What I Learned in June 2020

I am certain I learned more in June than what I've listed below, but in truth, I forgot to write it all down. But that's okay, right? You don't have all day to read anyway! Here are a few things I did learn in the month of June!

1. Masks can double as great socks in a pinch.

When Ryan and I went on our birthday getaway (100 years ago at the beginning of the month) I ended up with a blister on my heel. I'd gotten new hiking shoes before the trip (never had real hiking shoes before!) and sure enough, I ended up with a blister. The good news was...we had bandages. The bad news was, they were in the car, and we were at the farthest trail point FROM the car when I started limping. But Ryan remembered he had his spare mask in the backpack, and it fit around my heel just perfectly to stop the rubbing. We tied the ear pieces into my laces and I didn't have another moment's pain for the rest of the hike!

2. Speaking of pinch, you should wear tall socks with high top shoes. 

Not only have I never before owned hiking shoes, but I've also never owned high top shoes. I did not know I should wear tall socks with high top shoes to keep the aforementioned pinching and blistering from taking place. I don't actually own any, so Ryan loaned me a pair of his for day-two hiking. And now I know!

3. Command hooks don't always provide the win. 

Perhaps our saddest lesson of the month. When Ryan decorated for my birthday (the Anne of Green Gables party?) he used Command hooks to hang up lines of twine for pictures. When he took them down, they took down not just the paint, but the drywall too. He had to mud, sand, and repaint all those spots! And it happened several more times as we took down wall art to pack it. Either we have the worst luck in the world, or we did something wrong in hanging them! (Or they're not all they're cracked up to be?)

4. God moves quickly. Hang onto your hat. 

I probably don't need to explain this one to you, do I? A month ago, we hadn't even interviewed for a new job, and now we are just a short time away from moving and beginning a whole new season! You've read the story. You know.

5. Psalm 96:11 is the center verse in the Bible. 

I've been studying the Psalms this year, and when I studied Psalm 96, the commentary mentioned that verse 11 was the center verse in the Bible. Any chance I'll remember this at my next trivia opportunity?

6. David Phelps' middle name is Norris. 

HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS???? I was trying to look up a song he had written so I could see something in the lyrics, and that's when I learned his middle name. Seriously - how did I not know?

***

As I said yesterday, my dreams and goals for June didn't all quite come together like I hoped. I knew when I wrote them that it was a great possibility they wouldn't come together. When I wrote them, we hadn't yet had our interview at Gateway Woods, but it was on the schedule, so I knew there was a chance the outcome of that day could change everything about our activity for the rest of the month - and it did! Nevertheless, here's a recap of how those goals did turn out.

1. Archive another full year of old blog posts.

So close. I cranked out 10 months of them. I didn't quite get the last two months done, but given everything that ended up taking our evenings and weekends, I think 10 months is a pretty good success story! 

2. Keep up on scrapbooking and begin a vacation album.

Plot twist! I actually did keep up on our current scrapbook, which made me so happy, given how busy the month was. I did not get to start our vacation album, but I did begin and keep up with an album related specifically to our new season of life. So I feel like that swap means I can call this one a win. 

3. Keep our tomato plants alive...and maybe even see them thrive!

I did it!!!! They are alive, and though the tomatoes are still green, we have them! Both plants have tomatoes! I'm so glad we planted these in pots, so we can take them with us. I would be sad to leave them behind. 

4. Finish the living room project.

Well, it didn't happen. I mean it did, but not in the way I meant when I wrote that. We had a plan to do a shiplap feature behind the fireplace and then add tall bookcases along the rest of the entire wall. We would have had it done, too, if our bookcases hadn't been out of stock at IKEA. (They still are.) Once we knew we were going to move, we just finished painting the wall and called it done that way instead. But the new owner has told us that he plans to do a version of this project after he moves in, so maybe someday I'll get to see what it looks like!

5. Get our air conditioning fixed.

DONE!!! YES!!! We were able to get it fixed right after we returned from our vacation, and it has been splendid and delightful in here ever since. I'm also so relieved that it was an inexpensive fix and not a replacement of the entire unit. 

6. Exercise. Again.

There's always next month. This month I got my exercise packing. We worked until almost midnight most nights, so hours of concentrated exercise didn't make it in too much. Fail.

** BONUS!!**

Some of those things may have been a fail, but there were many other things we accomplished that weren't on the goal list: getting a new job, beginning to pack the house, finding a buyer for our house, doing oodles of steps for our new job (background checks, tests, etc.), finishing up my job, having a garage sale, going for a hair overhaul for the first time in six months, wrapping up a Bible study book...so it wasn't a wasted month! 

