Chicago

The rumors are true, Phil and I are moving to Chicago! Allow me to fill you in with what's been going on with us the past 11 months....

March(ish): Just like I told Phil he would marry me, just like how I told Phil to start a band, I told him he was supposed to be a pastor. I don't know why God decides to use me to tell Phil what He wants him to do, but He continues to use me as a vessel through which to speak to Phil about his future. This was an EXTREMELY hard idea to swallow. If you don't know already, I am a pastor's kid, always have been. Growing up I said I would NEVER EVER marry anyone going into ministry. Being a pastor's kid was not an enjoyable experience for me and left me with a sour view of ministry and the way it works. So for me to feel that my husband was to be a pastor, I knew it was truly from God.

I told Phil a year or so before this revelation that he needed to go to school. He needed a college education, whether it was to be a worship leader, or a videographer. So, once we prayed together and decided Phil really was supposed to be a pastor, I began searching for schools.

I LOVE planning; whether it's planning finances, vacations, grocery lists, or simply our future, I LOVE IT! So, searching for schools was a ton of fun for me. We knew the local schools were not an option due to not being accredited, too expensive, or disagreeing with theology. I asked Phil where he would like to live so I could search schools in those areas. He told me that wasn't the right way to go about it, anywhere that had a great accredited school that held the same theology and wasn't too expensive was an option. Of course, I searched by location to find those schools. :) I searched California (way too expensive), Washington-Seattle area (not many accredited schools, if any), Las Vegas (only 1 school and it's a secondary campus for a large school), and back east (North and South Carolina, Tennessee-but Phil absolutely did not want to move over there).

Finally, we settled on Moody Bible Institute. It was actually one of the first, if not the first, schools we looked at. It sounded amazing; tuition-free, it's in downtown Chicago, holds the same beliefs we have, far from everyone...BUT I couldn't accept it. I wanted to move somewhere more like Vegas-warm, sunny, and full of people. So, I found a school in Kissimmee, Florida-nice and close to Orlando (we LOVE it there), good beliefs, and relatively inexpensive. I showed Phil both schools, laid out the pros and cons for each and heavily supported the school in Florida. Phil asked me to stop looking at schools, give him time to think and pray, and that he would make a decision.

Summer: I tried to not bring the school in Florida up, but of course it was the only thing I was "planning" at the time, so it was brought up often. Finally, one day Phil told me he was pretty sure he knew what school he was supposed to go to...I was SO excited, I was going to move to sunny Florida, enjoy the beach all summer long, be nice and tan, be able to visit Disney World and Universal Studios all the time...and he told me he felt God was calling him to Chicago...I was crushed. Yes, I cried. Yes, I pouted. Yes, I was a submissive wife and threw out all my information and paperwork for the school in Florida. BUT, I still wasn't convinced. I just knew I wouldn't be able to live in gray, freezing cold, ugly, stupid Chicago. I knew I would be miserable and depressed. So, I told Phil that we had to take a trip there to see if I could handle living there in that awful city. Finally, a vacation to plan for! Planning our trip helped me amp up for the actual trip and made me excited about Chicago. I researched different things to do, places, restaurants, living, and public transportation.

July: Phil got licensed for ministry and earned the title, "Pastor Phil". I call him Pastor Pill, because it's easier to say and much more fun. :)

September: My dad got sick, really sick. He was diagnosed with Sepsis and the only reason it was caught early enough was because he has a fake knee. When a person has a fake body part, infections generally attack that area first because it is foreign matter. His knee blew up in size, he had the shivers, high fever, and just looked awful. Thankfully, he went to the hospital and was immediately checked in. While he was sick, Phil had to preach for my dad. I believe he taught 4 Sundays in a row while my dad was in the hospital and then as he was healing at home. This was a rough time for me emotionally and physically and mentally for Phil. On the last Sunday that Phil was covering for my dad, my dad asked the church to bless us financially for our trip to Chicago for stepping in and doing such an amazing job preaching. Of course, this had everyone asking, "Why Chicago?" "What are you going to do in Chicago?" We weren't telling anyone other than family (and a few close friends) why we were going, so we had to partially fib and say, "We just wanted to see what the city is like" or "I hadn't been there in a long time and wanted to go back." Our wonderful church gave us enough money to cover our expenses while we were out of town, a huge blessing!

