Just believe

After a very long 22 hour drive we had thought we had finally reached the perfect new home. A home filled with brand new beginnings. Although life had brought us this far in our short 2 year marriage, there was still a myriad of unknowns. Oh we thought we knew all there was about life as any early 20 something would...boy were we mistaken. Life has a way of teaching us lessons we never knew we could learn.

But as the months went by we grew restless in our current living arrangements. Oh we loved being close to family, friends and the oh so familiar surroundings that we had grown so accustomed to. Yet our restless souls kept yearning for more. What brought us together to begin with was our adventurous sides. Searching for more in life than the suffocating big city life. So we decided to make the move and knew we had to tell our families. So we arranged a meeting. With trepidation on our minds, we went to my families house where his Mom was waiting for us. As we got to Mom's house i parked and we sat quietly in my car trying desperately to collect my thoughts and gather the courage for all of the surprise and questioning. I turned off the car, opened the car door and slowly we walked to the front door of Mom's house. As we entered we were greeted by his Mom, my Mom, sister, nephew and a few friends as well. I sat them all down and carefully broke the news by beginning with, "you all are aware that I've always sought out what was around the next corner and that I have an insatiably adventurous spirit, right?" They all said "yeah we are". I showed them a map with one specific location circled on it. They all looked at us with confusion. I spoke first trying to explain and hoping they would be supportive. "We want to experience all four seasons. The fall leaves, winters powerful snowstorms, inspiring springs that turn into bountiful summers. We have done some research on this location and truly believe we can build a wonderful life there." "How will you live in such a northern state so far away from family and friends?" asked Franks Mom. " Well with God's help and blessing we will be able to find work and an apartment right away." Frank said trying his best to reassure our families. My sweet sister was the first to offer encouragement with " cool, now I can travel to your new state and see new things. Sounds fun!" I've always loved her positivity. Both our families agreed to come visit us as much as possible. So after going over all the details that we knew about our new state and the long journey; we decided to leave in 3 days. It was a cool, early March morning and we set out with the small amount of our possessions that we could squeeze into our tiny sedan. we were young 20 somethings filled with love, hope and an undaunting spirit. We drove until our eyes begged to close. Stopped at the only rest stop around for miles and slept in the car for only a few hours. I woke up Frank with the promise of a warm breakfast and all the coffee our bellies could hold and again were on our way. We had seen snow capped mountains, past by cliffs and old broken down miners cabins. " I honestly never knew how MUCH history and just plain LIFE was outside of the cities!" I simply couldn't hold back my excitement! Day 2 of driving was met with some very lonely stretches of road. And we prayed together that God would keep us safe on our journey. As the second day had drug on, I had fallen asleep from the lull of the miles flowing underneath our tires. I was suddenly awoken by Franks voice and his hand on my arm saying "look honey, we're here. We've finally made it to our new beginning!" The night reveled a big, beautiful moon as we finally reached our new town, Chester! Oh, it was ever more lovely that all the pictures we had seen. We decided to find an all night motel for the night. I opened one eye at first and saw the sun was beckoning us to greet it. I hugged Frank with so much joy that he smiled in his sleep. I whispered in his ear " wake up my love. Our new life is waiting for us." We got dressed and found an adorable little café a block down from the motel. As we entered the café I noticed a small bulletin board with a help wanted ad pinned to its cork façade reading "House keeper needed." I took down the number, called and was hired after meeting with the owners. I said out loud, "God is Good!" With Franks business degree, and his talent for talking to people he was able to get hired at the only bank in town as their new Loan Officer. We called our families and shared our fantastic news. They were all so happy for us and couldn't wait to come for a visit. Life was unfolding before our eyes. But the one thing we were so wanting to see was the snows that undoubtedly come to this region every winter. Some of my coworkers assured me that it would happen. " Its getting late in the year to get much of that cold, white stuff but honestly this is Montana and the weather will do whatever it wants to do, no matter what time of year. But sure as the breath in our lungs, we'll get snow...and too much of it." I enjoyed Colleens' matter-of-fact personality. But as the months went on through April and May we still hadn't given up on our childlike wish to experience snow falling gracefully from the sky. I started to think we would have a snowless Christmas for our families visit. Until one glorious day as I was making the bed in Motel room#3, I happened to look out the still opened curtains to the surrounding trees to see the very most glorious sight. SNOW! Big, beautiful flakes softly gliding downwards. I was overjoyed. I ran outside and caught a few snow flakes on my tongue. I ran back in, grabbed my cell phone that was sitting on the dresser and quickly called Frank. I could hardly wait for him to answer the phone. It must've rang 10 times before he picked up. "Quick, quick look out the window! It's snowing!" He quietly stepped outside and smiled with a childlike smile and giggled. we shared our very first snow together through that phone. He said "And you thought it could never snow in July."