Dreams and Goals for July 2020

Well, my dear friends, I think God just flat out laughed at my June dreams and goals. They were pretty solid fails. (I think I'm going to reframe that and call them pretty solid reconstructions...how's that?)

So do I dare make goals for July?? Do I even know enough about what's coming our way to make goals? I'll try, and we'll see how it goes!

1. Finish packing the house for our move.

I feel like this is a safe goal to make, because it has to happen. Whatever doesn't get packed becomes a gift to the new owners, I guess! LOL! It's hard to know exactly where I stand (percentage-wise) with packing right now. I want to say I have about half the work, done, but I'll probably come back at the end of the adventure, laugh my head off, and tell you I wasn't even close to half!

2. Organize for our second garage sale. 

As we've been packing, we have come up with more things to sell, so we are going to have one more sale before we go. I've been pricing everything as I pull it out, before I send it to the garage. But we do need to reorganize all our piles so it makes for easier shopping. I have to say, it feels pretty good to let go of so many things!

3. Say goodbye well.

Goodbyes are usually hard, aren't they? They're a bit more challenging to orchestrate when they happen quickly and...you know...pandemic life. We are trying to do our best to see as many people as we can (safely) but whether we say goodbye in person or virtually, we want to do our very best to wrap up things here well.

4. Become attentive, absorbing students.

We'll undergo a couple of weeks of training for our new job this month, and we have so much to learn. Like all of it. I remember when WBCL decided to put me on air, and I had no background in radio at all. One of the on-air guys told me something I'll never forget. He said he would rather train someone who had no knowledge than have to untrain someone who had learned things that didn't match up with their practices and then try to retrain them. I'm hoping that rings true for us here. We are eager to learn, and we're blank slates when it comes to this field. But we want to absorb every single thing we can and retain it well.

5. Make our move as easy as we can on our Braeya-girl.

We've been doing lots of research on things we can do for her to calm her down, since riding in cars absolutely freaks her out to no end. We may not be able to make it totally painless, but we do want to make it the best for her that we can. And hopefully she will settle in well to our new digs, once she sees all her familiar things there.

6. Begin settling into our new home...and make it home.

We realized that it will probably take us many weeks to settle into our new home, since we will need to do so around a work schedule, and we are okay with that! We aren't in a rush. But we are looking forward to settling into our new space and making it a place that reflects our love for the Lord and each other. The apartment where we'll live really is quite beautiful, and even though we've only seen it once, we know it will be a great fit for us.

The Shafferland Shuffle

What. A. Week. It. Has. Been! Thank you all so much for traveling with me this week through all the story installments and for your kind words of encouragement! We appreciate you! Last Sunday feels like it took place about 100 years ago, so I have a feeling I'll be as surprised by this week's happenings as I write about them as you will be when you read about them! :)

* Last Sunday was, of course, Father's Day, and we continued our annual tradition of spending the day with Ryan's family. The Father's Day bash out at the cabin is usually about 50-70 people strong, but the virus cut it down to about 1/3 of that. We were super careful, and I carried my hand sanitizer on my person and applied it about 1500 times in the few hours we were there. My parents stopped by for a bit, so I got to see them, too! And on the way to the cabin, we stopped by Ryan's mom's grave to see her stone, which had just been set the day before.

* Monday began my last week of work at the church, and it also began our packing-palooza. When I came home from work that night, I packed my very first box. Ryan began his trek around the house to mud, sand, and repaint as many of the nail holes as he could, so the walls are fresh and clean for the new owners. I thought we both made pretty good progress that night!

* Tuesday was my last staff meeting, so I had to document it with a picture with Abagail. I am going to miss her so much. We became two peas in a pod in NO TIME. (She's the one I covered for while she was out on maternity leave, but we still talked all the time, even then.) Tuesday night brought about more mudding, sanding, and packing!

* Wednesday I started taking pictures with all the staff, because I wanted those for my scrapbook! I've lived life with these people for the last six months, and I have so many memories with them. The picture below is with Pastor Liz, our worship pastor, who I started serving directly back in March. From March to now, she became one of my very dearest friends. She's retiring in a month, and I think we're both glad we don't really have to know what work life without the other is like. I'm sure it will surprise you to know that we did more packing and mudding/sanding/painting on Wednesday night!

* Thursday was my last day with several of the staff, because Friday is a popular day off for them. I did more pictures, received some gifts that made me cry, and that afternoon, I got a total surprise when they threw me a going away party! It was late enough in the day that Ryan was done seeing patients, and he even sneaked in to be part of the fun!