We got to Chicago on Monday afternoon, rode public transportation into the heart of the city and checked into our sketchy hotel. We got some food, took a nap (traveling takes a LOT out of you) and then got dinner. We didn't explore much that first day. The second day, we had a tour of the school scheduled. We walked over to the campus and had our tour with a school group from Norway. Phil loved talking to them and hearing about them and their culture. They told us about the horrific shootings that had recently happened and how it had affected their country. After viewing the campus, we walked down to the Magnificent Mile. The Magnificent Mile is a shopping district full of amazing stores and boutiques. Within the Magnificent Mile is the Water Tower Place Mall which had the American Girl store and a Lego store (both of us LOVED acting like kids there), there is the 900 Shops with wonderful stores like Bloomingdales, Diesel, and UGG. After window shopping, we went up to the John Hancock Observatory and listened to the audio tour telling us all about the city of Chicago while seeing it from 94 stories up! Later the night, we took the bus to the Navy Pier, and then headed back to the John Hancock for dinner at the Signature Room on the 95th floor. The dinner was amazing and we watched the beautiful city of Chicago as it disappeared from us as a cloud rolled around the building! Unfortunately, we had to go home the next day, but we had a blast and both absolutely fell in love with Chicago.

November: The application for early decision was due December 1. I asked Phil to have everything done by Thanksgiving to give extra time in case something went missing. He finished his app and it was officially in God's hands whether Phil got admitted to the school or not.

December: I started to get nervous. I had complete faith in Phil that he was more than good enough to get into the school, but for some reason felt we needed some back up plans. I told Phil about my feelings and he told me I could find some other schools in case Moody didn't work out. So, I went back to my school in Kissimmee, and found another school in Phoenix, Arizona. I was torn, because I would rather live in Florida, but the school in Arizona seemed better. Phil was leaning towards Arizona as well, and we were both so confused as to what we were supposed to do. We began the application process for the other schools but waited to complete everything until we got our answer from Moody.

January: Moody posted on their Facebook that the early decision letters would be going in the mail on the 17th. Enter super freak out mode. I could not sleep, when I did sleep it was awful, I was cranky, rude, and it was all due to an immense amount of stress I was holding. The week of the 17th came and some people that live closer to Chicago started posting on the Moody Facebook that they had been deferred to regular decision (April). This was when I REALLY started to freak out. I had been praying and praying and praying that God would give us a clear yes or no, I was pretty sure I couldn't handle not knowing where we would be moving to until April.

That weekend, Phil's band, Floors & Stories, played at a high school camp up in McCall. I decided to go up as well, but stay in a hotel and have a mini-getaway. The letter still hadn't come before we went up so we still didn't know if he was accepted, denied, or deferred. We were starting to wonder if ANYONE got accepted, until finally, a few people posted that they were accepted. This made us feel better, but still extremely nervous. We got home on Sunday, and low and behold, a letter from Moody Bible Institute was in our mailbox. We got inside, put everything down, and looked at each other. I was begging Phil to open the letter and I wanted to look at it with him, but he told me to sit down and let him read it to me. I sat on the sofa, and waited. He took a deep breath, and opened the envelope. He started reading, "Dear Philip, we are delighted to inform you that your application for Fall 2012 has been accepted...." and immediately I broke down sobbing. I jumped up, still sobbing, and hugged Phil tightly. We read the rest of the letter, and still sobbing told him how proud I was of him. Phil began making phone calls to our parents and siblings to tell them the good news and I sat with the letter in my hands, staring at it, and even left a tear stain on the bottom of it.

We were SO excited, we wanted to yell our news out to the world! But we couldn't. We had to wait until the right time. We had to tell our church before we could tell our friends and make it "Facebook official". Let me be honest, that SUCKED. It was all I wanted to talk about, but I couldn't talk about it with anyone but Phil and my parents. We set the date to tell our church family and waited.

Finally, the day came, Sunday, February 12, 2012. Phil gave an amazing sermon on the Prodigal Son, with a lesson that I never got from that parable before. He did a great job. Then, my dad got up on stage, and began preparing our church body to hear the news. Phil got on stage and asked me to come up with him. He told them, and finally, the word was out. After church, I was finally allowed to put it on Facebook and I did. :)

I am so proud of Phil for being courageous enough to take on the calling to be a pastor. For being willing and wanting to begin college at the age of 25. For being a supportive, loving, and compassionate husband to me. He is truly amazing and I know God has big plans for him and I. We look forward to finding out what those plans are, but in the mean time, our plans are to finish out the summer in Meridian, and then head out to the Midwest and to find our new home in the wonderful city of Chicago.