From the beginning

I am sitting in my hotel room in Houston, TX. Pouring rain outside is limiting my outings.  I thought I should start at the beginning of where this all started.  Of course, I think we all, at one time or another, wish they could take a hiatis from their life.  I certainly have.  I read the book and saw the movie Eat, Pray, Love.  But for most of us, that isn't a realistic venture.  Money, time, family, jobs and plain fear would keep most of us right where we are.  I thought to myself, the other day, if anyone would have said a year ago that I would be sitting in the chapel of a small branch in New Orleans, LA today, I would have laughed it off as a wishful joke.  But there I was.  The fourth city I had visited on my journey.

So how did this all come about?  It was around this time, last April, that I found out that several of the children, in my daycare, were leaving.  One was moving (my granddaughter), another aged out and another was going to be cared for her grandparents.  For the first time in almost 30 years of daycare, I didn't have any new prospects, no one on the waiting list.

By September I was down to only one child.  In anticipation of the slow down I decided it was time to sell my home.  It had gotten to be a lot of work for one person and I wanted to get out before (just in case) I had to start missing payments or lose it all together.  So I listed it the first week of September.

So now what do I do?  Questions I had to ask myself and God.  I had been made Primary president just the month before.  Do I stay in the area, and in my ward (congregation) boundaries?  Look for another house and continue running my family daycare?  Maybe find a duplex or other less expensive property. Is this where I go to the Dominican Republic to live and volunteer for The Dream Project, something that has always been in my mind. Then another thought came to me, as the weather was getting more winter-like... Maybe this is where I go to look for a warmer climate, a different profession, I'd like to say, a new me, but by my age you realize there is no such thing.

And so I looked at houses, talked to people and then talked to my Heavenly Father.  Nothing seemed to stand out.  I didn't really feel that anything was right or wrong.  My sister and I had always talked about moving together, somewhere warm.  Problem was she liked the southeast and I liked the southwest.  I also worried she would never move.  You see, she is one of those people who has a hard time letting go of things.  I think she is afraid of that unknown, out there.  I know she will disagree with me.  I finally decided that when the house sold, we would hit the road.  Funny thing was, that when I made that decision, it was the one that ultimately I felt good about.  That 's the thing about having a long, ongoing, relationship with God.  You figure out how he speaks to you. For me, when something isn't right, I will keep going over it, in my mind.  I will say to myself, "This is what I am going to do, I have made my decision!"  Then I will spend the next few days going over it again, weight the pros and cons until I finally realize...THIS IS MY STUPOR OF THOUGHT! (D&C 99:9).

The house finally sold, My sister decided not to go with me, but I still felt like I should head to the southeast.  Charlotte, Charleston, Savannah, New Orleans and Houston.  Phase I.