* Friday was my last day ever working at the church, and it kept me hopping! I filled in for Abagail, and the phones rang fast and furious all day. Didn't get bored! That night, Ryan picked me up in the truck as you see below (HA HA HA HA HA!) and we drove to the south side of Indianapolis like this - to deliver our beloved hammock to my sister's house. We won't have space for it at our new place, and she's going to love it for us. Oh the stares we got!!

* We woke up to strong storms here yesterday, so we took it easy - probably our last ever lazy Saturday morning in this house. We took our time with Bible study and coffee and listened to the rain on the sun porch roof. We ran out for a bit in the afternoon - had a graduation open house for one of the teens from church (sweet, sweet girl) - and then? Yep. More packing.

The Saturday Six

One.

A couple of summers ago, I went to the Speak Up Conference (Christian conference for writers and speakers) up in Michigan. While there, I met one of the speakers and we ended up becoming Facebook friends. In addition to his writing and speaking work, he's also an avid outdoorsman, and I noticed a post of his this week announcing some new guided hiking trips coming up. He didn't mention air conditioning, so I may be outta luck, but I do have to say - I think he'd be a fantastic guide if you're new at this or just want a faith-based trip! Here's the link to his site and info!

Two.

I loved Callie's summer fun list that she posted earlier this week! Lots of family fun ideas - and they don't require going places that are closed!

Three.

Back in the (fifteen) years before the doctors figured out my health issues stemmed from a faulty gallbladder, I was encouraged to steer clear of anything with citric acid, because it could flare up my (invisible) ulcer. That meant 15 years of no lemonade. Or orange juice. Or Mountain Dew. Or a host of other foods. And I still don't really consume them because I got out of the habit, but this homemade lemonade recipe DID catch my attention. I've never thought much about the whole syrup step!!

Four.

Speaking of recipes, this turtle ice cream sandwich cake looks like a really good summer decision to me! Anyone want to join me??

Five.

When I worked at WBCL, I had the pleasure of "meeting" Michelle Watson when she was a guest on Mid-Morning. I've kept up with her via social media since leaving the station, and last weekend, she got married! At age 60. Her first wedding! I loved this post she wrote for so many reasons. I love the nod to her own love story, the encouragement she gives to single women, and the encouragement she gives to dads of single girls, too! Even if you're married, take a look!


Six.

I am happy to report I have launched into the TRIPLE DIGITS in my Psalm reading. I'm so excited! (I mean, to be fair, I'm barely into the triple digits. But I am there.) But we're coming up on the end of June here, which means it's time to list the next round of reading for the Gospels reading plan if you're doing that this year. Here you go! By the way - this plan moves you into the book of Luke!

FAQ: The New Season Edition

I have giggled in my heart (and out loud) at all the comments you've left and emails you've sent over the last week! I have loved every single one of them.  Thank you for encouraging us so much! In the emails and comments, I've also gotten a lot of questions, so let me just get to them!

1. WHERE ARE YOU GOING?

Oh yeah. I forgot that detail, didn't I? We'll be moving to Grabill, Indiana, which is exactly 100 miles from our home. It's a darling little town that is just outside Fort Wayne - northeast of Fort Wayne, actually. (And because I've had some people ask me about this too...we didn't ever live in Fort Wayne, but I did commute there for work the four years I was in radio. The station was in a different part of town, so I still have lots of city-learning to do, but we have a general familiarity with the area and really enjoy Fort Wayne.) 

The organization we'll be working for (as many of you figured out) is called Gateway Woods, and more specifically, we'll be working in WillowBridge. Here is a video that was made to introduce WillowBridge as it was about to open. This will explain a bit more about the work we'll do, and why it's so needed!

2. What about Braeya?

Well, she's figured out that something is up, but she thinks we're going on vacation (because the suitcases came out of the closet.) She will get to go with us, which is a detail we're profoundly thankful for; she's 14, and you can't rehome a 14 year old cat. Nor did we want to lose her! She will HATE US with all her being when she realizes a car ride is in her future, but we're researching some options for medication for her to calm or sedate her for the trip. I still haven't recovered from moving her to Kokomo, so for all our sakes, I need this move to go better in the Braeya department. 

3. When do you leave?

We will begin our working adventure with two weeks of training, and that will begin mid-July. So we sure don't have long - and we have quite a list to accomplish in the meantime! We have started packing and that will become my full time job once I'm done at the church. Today is actually my last day at the church. We plan to have another garage sale, because we're adding more things as we pack. We have many goodbyes to say between now and then, too! 

