A Big Change

Hello blogging world.

We are just a little excited about Alabama playing in the National Championship game.
Can you tell?





















No need to worry.  No small infant girls were harmed in the making of this post.

Well, enough about championship games.  Let's get straight to the point of this post, shall we.
As I told you in my last post there have been some big decision making here in the Sprayberry household the last few weeks.  As most of you know, Steven is finishing up residency this coming June which means a real life job is in our future.  Which means we need to decide where that job will be.

We have loved living in Birmingham these past three and half years. We love our friends and our church.  We love how comfortable and familiar it is.  We are close to both sides of the family here and close to most things we love to do.  However, the past couple of years Steven and I have talked about where we want to live one day...where we possibly want to raise our children.  It's a big decision, you know?  Hard decision.  Over the past seven years of our marriage we've come to realize that we really do love change. We love to branch out on our own and see where the Lord takes us.  We've always known that what we wanted for our family and children looked a little different than us staying here in Birmingham.  But we just didn't know what that looked like.

We talked about a smaller town for them to grow up in.  We discussed smaller school systems and smaller community.  And when I say small, let me clarify.  When I say small, we don't mean a one stop light kind of town (not that there's anything wrong with that).  I personally would just go nuts.  Thankfully, the Lord has blessed Steven with wonderful job opportunities this year and if we wanted to, we could stay in Birmingham.
However, like I previously said, we still were not sure if this is what we wanted...let me rephrase that...what the Lord wanted.

The past couple of weeks we had to make a decision between two towns.  Well, it's not really that we had to, it's just that these two job opportunities were the best fit for our family and the two towns looked equally appealing to us.  It was a tough, I'm not gonna lie.  We prayed...A LOT...searching for an answer from the Lord.  Well, as the Lord so often works, he didn't paint the answer in the clouds for us and we didn't turn the pages of the Bible only to finally land on one specific verse telling us where to go.  Ha...if he only worked like that making choices would be much easier wouldn't it.  It would and it wouldn't.  We sure wouldn't be going to the Lord in prayer as much and drawing closer to him and his plan for our lives.  So, in that, I'm thankful decision making can be a hard thing.  It's more like a beautiful thing.

So, to make a long story short...or shorter...Steven had a rotation in Montgomery for one week while I was at home with the kiddos during our decision making.  The week was actually very helpful to be apart.  And believe me I hate when he's gone from me!  But, we needed the space to think clearly on our own, go to the Lord on our own, and continuously come back to one another throughout the week and discuss our thoughts.  By the end of the week it was really neat to see how we were both leaning towards one specific place--and we had made that decision on our own, not together as to sway the other person.  Of course, every couple is different, but this seemed to be best for us.
By the end of the week, we were finally able to come to an agreement slowly and surely on where to take a job and move our children.

So without further ado I guess you would like to know where we'll be moving this summer?

Okay, I'll tell ya.

We are moving here.






This is a cute little spot in the southern town of Fairhope, Alabama.

So, that's where we are moving.  Fairhope.

If you are unfamilar with Fairhope or where that is (which believe me we were too)...it's located on the lovely Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay.  There is a hospital in Fairhope but Steven will actually be working across the Bay in Mobile at Springhill Hospital's Emergency Department.  We honestly don't know much about the area--never have--but to say we are excited would be an understatement.  And the reason for our excitement?  Because this is honestly where we feel the Lord is leading us at this very time. 

We don't move until the end of June so right now we are taking each day at a time and enjoying our life here in Birmingham and where the Lord has us now.

We are not naive to think there won't be difficult decisions again in our future, but for now, we are thankful this particular decision is done.

So there you have it folks.  It will be a big change but an exciting one.