The Unbloggable Becomes Bloggable

I have kept a big secret for two weeks. Actually it was a possible secret for about four months. But I am a verbal processor and I like to talk and talk and TALK about what is going on in my head, so keeping a secret has been difficult.

In this blog post I will simply attempt to provide you with the facts and then in later posts we can talk about my feelings, Bart's feelings, the kids feelings, your feelings, our friends feelings and all the feelings of everyone who has feelings about it.

But for today, the facts ma'am. nothing but the facts.

The United Methodist Church practices an Ecclesiastical form of church government. This means that ordained elders are appointed by the bishop and his/her cabinet to the church where they will serve as pastor. It's a complex procedure each year when this group of people meets to determine who will go to the places where there is a vacancy because the pastor retired, who will move to the spot where the person replacing the retiring person will go, and on and on like dominoes until all of the pieces of the puzzle are fit together.

Each year pastors are allowed to express to the cabinet one of three things: 1) We have to move; 2) We are open to a move if there is a good match; and 3) We really really want to stay. This year, back in December I believe, we met and chose option 2.

Bart has made a lot of good progress here and yet he was wondering if he had done all he could in this situation. We have great friends here, both in our church and within the adoption community, and especially are connected to our friends Mike and Kari who have been our BFsF since we moved here. But this is getting past the facts stage. We really didn't want to move, but we knew that if a good opportunity came up we should probably be open to take it.

Most of the decisions about where people are moving take place in January or February. By the time March 1st rolled around we were pretty sure we were staying here for the next year and were relieved and feeling quite settled about that option.

Two weeks ago about this time Bart got a call. It was March 25th so by this time we had stopped even thinking about moving as being a possibility. But he got the call. We had already planned to be in the twin Cities that week, so going to the meeting to talk about the opportunity was easy to disguise.

For a full week, until last Sunday afternoon, it was not official. We had to meet with the church Staff Parish Relations committee and the district superintendent. That happened last Sunday and it was such a very great meeting that it was clear that it was a perfect "missional match" and we became very excited about going. However, in order to go, you have to leave, and that's the hard part.

We decided to tell our kids on Monday night and ask them not to tell their friends because it was confidential until it was announced this morning. They seem to have done a pretty good job. There were a few people that we felt would be incredibly hurt to hear about it in a letter or in a formal announcement so we told a few of them. We have shed a lot of tears and watched others shed them over the past week.

This morning, after a wonderful Easter service surrounded by many many people who love us and whom we love, the announcement was made the the bishop was appointing Bart to serve at the Brunswick United Methodist Church in Crystal, Minnesota, a first ring suburb of Minneapolis.

So that's the news. Those are the facts.

The overwhelming piece of it all is that we have to move our family, find a house to either rent or sell, and figure out what to do with our house, not necessarily in that order.

Maybe I should offer MIke and Kari as being friends that come with the house, though they might not like that. It sure makes the deal more sweet.

Want to buy a house?