Beginning at the Beginning

This blogging is a bit intimidating, but I'll jump right in and hope it will get easier.
If you are here reading this, you know already that the next big thing for the Laurie family is our planned move to China. What you may not know is how we got to this point. While in some senses that's a looooooong story, I'll keep it short(er) and hit the highlights.

The first time I entertained the idea of moving overseas was 18 years ago when I was presented with a job opportunity in Australia. That one didn't work out, but the seed was planted. The focus on China really grew, as you can imagine, after Marissa, then Kristen, then Lindsay arrived. The trips to China to meet my daughters as well as the desire to give them a chance to experience their home country in a deeper way put the idea on my list of *maybe somedays*. Ryan, however, was not so on board so I promised him no more moves until after he was out of High School.

In 2006, with Ryan off to college, the thought again surfaced about making the leap, and I looked into various opportunities. But the timing didn't seem right...at least I didn't feel a strong pull in that direction. Between the sticker shock of college tuition and the continuing process of integrating Lindsay into our family, I felt like my hands were pretty full.

So why now? Well, there are many things... a job that took me away from the career in research which I loved, the inability to find the right balance between work and family, a return of the wanderlust that was once satiated by the frequent traveling that Ryan and I did which I have missed more and more these last few years, and maybe a little bit of midlife crisis thrown in. But in my heart I believe that God is opening a door that He has been preparing me to walk through for a very long time. All of those other things are part of the final preparations so that when the door opened I was ready to go through.

So on September 10th I gave notice at my job of 9+ years and stepped out in faith toward the future that God has planned for us. Scary? You bet! But other than a day of "what am I thinking!" I can say that so far God has given me great peace and great excitement for what is to come.

Next: So what actually are we going to do in China?