What? My Name is..
Who? My Name is..
Huh? My Name is..
Slicky, slicky Jed Shady!
It has been more than a year, and I had gone silent. Why? Because my server traveled the world. What? Well, actually – I traveled the world – more specifically we have traveled the world.
Ok, so not really across the whole world, just to the other side of the country – which coming from a boy who grew up in a tiny little town in back-water Maine without running water, or sewer – it has seemed like I am a whole new world away.
We are now in Texas.
In July of 2012 I decided it was time to move on from my company of almost 13 years; I put my resume up on the internet. Within a matter of days, I had been contacted by a couple different companies that were offering great salaries and benefits, but they were either in the North East (I wanted to get out of the cold) or were on the west coast (I didn’t want to go that far).
Then one day on vacation up in the mountains with my family I received a call from this company that I had not heard of (interestingly, I had heard a lot about them, but just didn’t realize it). The recruiter left a message. As a curtsy call, I left him a return message letting him know that I did not ever intend to move as far as Texas. The recruiter called me back and asked if I was at least interested in hearing what he had to offer.
Rewind 13 years and that is exactly what happened at my previous place of employment, they had 3 managers that reached out to me from the one company for three different positions. I called the first back to tell him I wasn’t interested in moving to the mid-west, he asked me if I was at least interested in hearing what he had to offer.
I met with the first manager, he offered me the job a few weeks later, the rest is history.
Fast forward back to 2012, the recruiter told me about the company and the position, and I thought he must be joking. I jumped online in my spotty internet connection the next night, in between homework assignments and I sent him a resume.
A few weeks later I was on a plane to Texas (shudder), a few weeks after that I gave my notice at my current place of employment, and just a few more weeks I was pulling away from our ‘dream house’ that we had built – hauling a camper, a wife and five children half-way across the country to the unknown.
And to think, I once read the book “Who Moved My Cheese” and thought – “Hey, this could be about me”.
We took almost a month to travel from Maine to Texas, and stopped to visit family along the way. Stopped to say hello to our favorite place on the east coast: Tybee Island. Even took a short detour to bring our kids to Disney – something my wife had always wanted to do – but I was always too busy working to ever find the time.
So here we are, only about a month after hearing about this new company, we left our home, our family and traveled to the other side of the country. Living out of our camper (7 people), wondering if we would be able to sell our house, wondering when we could buy a new house.
Fast forward 8 months later. We miss our friends and family back home; but we’ve made new friends too. My family couldn’t be happier (except if our friends and family came to live in Texas). The job is wonderful, the weather is amazing, Texas is super… where has it been all my life? I belong in this state – while I will miss the seasons and the trees and the land, Maine was really not my true home.
And now I come to the end, and I must sign off by saying that YHWH has really taken care of me and my family. I’ve never done anything to deserve it, that’s for sure. But He has watched over us, and listened to us, and directed us, and He has told us and showed us what and when.
The pages have turned, the next chapter has begun. May it always be, Soli Deo Gloria.
The sun was bright, it was a self-timed photo-snap; but I have learned that I can go searching for happiness further than my back yard – because no matter where we are, as long as we are together – we are always at home!