Let me see…I believe I stopped at the part when I made the decision to come back home. The next part of my story picks up after I had moved back home and started attending Arizona State University. 

I was living with my mom and dad at the time, and desperate to get a job. I had moved back to Arizona when the winter break had started, so I was beginning my second semester of Junior year at ASU. I remember feeling a little depressed at the time (maybe I was a little more than a little depressed, if you talk to my parents about that time in my life). I had quit playing volleyball (I’d had a combined athletic and academic scholarship that had covered almost everything), I’d broken up with my boyfriend, several of my college credits did not transfer and I had to retake several courses that spring semester, and I needed a job. Even though I was trusting God, I fully recognize now that I was not trusting Him with all aspects of my life. Sure, I listened to Him and moved back home, but I was not happy with where I was in life. I felt like a quitter. I had never quit anything in my life, and I felt like I not only let God down, but myself, my parents, my coaches, pretty much anyone who put time into helping me get anywhere in volleyball. It was a new experience for me to go to school and not have to worry about going to practice. I desperately needed a job to help keep me busy and make money. I remember praying fervently to God to send me a job that would be more money than I could hope for and would fit in with my also being a full time college student.

Well…God answered my prayer! I had a friend at the time who’s older sister owned a high end swim suit store in Scottsdale, and wanted to open a new location in Chandler. They needed a few employees, and I was able to interview and was offered a job about 2 months after I had moved home. The hours worked perfectly with my class schedule, and it was fun getting to work in a swim suit store (I ended up buying waayyyyyy too many suits!). The store was open for over a year but struggled due to lack of foot traffic, and the owners ended up closing the Chandler location. I was, once again, in need of a job, and I was still going to school (remember all those credits that didn’t transfer?). God answered my prayer again, and two weeks after the swim suit store closed, I ended up getting hired as a seasonal employee at Hobby Lobby. Now…I know what you’re thinking. Everyone has heard some sort of controversy about Hobby Lobby over the years. I have to say, I had great managers, and I didn’t run into any trouble or issues working there. I worked part time, and I had a lot of fun. The seasonal job turned into a regular job, and I ended up working there for several years while finishing school and even after I had graduated.

It was shortly after being hired on as a regular employee that I met my husband. You can read more about our story here, so I won’t go into too much detail in this post. The most important thing to note, however, is that this man checked all the boxes I had put in place when I prayed to God to send me an honest man after His own Heart. And boy, did He follow through. There was one specific thing I had asked God for when He brought a man into my life, and it was dancing. The Lord only knows I am not a dancer, but I wanted to have a man in my life that would willingly dance with me at weddings, as none of the guys I had previously been with had ever wanted to dance with me.

I guess now would be a great time to tell you that I met my husband in a Country Western Dance class…and we still go out dancing for our date night occasionally. He dances with me when we go on vacation, he dances with me at random festivals. He is truly my dance partner in life. Boy, did God DELIVER on that one!!

About a year after we were married, life hit us a little harder than we had been expecting. At the beginning of 2016, we had decided to start looking for a house (we had been living with my family for several months because the lease on the apartment was up and we were trying to save money for a down payment). We were getting really excited that we might finally be able to get a house of our own…but something didn’t feel quite right. Neither one of us could explain it, but we just couldn’t find a house that fit our wants and needs, so we decided to stop searching around February. Well…not much time passed before we understood why.