The Move

So I've been putting off writing about the move because, I don't know, once it's written it's final and really happening and there for posterity to read about. Something like that. Oh and I've been packing frantically every minute and haven't had the energy to spare. So Coop is graduating with his masters next month and he's been applying to jobs all over and we've been praying some of the most sincere prayers of our lives. Everything has been going very discouragingly slow up until a couple of weeks ago.
On April 19th I was searching for jobs for Cooper and did a specific search in Central Oregon because Cooper was going to be headed out to Redmond the next day to do a presentation to the city out there. I found an internship with the city of The Dalles, he called to see if it had already been taken, filled out an application and snail mailed it before 5 that day. However, snail mail needs a new name because before 24 hours had passed he got a call from The Dalles assistant city manager to set up an interview for the next week, April 27th. So he drove out that day, apparently did well in the interview, and received a phone call the afternoon of the 29th offering him the position and asking him to start on May 10th. You might not have a calendar in front of you but that happened fast! And for those of you not familiar with Oregon geography, The Dalles is located in the Gorge exactly an hour and a half from home.
We very quickly weighed all our options - did he just rent a room there and come back to us on the weekends? could we swing a place there and here? did he commute daily? should we just stay in our ward and come back every weekend? None of those turned out to be feasible or very realistic so we are packing up and moving our little herd to The Dalles. That means our lovely house will get rented out to somebody else so we're saying our goodbyes to all the walls and ceilings and such. That meant we were sadly released from our callings on Sunday and are leaving behind the ward we both grew up in and have now lived and served in for 4 years, and will be deeply missing the most amazing friends. Seriously they're amazing - I've hardly seen my kids for the past week as we and now I (Coop started work today) have been trying to pack and clean everything out in less than 2 weeks time. Where have they been? My friends are amazing. They've taken them and kept them in their homes until I know they must've worn out their welcome and then kept them for a few hours more. THANK YOU!!!!! And we will be moving away from nearly all the family we have. I know it's only an hour and a half, and we will be back tons (I'm not even switching doctors for my pregnancy) but we've been very spoiled here and have loved having such close relationships with aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, great-grandmas, great-grandpas, cousins, etc.
And yet, we know that this was an answer to prayers and are very grateful for the opportunity - it's exactly what Cooper would like to be doing and will give him great experience to add to the resume at the very least. It is a reminder that we don't always get to pick how our prayers are answered but we know the Lord knows best. So we are off on our new adventure. The official move date is this Saturday although nearly everything is packed up already, with just some serious cleaning left to do. And so we take this leap of faith, not quite knowing what will happen for the long term (will we have a job by the end of this one? where will we be when this baby comes in September? if we'll be moving back here where will we live? if we're not coming back here than to where and how when I'm 9 months pregnant? where will Jenelle start kindergarten in the fall? etc, etc), and keep praying and trusting that the next step will be revealed in good time and everything will work out for the best. So, The Dalles, here we come!
Oh, and the girls amazingly still find some joy in the chaos of packing: