One Moment in Time

Over the last few days, I have been very busy and have been pondering what to write about. There were many things that I could have, but the urge to write just didn't come. Then early this morning, it came. A thought, 'write about how you came to Missouri'.

My husband had just walked through the door, after getting off his graveyard shift, and I told him my thought and he said, 'Ah, another moment in time.' I responded with 'Thanks for the title!'. LOL.

There is a saying that goes, 'life is what happens when you are making other plans.' I couldn't agree more with it. I view our lives as tapestries. Different events in our lives help form the final pattern that we create. We need both the dark and the light, as well as brilliant moments, to weave together and form the pattern of our lives. While we can seek direction from the master weaver, ultimately, we choose what it will look like.

Approximately 18 months before my family moved to Missouri, I kept getting impressions to move here. I would find reasons why I could not. We could not sell our home for enough, there is not going to be as good of a job for my husband, it is so far from family, and many other excuses, not to even research the idea.

Nine months after that first impression, my husband was laid off from his job. We saw the warning signs, and so we had the house on the market already. To make a long story short, my husband did not find any work for 9 months. We had lost everything I worried about by this point, and we had to short sell our home. I entered a contest for a recording contract competition, which took me to Branson, Missouri. I raised funds from friends, family and neighbors to make this trip. Aaron and I went together, while our children stayed with my mother.

I ended up winning third place and being offered a recording contract, which I turned down. However, my husband and I immediately fell in love with this area. We knew that it was where we were supposed to be.

We returned home, and went through a lot of struggles, but eventually, we sold everything we could, and packed up our 1996 Ford Taurus for the trip. We had all four of our children in car seats at that time, so we were limited on what we could take. We had one set of dishes for each person, one sauce pan, one frying pan, utensils, some canned goods, a can opener, pillows and blankets for each person, 7 outfits per person, and our photo albums and other records.

Prior to moving, we search the internet over and over for the most affordable place to live at that time, and Buffalo, Missouri kept coming up. We decided that we would take every city within one hour of Branson, and put it in a hat, and let our oldest daughter choose where we would live. She pulled out Buffalo, Missouri. We repeated the same technique for when we would leave, and what time.

When we arrived in Buffalo, it was dark. The motel that we were going to go to was closed for the night, so we had to stay elsewhere that first night. I will admit, that I was scared. I wondered what I had done, and thought maybe I should turn around and go back. I was determined to follow this path to where ever it led, so I pushed on.

The next morning, after we got to our motel, we were offered an apartment for rent before we even got our motel key in the door. When we went to church that first Sunday, many people told us that they had been praying for us to come. I was a bit astonished about that, since they said they had been praying for 18 months for a family like ours to move in. My husband worked temporary jobs for awhile, until he was hired with Dairy Farmer's of America in Springfield.

My experiences in Buffalo, are for another time, but are worth telling about. :) We eventually moved to Springfield, and I have no desire to ever live anywhere else. Many of my ancestors have walked through this state, lived here, died here, I feel more at home here, even though all of my family is now back west in Utah and Arizona. I do have some extended family in neighboring states, but my community here, is my family.

That is something I have also come to love about Missouri. My neighbors, church family, associates, fellow patriots and activists have become my family.