4. But you just did all that work on your house! Aren't you sad to leave it?

I think the saddest part has been watching Ryan mud, sand, and repaint all the nail holes he JUST put in the walls during quarantine. We do love our house. We love it so much and it has been such a blessing of a home for us these past four years. (I plan to do a series of goodbye posts to it like I did for our Marion house, so you'll get to run down memory lane with us!) And yes, we will miss our beautiful sun porch and our garage. (We won't have a garage where we are going, so that will be an adjustment!) But oh goodness, getting the chance to work together in ministry and do something that will make a Kingdom difference far outweighs a house and any amount of work we've put into it.

Our new season comes with a beautiful apartment that is all new on the inside and quite homey. We most certainly won't lack in comfort, and we'll make it our home. We aren't worried about that at all. And we're crazy excited for the new owners of Shafferland 2.0. I cried (shocker!) in staff meeting this week listening to Pastor Shane talk about how grateful he is for this home and the love and care that has gone into it. Everything we did will be loved and appreciated, and that's enough for us. 

5. What about your parents? Are they sad?

They are. This will be the farthest I've ever lived from them! I think they're still processing the news like all of you, but they are being supportive and have absolutely seen God's Hand at work in all of this. We will only be about an hour and a half (or maybe a little less) from them, so if we need to get to them quickly, we can. (This was another kindness from God - calling us to a place close enough to get home for emergencies.) My parents have amazing neighbors who are like extra children to them. (One claims he is actually more favored than their actual children, and who knows! He might be right! He's pretty funny. I think my parents would be smart to claim him over the rest of us.) 

For as close as we live to my parents, we actually don't see them every week. We talk on the phone almost every day, and we text all the time, so maybe it will be kind of like nothing has changed! We'll have days off when we can come visit and do projects as needed. 

6. What is the age group you'll be working with and how many will there be?

** This is me with Savannah, my bonus niece, who is not part of the program, of course, but she is near the age range that we'll be working with, so I'm borrowing her picture! ** 

We'll be working with 18-25 year olds, and there can be up to 9 of them in the building. We are definitely not alone in this job. There are others who work (both staff and volunteers) with the program too, so we are part of a team, and we are excited for that. Definitely looking forward to learning from them!

7. Will you keep blogging?

Awww! I'm so glad to see that question! Absolutely! We know there will be a lot of things we won't be able to share in order to protect privacy, but hey! We're still us, and we'll still have lessons we're learning and adventures outside of work, so yes! We're sure we'll still have plenty of blog material, even if we can't share everything!

Thanks so much for being great sports this week as you read along with all the news! More stories to come, of course!!

Confirmations and Affirmations

The news of the rehab hospital closure devastated our hearts. Sure, we knew what our next step entailed, but it was not lost to us at all that all our friends...all his co-workers...faced this awful unknown. There had been no warning. Even Ryan's boss didn't know.

I'll pause our story to say that if Ryan's co-workers come to mind, would you pray for them? There are so many of them (and it's not just about the therapists...there are nurses and doctors and dietary staff and housekeepers and techs and office workers and so many more) and they are facing huge, life-rocking decisions.

We are praying that God does mind-blowing, amazing things in each of their stories. We know He will care for them. But we are praying that He shows that care in such blatant ways that they can't help but sit in awe of what He does.

We spent most of the day Friday trying to process this unexpected news. Earlier in the week, we'd already made plans to have dinner with Ryan's boss and his wife (Phoebe's people) on Friday evening, so we could tell them the story of our new adventures. We still went and had dinner - and I think it did their hearts some good to be able to think out loud for a little bit.

Meanwhile...remember how I told you a couple of days ago that the children's pastor from our church had stopped by our house while out house hunting? Well, the Saturday morning after our interview/verbal acceptance/hospital news, Ryan decided to call and tell Pastor Shane the story and see if he and his wife might just want to come take a look at our house for kicks before we listed it.

They were driving home from an out-of-state trip, but they said they definitely wanted to see it. They could come over the next night if we were going to be home...and of course, we were.

I wrote in my journal that night, Please, Lord, bring the person YOU have for this house. Bring someone who will love it and care for it and use it for Your glory. 

We spent all of Saturday afternoon and evening dragging our garage sale stash out of the attic. For the last year, we have been cleaning, organizing, and stashing away all the stuff we didn't need anymore, all with the intention of having a sale this summer. Then we weren't sure sales would even be allowed, but we'd seen some around town the last few weeks, so we decided to get our stuff organized and have a sale of our own!

