A Blog Start

So, I've been thinking about writing in a blog for a while. The problem is that I have never really been sure how to start, or really what to write. Is anyone really going to be interested in anything I have to say?

Well, I guess I can't be worried about that. I'll just start typing and writing and what comes, comes.

Life @ 7200 is exactly what it sounds like - figuring out life at 7,200 feet above sea level.

How did we get here? Well, that's an entirely different story.

We both grew up in Michigan. After college, Eric interned at a church in Michigan for a year, then took a job with Youth for Christ in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I - VERY RELUCTANTLY - joined him in Fort Wayne after I graduated. I was not thrilled about the prospect of Indiana, and made Eric PROMISE that we would only stay for a year. Then we would go to where ever I was going to go to grad school.

Ha.

We got jobs, got married, bought a house, I commuted to University of Michigan for grad school, got a different job, got a different house, got more jobs (on top of the ones we had), Eric started grad school at Huntington University... you know, life happened. We made friends, and got connected in our community. At some point, Eric went on staff full-time with the National Office of Youth for Christ, headquartered in Colorado. We moved his office home, to our basement.

Somehow, eleven years went by.

Eleven years.

During that eleven years, we started sponsoring Jane Wangui, a child living in desperate poverty in Limuru, Kenya, through Compassion International. Needless to say, we fell in love with her, loved writing to her and loved receiving letters from her. We learned more about Compassion, and really liked the organization. A couple years ago, I started thinking that Compassion might just be a pretty cool place to work. In February 2012, I started feeling like it was time to start thinking about a new job - and maybe just one job, if that was possible (I was working one full-time, and four part-time jobs! I was tired!) I applied to Compassion in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Big Brothers, Big Sisters in Fort Wayne. Soon, I thought I was out of the running with Compassion, and accepted with BBBS. Long story short, I wasn't. I finished my job on a Wednesday, and instead of taking two days off, I got on a plane. I spent the next two days in intense interviews with Compassion, and Friday afternoon, they offered me the job. I flew back to Fort Wayne, and Eric and I spent the weekend wrestling with and praying out the decision. By Sunday morning, it was clear that God had spoken, and we had reached a peach that we can't explain except for God.

Four days later, we put our house on the market.

Six says after that, we accepted an offer.

Five days after that, I drove out to Colorado..

I couch surfed for a month, and then we closed on the house in the Fort. We moved into an apartment for several (long) months, then bought a house in Monument, Colorado.

The top of Monument Hill is 7,200 feet, or approximately 10 times the elevation of Fort Wayne. The elevation at our front door is 7,088.

Welcome to Life at 7200.