How we got here

29 September, 2013

Several people have asked us how we got here in the first place. I am sure we have explained that to many of you in the past few months, but not in this blog. So here goes.

In a previous post, I talked about how Susan spent three months in Spain with her girlfriend, Alicia, who subsequently married Antonio. He and I became fast friends. Our first meeting was in Washington, DC in 1995, while Alicia and Antonio were still dating. In 1998, Susan and I travelled to Spain with a large contingent of Americans, about 15 of us, for ten days after Christmas.

We spent most of the time in Velez Rubio, which is a tiny hamlet compared to La Alberca. Many of Antonio's friends, about 20 of them, came for a grand fiesta. We cooked tapas over an open fire oven in the kitchen of his grandfather's house, which is about 300 years old. The whole time was incredible. The foreigners were checking us out. We were checking out the foreigners. Some jokes translate well. Others do not. It was a great moment in international relations.

We also spent time in Granada, which is a fascinating city. For 800 years, Muslims, Jews and Christians lived in peace and solitude in and around Granada. La Alhambra is one of the most magnificent castles in Europe and overlooks the city, like a doting parent to a child. Antonio took us to restaurants and flamenco halls dug out of caves in the side of the mountain.

The one thing I knew for sure when we got back to the USA was that I was going to return to Spain for another vacation. And we did, several times. Each time we returned, I had a deeper love for the people and the country.

Susan and I have also travelled several times to Peru and Nicaragua on missions trips with our church. Every time I am in a Spanish speaking country, my heart swells with affection toward the people. I don't really know why, but sometimes you don't need to know everything. God has a plan, and we are just a small part of it. That is both humbling and comforting at the same time.

So that encapsulates about 20 years of our lives. Now fast forward to April, 2013. Susan and I were sitting in Best Buy, talking about the future, because that's what you do in Best Buy, right? We were thinking through the possibilities of buying an insurance agency in another town, such as Greensboro, NC, which is a nice place to live and has great potential for growing an agency.

Then I asked her a question that changed everything.

"If you could go anywhere and do anything, where would you go and what would you do?" 

It is a hard question to answer, far too open-ended. Even unfair to ask. But I asked it. It really started opening our minds to new possibilities. Why were we limiting ourselves to Pinehurst or North Carolina or the east coast?

Or America?

Could we move to Spain? We could move to Spain. We could move to Spain? We could move to Spain!

Many conversations later, many prayers later, many doubts and hopes and fears later, here we are. In Spain. Together. As a family.

That still might not satisfy some of you, but I guess you will need to keep reading my blogs to assemble the rest of the story. Stay tuned!