone said closing in 20 days was really fast, and now we know the Lord had a plan for us the entire time. 

But to be honest, it's overwhelming to be sitting here at the beginning phases of a very large calling. Derek still has one more year for his MBA, His church responsibilities have just escalated from teaching primary once a week, to likely doing something church related more days than not. It feels daunting to not know exactly how busy he's going to be, and what all of this will mean for our family, and family time, but we're told that there are great blessings from serving, and so we're just hoping it all works out. And in 3-4 years when Derek gets released and we're able to look back and say, "we made it", then all the better.