With the garage full of sale stuff, but the house looking quite dapper, I whipped up a pan of cookie bars on Sunday afternoon, and Ryan made a fresh pot of coffee. Pastor Shane and Kim showed up right on time with three of their four children in tow. We showed them around, answered all their questions, and Braeya socialized quite nicely.

Monday evening, they came back with a measuring tape and notebook, and we stayed out in the garage, pricing for the sale while they talked and made decisions inside the house.

And so it was that on Tuesday of last week, Pastor Shane called and made an offer on our home!

Stop it.

We are the Shaffers. We don't sell houses in two days before even listing them on the market. We sell houses in five years and through 141 day contract periods. How was this even happening to us?????

As Ryan's cousin April said so well, "If you had any doubt, God sure threw it out."

Yes.

We know we don't have a background in this work we're about to begin. We know it's going to be hard. We know that we don't know...but we know. We know God has led us here and has clearly affirmed the journey. And we know He will equip us in His perfect timing!

I've been doing a Daily Grace Company study called Faithful and one day read these words from the wise Joanna Kimbrel:

“God chose Moses and saved him from death as an infant, but it is not until many years later that God reveals His plan for Moses…God’s response to Moses is not that Moses is capable or that he is good enough to do it, but instead God assures Moses that He will be with him. Moses may be God’s instrument, but God is the One who will do the work. What is impossible for man is possible with God…Moses may have felt inadequate to do what God called him to do, but God calls Moses to take his eyes off his own shortcomings and lift his gaze to God…God calls Moses to step out in obedience so that His covenant purposes might be advanced, but God is the One who guarantees that the covenant would be fulfilled…When we look at the things God has called us to do and feel overwhelmed, saying things like, ‘Who am I to raise these children, to teach these women, to care for my hurting neighbors, to endure this trial?’ we are asking the wrong question. We should not be asking, ‘Who am I?’ but ‘Who is God?’ We may not always find the why we are looking for, but the Who is enough. We must remind ourselves of who God is. He is the great I AM. He is able. He is faithful. God is doing a good thing in ways we cannot see. Even in our suffering, we can trust Him to fulfill His promises because of who He is.”

And we hang onto that.

PS...this catches you up to where we are now, so if you have any questions, let me know, and I'll do my best to answer in tomorrow's blog! Thank you for putting up with all my (big meanie) cliffhangers over the past week!

We Did Not See This Coming

If you missed yesterday, you might want to back up one post, because this is about to make NO sense otherwise!

Yes! We had a three hour interview.

The questions were tough and deep, and we worked hard through each one to answer thoughtfully and (obviously) truthfully. I understood and appreciated why they needed to be tough and deep, but a few times, I heard words coming out of my mouth that I wasn't sure made any sense when strung together in that particular order. Seriously! A couple of times I just told myself to wrap it up before I looked stupid! And a couple of other times, I got to the end of my thorough answer and realized I couldn't remember the most recent question. I'm pretty sure this was one of those real-life instances when the Holy Spirit just supplied words in my lack.

It was a massive blessing from the Lord that we had relocated that interview into the cool basement because Ryan and I were both sweating, even though it was about sixty degrees down there.

At the end of the interview, the two men who conducted it asked us if we could step upstairs for a few minutes while they conferred. When we got to the top of the stairs, we realized a huge, somewhat destructive storm had descended over the state, and it was a MESS out there. What a grace from the Lord! I don't love storms, and as I went through one of the most intense conversations of my life, the Lord hid us in a basement so we wouldn't even know what was raging outside.

We were invited to return to the basement, where Rob spent another hour talking with us informally and answering more questions. We left feeling incredibly encouraged about the day, and headed straight for a reward in a cup!

(Ryan wants you to know that he really does have teeth!)

The next day (Thursday, June 11th) we took a 338 question psychological/personality test, which took us about an hour and a half.

And that same day, Rob called to issue us a verbal offer on the job. Nothing was in writing yet, but we celebrated the kind words he said and the fact that he felt we would be a fit with his team and this ministry.

We verbally accepted, and the next morning (Friday), Ryan reported for his final shift on the proning team at the hospital. Though initially they'd been told the teams would be needed through the end of June, the hospital felt they could end early, because our county's cases weren't as severe as they had been. Starting Monday, he would go back to his original job at the rehab hospital, where he would start seeing patients again.

