Home on the Range

If the countdown wasn't on before, it surely is now.

We leave our home and our life in beautiful Ohio in less than one week.  Six days to be exact.

I am still working on thinking about and accepting a life where certain places and certain people are no longer just around the corner.  It is going to be an adjustment and I will probably still be found crying about saying goodbye a few weeks from now.

The good news is we are excited about the future.

For as much as I never thought I would live in Montana, and happily be doing so at that, I am eager to start our life there.

From the beginning Ryan said our next stop was going to be Montana.  Of course he was somewhat joking, but deep down he is a cowboy at heart and the thought of mountains, ranches, and some of the best fishing in the world was just too much for his brain to turn off.

I knew we weren't going to live next door to our families in Utah and Idaho, that just wasn't in the cards for us, but if I wasn't going to be living in Logan, Utah then I was surely going to be living somewhere with a beach, warm temperatures, or an obvious adventure.  And in my mind Montana held none of these things.

Last summer, unbeknownst to me, Ryan placed his name on a Montana Dental Association listserv and started to get information about possible job opportunities in Montana.

The fact that this was our first glimmer of any true employment opportunity started to spark my interest, and soon I was Mapquesting directions from Missoula, Montana to our family's homes in Pocatello and Logan.

The distance was looking promising, and after four years of being 1,800 miles away from them a 5-6 hour drive was starting to sound like a little piece of Heaven.

Plus, there was a temple in Billings, something that had become very important to me in the search for our future home.

As we contemplated, prayed, and attended the temple in hopes to receive guidance about our decision as to where to live and work, the main inspiration I received was that our family needed to live close to a temple.

My heart was being softened and suddenly Montana was officially on the list.

Last fall, thanks to Ryan being called into the Elders Quorum presidency, we were meeting with our ward's High Councilman and we started chatting about life's future plans.

We told him our interest in working in Montana and he said he happened to have a contact in Billings he could put us in touch with.

Our contact, which was actually his daughter-in-law's brother, also happened to be from Dublin, Ohio and had attended dental school at Pitt, the school our good friends were currently attending.

Through a few email exchanges and phone calls we learned more about Brewer Dental and that there was a good chance they would be looking to hire at least 3 new doctors at the beginning of the summer.

Our interest was more than piqued and the next step was for Ryan to get a resume together and send it in.

Throughout this process we also learned that those good friends who happened to attend Pitt with our contact at Brewer were also seriously looking to work at this practice.  A situation that had the potential to become terribly awkward or really awesome.

Thankfully we all were hoping for the best case scenario (both boys getting jobs there), and continued forward with the process, all the while checking in with one another and daydreaming of how awesome it really would be if we all ended up there together.

Last fall was a pretty crazy time in our lives.

Between the arrival of Eliza, out-of-town school rotations, and Boards we were all going twenty directions at once.

One thing that kept getting put on the back burner was completing Ryan's resume and getting it sent in.

December rolled around and we still hadn't done it.  But while we were out west visiting our families our contact from Brewer emailed Ryan inquiring if he was still interested in a position there and that he should send in his resume as soon as possible if he was.

We were still very interested so we quickly assembled a resume and sent it to the office manager letting him know we were currently in Idaho and would love to drive up and check the practice out.

The next thing we knew we were booking a hotel room and driving 6.5 hours to Billings for an interview?  A day of shadowing?  We weren't really sure what the meeting would represent, but we were feeling excited about getting a better idea of if Montana was a place we could be happy.

Our time in Billings was short, but it was enough to know that we would be not only happy living there, but that working for Brewer Dental would be a great opportunity.  The rest of our time in Utah and Idaho was spent contemplating if things would work out and when we would know if Billings was going to be our next home.

Unfortunately for us they weren't going to be making any decisions until early to mid March so our wait was going to be a long one.

Two and half months is a lot of time to let doubt and pessimism seep in, and when the day finally came that we were supposed to know one way or the other we were feeling less than confident.

Friday, March 16 was decision day and we were supposed to hear back wither way.  We were a little worried that if they delayed their decision at all they wouldn't be able to reach us, because we left for our cruise that weekend and would be out of contact for over a week, but we informed them of the situation and they felt confident that Friday would be the day.

Well Friday came and by the end of the day we hadn't heard anything.  We were hopeful that maybe they just hadn't decided anything, but that evening we learned that our friend had received an offer.

While we were so excited for them (and really, we were!), we were feeling a little defeated. 

We resigned ourselves to the fact that while this job didn't work out, another opportunity would. 

We started to question why it had all felt so right and was now no longer an option. 

I might have cried about it, but of course Ryan was the picture of optimism and grace.  In the end we were disappointed, but eager to get on the cruise and drown our sorrows in sunshine and chocolate melting cake.

Well, fast forward one week to a cruise ship and a conversation I was having with my mom about Eliza (remember the RSV?).  She informed me that she had something else she needed to tell me and as I prepared myself for more bad news she explained that Doug from Montana was trying very hard to get a hold of Ryan.  What?!  That was not what I was expecting to hear in any way.  After not being able to get a hold of Ryan for a few days at the beginning of the week they had called our friend in hopes of finding out if they knew if we were still interested in the position and why they couldn't get a hold of us.  Jeff reminded them that we were on our cruise, but became worried that if we didn't get back to them soon the job would no longer be ours.  Jeff contacted Ryan's mom who informed him that she actually could get us the message because of things with Eliza and soon we were sitting in our cruise chip cabin spending $2.99 per minute to hear that we had a job waiting for us in Billings if we still wanted it.  It was a lot to process in that moment, but we told them that we most definitely did want the job and that we would get in touch as soon as we were back on dry land.  Yes, it was quite the vacation.

Since then we have been busy reviewing contracts, figuring out insurance information, and finding a place to live.  Oh, house hunting.  We are only renting and it was still one of the most trying processes of my life.  After FOUR rentals falling through on us we were starting to feel like we would never find a place to live.  Finally the stars aligned and we found not only a great place, but a great situation.  The owners of the property are good friends with the owner of the dental practice and they have already been so great to work with.  Plus the place is beautiful and I can't wait to see it myself.

I still can't believe that the time to move is here.  At the beginning of this adventure I thought four years would never end and that when all was said and done I would be moving to the warm temperatures in sunny Arizona. 

Well, those four years are too suddenly over and in only a few days I will be moving to a place that had snow on the ground only four days ago.

I feel so much peace and calm about moving to Montana.  When we came to Ohio four years I ago I was so scared of the unknown and I was sad about leaving all the people we loved behind.

This time around I'm not so scared about a new place and new people.  I have experienced all of that before and I know it will be good.  It also helps that I already have a great friend waiting for me there, but even if she wasn't going to be there I think I would feel similar.

The leaving people behind is what is hard.  It is really hard.  But I know that this next adventure will be wonerful as well and because of the amazing people I met here in Ohio I will be better prepared to be a good friend, ward member, and mother when I get there.

(Yep, snow...)