How it happened. (part 1 of 3)
When Andy and I got married in 1999, we immediately moved five hours away. We wanted to be on a Florida coast and Jacksonville had the lowest unemployment in the state, so we randomly selected it without doing any further research. A friend from college, Tiffany, just happened to be living there with her husband and they invited us to their church. We loved it and decided to make it our church home without “shopping around” to see what other churches were available. Although at the time we felt Jacksonville had been randomly selected, it didn’t take long for us to acknowledge that God had led us there for a reason.
Andy and I both found good jobs. We loved our church. We bought our first home. We made a lot of friends. We were relatively content, but something was missing. Moving away from home had been good for our marriage, but we always knew we wanted to come back to Destin. I actually had a map of the state of Florida in my office at work. I drew a heart around Destin. When people would inquire, I’d explain that “home is where the heart is.” As time passed, the hope of moving back home continued to dwindle. We wanted it so bad and, because of that, we felt like that dream would never become a reality.
In 2003 we sold our house and moved into an apartment while our new house was being built in Saint Augustine. Construction was supposed to be done in January. During the five months in the apartment, the desire to return to Destin was almost unbearable. Honestly, there were only two things holding us back: Andy’s job and our church. Surprisingly, the house being built didn’t even factor into the equation.
To be continued…
I love this story already.
If you had not moved here we probably would not have had the opportunity to become as close as we have. Nathan and I will be married for 7 years this year, and you have been a big part of my sanity in the long, strange trip. I thank God for sending you to Jax!