(Side note: what a blessing this team was to Ryan. They may have only worked together for a couple of months, but these ladies became dear friends to Ryan in that time. I am so very thankful for each one of them!)

At lunchtime that day, Ryan dialed in to a mandatory meeting at the rehab hospital. He told me the meeting started at noon, so he doubted he would be able to talk to me during my lunch hour that day. I stood at the island in the church kitchen, eating a salad and scrolling through Instagram, when my phone started buzzing and sliding across the island. I glanced at the clock. 12:15? Had he forgotten about the meeting? He shouldn't be calling!

I grabbed the phone and said, "Hey! Everything okay?"

"You're not going to believe this," he said.

"The meeting is over. They're closing our hospital. I just lost my job."

Appointments...of Many Varieties

The day after we received our interview invitation, we left on our long weekend trip to Hocking Hills (Thursday, May 28th). We felt the timing of the getaway (which we scheduled back before quarantine) was completely ordained by God. What a perfect time to get away, have hours of conversation, and time to pray and worship while surrounded by nature! It wasn't just a vacation. It was a retreat.

In fact, the worship pastor at our church, Pastor Liz, called it just that. She knew all about our journey and she told me she was praying specifically that God would use our time away as a retreat to draw our hearts closer to Him and prepare us for whatever He had for us.

But it was a bit of a working vacation for us, because when Ryan had looked for a fingerprinting appointment the night before, he discovered that our county and all surrounding counties didn't have any open appointments until mid-June. (Some were not even providing the service yet...hello, virus. Others were operating on limited hours...hello again, virus.) We knew that without that appointment, we would eventually be stuck in a waiting pattern, so it was imperative that we find someplace with an open slot.

He got the idea to check the counties along our vacation route, and indeed, he found back to back appointments at the police station in Connersville, Indiana, which was just a few miles off our path to Hocking Hills. Because of construction slow-downs, we arrived at the station not a minute early. Actually we were a couple of minutes late because we thought the police station was in the courthouse and went there first. Ryan asked an older gentleman standing outside the courthouse if he was from the area and if he might know where the police station was. The man replied, "I don't know where it is. It's in that yellow building right there."

I still don't know what that means, but we scurried over to the yellow building and met the nicest lady in the history of police station employees. She was super friendly, efficient, and had us in and out in absolutely no time. We took our police station selfie and got back on the road for our weekend retreat!

Rob called us while we were driving and said that because of pending vacation schedules, the soonest they could schedule an interview was Wednesday, June 10th. We put that on our calendar and looked at each other with wide eyes. This was really happening!

While we were on our trip, I found a quote that struck me, given where we were in the process. The quote was by Melanie Redd, though she started by quoting a gentleman named Don Woodruff. Don said, "It may not be an area of our choosing and it might take us out of our comfort zone." Melanie said, "What is the IT referred to in this quote? It's God's will for our lives. Often, God will take us WAY OUT of comfort zones when He calls us to follow Him."

Indeed.

While we were gone, we also received paperwork we needed to fill out for a CPS background check, so the day after we got back home (Tuesday, June 2, and also our 90th monthiversary) we filled out those forms and submitted them.

Over the course of the next week, we prayed often and heartily, asking for guidance, wisdom, and more. On Monday, June 8th, two days before our interview, we learned that Rob had called all our references and talked to them at length. I guess they must have been kind to us, because he didn't call to cancel the interview. Whew!!

The day before our interview (June 9th) I happened upon this verse in my time with the Lord: "Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak." (Exodus 4:12)

That became our prayer.

For the record, it had been awkward to come back from vacation on June 2nd and ask for the next Wednesday off work. When I left the church the evening before our interview, all my co-workers told me to enjoy my day off! Have fun, they said!

Ryan and I woke up the morning of June 10th, got ready, prayed together, filled our coffee cups, and left the entire day in the Lord's hands.

We punched the address into our GPS and started driving!

We arrived right on time - about 10 in the morning, and in the interest of not showing my Bekahrazzi side immediately, I did not take pictures for the entire day.

Rob met us in the parking lot and had us transfer into his van. He drove us around town, showing us some of the highlights, including the coffee shop. Because of course. He's a good guy.

He drove us to the main campus, which is about a mile down the road. They are actually still very much on a quarantine lockdown, so he could really only take us inside empty buildings, but we enjoyed getting to see the beautiful campus: the houses where the under-18 residents live, the pond, the school, the office buildings, etc. It's a beautiful, beautiful place that bears testimony to years of hard work and love, as well as God's favor upon it.

