Life

This post is long over due! I planned to write it months ago and then even started it a few weeks ago but it got deleted. It seems strange (and it was never my intention) making the announcement after the fact instead of telling you the news in advance, but here it is, we have moved to Scotland! Part of why I put off writing it was because I was waiting for my husband, Ken, to make a Facebook announcement to friends that hadn’t heard yet and part of it was I have been unsure as to what I should even write. There is so much I could say. I could write a small book just in the background of how it all came to be and how it all happened in the last few months. It’s been really hard to get motivated to sit down and figure out how to edit myself down.

But here goes nothing. The story actually starts way back in 2001. After graduating, my college roommate, Beth, and I moved to Edinburgh, Scotland a week after 9/11. I was going there with a 6-month work visa through a company called BUNAC (which looking at the site now, it has grown and changed a bit, and the expenses have increased a lot) and she was going to get her Master’s degree at the University of Edinburgh. It was a really great time and also very hard time. I was there during the darker and colder months and of course there was so much uncertainty in the world after all that had just happened in New York. Scotland was wonderful but trying to find a job with such a short work visa proved to be very difficult. I finally did find a temporary, holiday job at Next, which is a department store here. Ken, and I had just started a relationship and he flew out to see me for my birthday in January. Scotland was imprinted on our hearts.

Fast-forward a bit and Ken found a youth minister job in San Marcos and I later found a teaching job there as well. We were engaged a year after his visit to Scotland and married 3 months after that. We settled in and it became our home.

We loved our town and church home. Our family was far away so our friends became like family. We knew that God had planted us there for a purpose and we dug in for that. We had no plans to move unless we felt God moving us. Scotland was always on our hearts during that time and we wondered if we’d ever be given the opportunity to live and serve here, but we just didn’t know.

We had actually seen a couple of opportunities over the years but none were quite right or worked out. But then toward the end of 2014 Ken saw the job posting for youth pastor in Pitlochry that got him really excited. He sent in his CV but didn’t really expect it to go far since nothing else had. But he eventually did hear back with some interest. I won’t go into the whole hiring process but he flew to Scotland over Valentine’s Day weekend for an interview and was invited to come as youth pastor and he accepted. While there he fell in love with the people and the possibilities and not just the obvious beauty of the area. He had a real peace about whichever way it would end up. He knew that if it worked out that it was meant to be and that if it didn’t, God wasn’t done with us yet in San Marcos.

So, that was in February, and we looked to try to get the process done and move by mid July. I can talk more in-depth about all of that in subsequent posts. Only by God’s continual help were we and the church successful in getting it done on time.

Leaving our friends and church in San Marcos was very difficult; there were lots of tears. I have never liked goodbyes, and having to do it over a 5-month period was very hard. It definitely put my introversion to the test. And at the end I was so exhausted, physically and emotionally, I had a breakdown on the last night and had to skip a goodbye dinner to take a nap. I am so thankful that we live in an age where we can still talk via the internet and phone though. The world has gotten so much smaller.  So none of the goodbyes are forever.

I don’t want this blog to become only about Scotland but it has always been a mixture of my life and nesting/crafting things so hopefully that will continue. I know a lot of people who we’ve left are interested in keeping up with us on here though so don’t be surprised when you see a lot of Scotland posts.

People have asked what will happen with my business now that we’ve moved. And to answer that I have to say, I’m not really sure. I plan on continuing it but I’m just not sure what is going to work best now that I’m across the ocean. Obviously, it is an online business so in theory I can move it anywhere but with the ornaments being time sensitive and most people ordering at the last-minute I don’t know if I could get them out on time. But I have had some people already asking if I’ll be making more. If I can get a printer that will work for printing on the fabric like before then my initial thought is that I’ll make a limited edition of the best-selling ornaments. I usually start cutting and sewing all the ornaments about now in June or July and don’t stop until Christmas. It is fun but also exhausting especially when Fall hits. I don’t want to do that this year. I don’t want all extra time to be taken up by that. I want to be able to enjoy the holidays and my family. Thankfully, I’ll have two of the three kids in school this year so I might be able to get more done during the day instead of only the evening. I also am thinking I’ll start selling my art as digital downloads so people can print them out themselves. That will save me having to worry about printing, shipping, inventory, etc. I still haven’t really figured it all out yet. I closed down my shop a week before moving and just wanted to survive the move and settle in. We finally just got internet in our house after being here almost a month. It has been a painfully slow process. The kids will start school mid August. After that I think we should get in a good groove and I can have time to really figure these things out.

All is going well though and we have been welcomed so wonderfully, more than we could have hoped for! We are so very blessed to be here and get the chance to have this adventure as a family. We look forward to all that is ahead.

I have so many things that I look forward to sharing with you all. But if you have any specific questions or things you’d like to see please ask in the comments and I’ll try to make sure to answer them in upcoming posts.

Oh, and I set up an Instagram account under the name @thenestingspot so you can follow me there as well.