Up, up and away.  I am in the air and on my way to a leadership retreat in Orlando, Florida. My coaching business, that began simply as a way to share with others tips and tools I had learned over my lifetime as an athlete and marathon runner, has become so much more. The opportunity to help others learn to be comfortable in their skin and become healthy – mind, body and spirit – has awakened my passion and connected so many dots of the greater picture that is my life story. Serving others while also fanning the flames of my entrepreneurial spirit has helped enlarge my heart even more to the purpose and calling God has for my life – and the life of my family.

In my blog titled “A California Family with a Texas-Sized Dream, Part II: A Conversation,” I shared with you how an opportunity to attend a leadership retreat in Florida one year ago set our family on a totally new path in our adventure. An amazing long weekend of trainings, strategy sessions and connecting with other leaders in my company had my juices flowing and my heart wide open to opportunity. So maybe it’s not completely surprising that a detour into the DFW area on my way home to California would touch a nerve and begin a stirring inside me.

Why Texas

For a few years prior we had talked about Texas and wondered about its people, its culture, its politics. We loved the independence and the self-reliance that we perceived to be its spirit. “Don’t mess with Texas” seemed to speak to the fierce loyalty the citizens of Texas had for their state and their fellow Texans (which we have watched unfold through the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey).

A friend and her husband had recently relocated their family to Texas from Southern California and I had followed their journey on social media and I had chatted with her about their “why.” I knew someday I wanted to experience Texas for myself. So when my flight home from Florida (from a retreat that I wasn’t even supposed to be on and had received a last minute invitation) went through Dallas I jumped at the opportunity to spy out the land. I could not possibly have appreciated then, when I first set my feet on the hard clay soil of Texas, that one year later we would be Texans ourselves.

As I recounted in “A California Family with a Texas-Sized Dream, Part V: Be Courageous” we prayed in the following months that God would open doors or close doors as we began to explore new schools for our boys – and to really seek God’s will for our family. With each return visit we could feel the doors in Texas standing wide open to us. In my spiritual journey God kept telling me to “be strong and courageous.” This was my Joshua 1:9 season and we couldn’t ignore it.

In a Nutshell

In a nutshell, the timeline from that first visit to today looks like this:

• September – I visited Texas for the first time.
• October – Derek & I visited Texas together for the first time (lots of “What are we doing here?” moments).
• November – Derek & I and the boys visited Texas; we did a college tour and we looked at a 1-acre lot we had found online.
• December – We closed escrow on our little slice of the country. We were Texas property owners!
• January – We worked with our architect to finalize the plans for our home.
• February – Derek & I spent Valentine’s Day in Texas, picking out finishes for our home.
• April – Derek & I visited Texas to see our newly framed house and make more selections; Derek gave notice at work and we publicly announced our plans to move.
• May – I returned to Texas (for the final time as a Californian) to meet with contractors; I received cowboy boots from my boys for Mother’s Day.
• June – Our friends and family threw an amazing goodbye party. On June 29^th, with our friends and family there to send us off, the 5 of us, with our dog, two vehicles and a boat began our journey across the country.
• July – After overnights in Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico, we arrived in Amarillo, Texas on July 2^nd to a great show of thunder and lightning. On July 3^rd we arrived in Argyle. There were fireworks on the 4^th of July as the crowning moment on our move to Texas. We stayed with friends for 10 days and then moved into a rental for the next 7 weeks.
• September 8, 2017: Eleven days before the one-year anniversary of my first visit to Texas, we moved into our new home.

Like the Israelites leaving Egypt for the Promise Land, we knew that we knew that we knew that God was calling us out of our comfort zone in California into a new season in a new place. He didn’t give us all of the picture of where we were headed, only small pieces of the puzzle that were starting to fit together to form the outside edges. Something was starting to take shape.

The boys are settled in school and sports now and God has constantly reassured us through words from teachers, comments from coaches and the joy from our kids that they are planted in the right place in this season. I’ve connected with some amazing women through the school and Derek is building personal and professional relationships daily. We have found a couple of churches we really like and we are waiting to get a clear indication of which is best for or family.

Professionally, the picture is still a little fuzzy and we are seeking God’s direction for our next steps daily (which for me will of course include coaching which keeps me connected with so many friends and my passion to help others). We are blessed to have the freedom to take our time and by God’s grace we don’t feel forced to make a rushed decision. Since wrapping up his work with his California company in mid-August, Derek has dedicated all of his attention to taking care of his family and getting us settled in our new home.

Of course we have no idea ultimately what the picture of our family’s journey will look like when it is complete, but we know the One who does and we are simply trusting Him to help us continue to put the pieces together.