Rob took us back to the apartment building where we would live and work if they chose us for the position, and we were able to take a full tour of the place.

Ryan and I both felt that just seeing the building would be very telling to us. Would it feel right? Feel like home? Feel like a place where we could serve?

And oh, how it did. So much love and hard work had gone into renovating the place. (The building itself is not new, but they remodeled it completely when they transformed it into what it needed to be for this ministry.) We were able to see the apartments where the residents live, the community areas, and even the apartment that would be ours if we lived there.

Rob had told us before we went that we would get to meet the residents and they even planned to make lunch for us. (And they are good cooks, let me tell you!) We met Rob's wife and children, and the assistant advocate couple too - and then we all had lunch together.

I had been a little nervous about that part, actually. I told Ryan that even though I didn't know any of these residents, I knew they'd had lives filled with much change and uncertainty. Rob, who has been serving in the role for which we were applying (in addition to his own full time job) for the past year is clearly easy to love and good at what he does. What if the residents weren't ready for him to go? What if they weren't crazy about the idea of new people showing up? It wouldn't be personal against us, and I knew that. But I just had no idea what to imagine from them.

What they showed was genuine interest, kindness, acceptance, and joy. We didn't have on our rose colored glasses that day. We knew that if we ended up taking the job, every day wouldn't be as easy as that one. But it sure didn't hurt as a first impression!

We spent about an hour and a half with them, eating, talking, and laughing, and then it was time for our interview.

Originally we were supposed to leave the building and go back to an office on the main campus. But during our tour, Ryan and I had expressed our great joy at the ridiculously cool temperatures in the basement of the building. Rob, also a fan of extreme coolness, asked if we would be opposed to having our interview down there instead. We jumped at the chance, so at 1:00, we headed to the basement with Rob and the director of the place.

And so began a three hour interview.

Invitations

I told Ryan that I thought about recapping our garage sale from this weekend, and he told me all of you would quit talking to me entirely. Sorry (but not) for the cliffhanger on Friday! :)

So I shall NOT tell you about the garage sale - at least yet - and will instead pick up my story where I left off.

After we hit send on that email, I held my breath, wondering if we'd ever hear anything back at all. Within 24 hours, we did! A gentleman named Rob wrote us back, and much to our surprise, he didn't slam the door on us. Rather, he invited us to join him on a Zoom call so we could learn more about the job - and so he could learn more about us. We scheduled it for four days later, and that night I wrote in my journal, Give us wisdom, Jesus. Don't let us run into something just because it's our idea, but if this is how we can be confetti in Your hands, let us be just that.

Between the day of the invitation and the day of the Zoom call, Ryan and I prayed hard and made a list of questions we wanted to ask. On the evening of Saturday, May 23, we sat at our kitchen table, in front of our coffee bar, ready to meet Rob and learn more.

An hour and twenty minutes later, after a really informative and encouraging conversation, Rob prayed for us and said, "Well, I'm going to send you an application, and that will be your next step. Fill that out, send it back...you keep praying...we'll keep praying...and we'll see how the Lord leads!"

We disconnected the call, sat back, and exhaled. Rob had been so easy to talk to, and as strange as it sounds, the call had felt so natural, and not forced at all. I wrote in my journal, So Jesus, I'm asking You to guide us. If this is something we are chasing for the wrong reasons, then either change our hearts to the correct motives or close this door. It isn't fair or right for us to pursue this for a wrong reason. But if this is the threshold of an amazing new way of life where we can impact the Kingdom for You, then blow the doors wide open. Destroy any obstacles in the way - whether those be our lack of experience or anything else. Just blow those things away, my Jesus!

This is probably a good time to pause and explain what we were even pursuing!

The organization as a whole is a Christ-centered social services organization that offers a variety of services to troubled children and their families. They have a residential campus, school, farm, foster care services, adoption services and a program specifically for those who have aged out of the system but are unsupported as they seek to enter adult life.

And that is the program about which we inquired. Several months ago, the transitional program opened a new piece of its ministry: an apartment building where 18-25 year olds can live for a period of time while they learn life skills and receive help in connecting to the community (relationships, church involvement, jobs, education, etc.). They were seeking a Community Advocate Couple who would be willing to live in the building with the residents, do life alongside them, and serve as mentors and guides.

Have we ever done this kind of work before? No. But did we feel led to explore the possibility? Yes.

And Rob must have seen something in us, because he invited us to apply.

We spent most of the day on Memorial Day (two days after our Zoom call) filling out a lengthy, multi-page application, and calling people to see if they would serve as references for us.

