the year we moved

this past sunday, valentine’s day, we celebrated one year of being in new york! one year ago, we quit our jobs, packed our duplex, ate all the el mocajete one could handle, said goodbye, and moved to brooklyn, ny. at that point, our expectations were quite unmanaged as we hoped/believed we would live with friends ‘til the end of february, find an apartment upon finding jobs just in time to move in march 1st. and then, we’d just go about our merry little urban lives, starting the process of finding a church to help while we got settled. march 1st came and went. april 1st came and went. our official job title became “restless” and our lease read “vagabond.” we had a few bites on our resumes here and there, but no solid promises from recruiters or interviews. for housing, we rotated between friends, family, and an available apartment space at a church in the east village. our goal was to have at least one of us employed before we looked for a place. finally, mid-april, i got a job offer and started on april 27th!

after a weekend of scouring craigslist and nyt.com, we decided on what was important to us and what we could afford and quickly scheduled a day of hunting with a realtor. apartment #1 couldn’t have housed a gnome. apartment #2 had a problem with sinking floors that made one slightly seasick. and apartment #3 was just plain ugly and ugly. apartment #4 was probably not going to work because when we called to schedule an appointment, the guy told us that the one we wanted to see had already been let, but that he had another one in the building that might work for us. we were, by then, learning to manage our expectations, so our hopes were slightly below average. it was under construction still, but upon seeing the space we could 100% envision our home to be apartment #4, hands down. It’s turned out to be the best apartment ever! after spending almost 9 months in the hood, we have grown to see our little place as a haven and comfort amidst the bustling of city life. God’s goodness in this blessing to us is incredibly undeserved!

for the first few weeks in our new place, jed worked tirelessly to make everything just perfect. he installed cabinet handles (never again), towel racks, blinds/shades, curtain rods, touched up some paint, unpacked, organized, ran errands to home depot, bed bath and beyond, and ikea, worked with the contractor to finish off a few details, and continually looked for a job. after almost a month of a non-stop to-do list, everything finally got checked off. that left an amazing home for us, but a guy still looking for a job. in july, after being in survival mode for several months, we both were excited about a job offer jed got with devry, a proprietary school with an open admissions position. since this was where his experience was and since the pay was quite comfortable, we were ecstatic! however, after six weeks of dealing with very long and late hours, some weekend work, and an unbearably psycho boss, we were both growing tired.

out of the blue one day in september, a recruiter emailed jed a job description for a position she thought matched his resume. it was in customer service, but the pay, benefits, and hours were significantly younger and better looking than the old hag of a job he had gotten used to. we figured an interview wouldn’t hurt, so jed rushed together a cover letter and updated resume and scheduled an interview. within a week of that email, he had a job offer! the relief of knowing that the days of devoting late evenings and some weekends to a job were soon over was wonderful! one of the particularly distasteful characteristics of his job at devry was the frustration of not having any time to give to a ministry. being in survival mode taught us much, and one prominent thing we came out of that time with was an intensified desire to be involved in a local church.

jed started his new job in early october, and he quickly impressed all of his co-workers and management by catching on so easily and being a stable, kind employee. they really love him there, which makes it much easier for him to appreciate his job. we are both so thankful for the low-stress jobs that God has given to us. we’re able to focus more on life outside of work rather than bear the frustration of difficult employment. he’s so kind!

one other major milestone of the last year was finding out about an eventual addition to our family. in fact, jed got his “good” job offer less than 24 hours after we found out about the baby, which made our hearts completely overwhelmed again of God’s undeserved kindness to us. in mid-january, we found out that we’re having a girl. she’ll join us sometime around the end of may - we know our lives are forever changed. we’re pretty excited about introducing a little one to the city we’ve grown to love so much.

back in november, an opportunity opened up for us to become involved in the church that was kind enough to house us during our vagabond stage. tompkins square gospel fellowship is a small church in the east village, and they were eager and kind enough to welcome any help that we could offer. jed leads the worship, i (try to) play the piano for the service, and we both are looking forward to becoming more involved as we get our heels dug in further. the pastor and people of this church have grown to be our family, and we love each lesson that God is teaching us through being in a smaller church.

writing this post reminds me all over again how much we’ve grown to love the city and love our new life here. of course, life is different and sometimes full of ups and downs, but the overall feeling we get of waking up each day knowing that we are where we’re supposed to be because he is taking care of us is so comforting. words can’t describe how thankful we are for the love and sovereignty of our God! the year we moved was truly a great year!