westward-ho!

FINALLY we know where we are going- Tim has accepted a faculty position at Kansas State in the biochemistry department. This is in Manhattan, Kansas (they actually call it "the Little Apple"). If you go west on I-70 from Kansas City, you hit Lawrence (KU), Topeka, and then Manhattan- after that, preeeetty much the wilds.

So how are we feeling about this? Well, mixed. Joyful that the long searching process is over. Excited for Tim's job which is absolutely wonderful. He gets a big lab space in a new, modern building. There is this thing called a lipidomics research center and don't ask me to explain it but it means he can have lots of his analyses done right on campus instead of sending them out. K-State has been very friendly and welcoming to us. And I think we are going to love the little college town that is Manhattan, seems like a good place to raise our family. Everyone we know that has lived there just raves about it.

But the other side of it is that it is further from family than we were hoping. In fact it is one of the furthest-from-WI jobs that Tim even applied for. In the early stages of the job hunt it seemed likely we could move closer to family than we are now but the opposite will happen, and that is hard. Also professional options for me are a little bit limited (K State has no clinical or counseling psych program, and there is no inpatient psych unit in town). There are a couple of potential types of work I could do, and I'm still exploring.

I would say this- we feel like Jacob. We fell in love with the idea of being near family. We worked and prayed and waited, 5 years in Columbia, 5 years in Lansing.... but instead of the Rachel we were dreaming of, we wound up with Leah. We're a bit surprised, a bit disappointed, working on mentally switching gears.

We have a children's bible called the Jesus Storybook Bible which is wonderful! In fact Tim and I freely admit that learn things from it all the time. One thing I learned recently that I just always just skimmed over... that Jesus came through Leah's lineage, not Rachel's. That fact has stuck with me through this process. We may not have the outcome we longed for but we do have one that will ultimately be for God's glory. And Romans 8:28, right? That doesn't mean we have to pretend away our disappointment, doesn't mean we won't miss family like crazy. But it does mean that K State is A Good Thing, and that we will be thankful for it.

Basically I see it like this: (1) it isn't about us. there is a greater purpose afoot: God being glorified. and (2) to the extent that it IS about us, it's for our holiness and not necessarily about getting what we want.

And so, um, go Wildcats!