The day after Memorial Day, I returned to regular office hours at the church, but my heart already felt a disconnect. I didn't know for sure if it was my own issue or if it was God beginning a work. I only knew something had changed in a big way, and it would never look the same again.

The day after that (May 27th) Ryan and I went out for an evening walk, as we often do when the weather is nice. We walked all over the neighborhood, talking and dreaming, and as we walked back up our driveway, we noticed a van driving by the house. I said to Ryan, "Was that Pastor Shane?" He's the children's pastor at our church, and I've loved working with him over these last few months. He's just fun. (He is a children's pastor, after all.) We waved, and the van stopped and backed down the street to pull into our driveway.

We asked them what they were doing in our neck of the woods, and they said they'd driven by a house down the road that was for sale. We knew they'd been looking at houses for months (as in over a year) and had never been able to find one that fit their needs and their budget. The market is insanely hot in Kokomo right now, and they were finding it difficult to even get in to see houses. Many are under contract hours after hitting the market. But the one down the road had been there for over a week (not that I knew this from my own realtor.com obsession) so they drove by.

We asked what they thought, and they said it was far too crowded on that street. Couldn't argue with that. Those houses really are on top of each other. We did tell them, though, that the neighborhood was a great place to live. We could vouch for that.

Pastor Shane said, "Well I know for sure who ISN'T moving, and that's you guys! You've done way too many renovations on your house to move now!"

I didn't dare look at Ryan. It took everything in me to say, "Park the van and come on in! You never know! We might be selling soon!"

Instead we laughed off Pastor Shane's comments, waved goodbye, and came back inside the house. We found an email waiting, letting us know our application had been received, and it outlined some additional steps we would need to take. After all...a job in social services comes with many hoops.

We would have to send in consent for background checks, copies of our driver's licenses, and we would have to make a fingerprinting appointment.

While Ryan hunted online for a place doing fingerprints before fall (or so it seemed), Rob called. I answered, and he said he had spoken about us with the director of the whole organization, and the two of them wanted to invite us...


...for a face-to-face interview.

The Shafferland Shuffle

I am writing the Shuffle to you from our garage sale on Saturday. It's I'm-not-sure-how-hot outside, but it's a toasty 88 degrees in the garage, and I'm wilting in all the ways. It's too hot to drink coffee, but without it, you see...I fade. So here's to hoping this makes sense!

* Last Sunday was the next in the line of graduation open houses we have on our calendar this year. This one was for one of Ryan's co-worker's sons, and I loved the quarantine nod!! Otherwise, it was a pretty uneventful day. AKA a nice, restful day.

* Monday was Ryan's first day back to his old shift at the rehab hospital. Masks for the win!! That night we walked to the store (which isn't super far, but also isn't super close) and I realized when I got there, I'd forgotten my mask AGAIN. (This is not the first time this has happened.) I keep mine in my purse, but I'd left my purse at home. Fail. So I waited outside while Ryan went in! And look at our pretty sunset for the walk home!

* Tuesday I worked on filling binders for the worship team, and Ryan had fun catching up with all his co-workers he hasn't seen forever! And while he went to board meeting at church that night, I worked on pricing stuff for our garage sale! Knocked out most of it, too!

* Wednesday night we had pizza for the first time in WELL over a month, and it was amazing. I was so happy!! And because my heart was feeling overwhelmed (in good ways) I spent extra time with my devos that night. (Had no idea Ryan sneaked in a picture of me doing it!)

* Our church is having a rummage sale this summer, and on Thursday the organizing ladies let me have some of the spare boxes so we could organize stuff too! I couldn't really see out the back to drive home, but three cheers for free boxes! That night we had dinner with some of Ryan's family, and his Uncle Dave's little dog was there. Miss Lucy. I loved her so much and wanted to sneak her in my purse and bring her home!! I also wanted to bring home all the cake. That Aunt Sandy is a GOOD cook.

* I didn't have to take my lunch to work on Friday and in not packing that, I accidentally forgot to pack my breakfast too. Whoopsie. One of the staff pastors called while he was out running errands and asked if I might like a coffee. And there was breakfast!!! I met Ryan and a couple of our friends for lunch (salad to follow the pizza earlier in the week) and that afternoon I stuffed activity bags for kids at church!

* Yesterday was our garage sale, and we sold a ton of stuff! Ryan and I worked it together and had the best time. Saw lots of friends, sold lots of stuff, and did a lot of sweating. That's a full day, right there! After the sale was over, I baked some cookies for Father's Day (which keeps totally sneaking up on me).