About two months ago, Josh was contacted by Arizona State and asked if he had any interest in interviewing there. Honestly, the desert was the last place I wanted to go. I didn't give it much thought at all. However, after lots and lots and LOTS of talking and considering and researching, we decided to give it a shot. We even started to get really excited about the prospect of moving out west. There were a lot of positives that were very appealing to us. We would live in a big city, have tons of Mormons around us, be five hours away from his family, have lots of really fun vacation spots within driving distance. There were just a lot of perks.
About a month after hearing from ASU, we heard from the University of Georgia. They also wanted to see if we'd be interested in moving there. Again, neither of us wanted to go and didn't give it much thought. With time, we started discussing the idea of, "well, would it be so bad?". There were also lots of positives to be gained from moving there as well. We'd be close to my family, we could live in a humongous house, it's an AMAZING department with great people and plenty of resources. Now, things were looking up for both ASU and for UGA.
We came to the conclusion that if we really were going to move, we certainly wanted to make this decision together. We bought me a plane ticket for Arizona and arranged for my mom to watch the kids. We flew out to Arizona and drove all around trying to figure out if this was a place that we wanted to live. We totally fell in love with it. We loved the size of the city. Everything was so new and clean. There were temples everywhere. It was like paradise! We were so excited and everything went really well for Josh with his interview.
We got back on a Wednesday and on Saturday, we left for Athens to go check out UGA. Going into it, we felt like Arizona was going to be a hard thing to top. Our hearts weren't really into it. Josh was especially convinced that Arizona was the place for us. We again left our kids with my parents and drove up to meet some people for dinner. We went out to dinner with one of the professors and his wife. They were nice but he just wasn't all that impressive. We got in the car later that night and just laughed and laughed about how they complained about the traffic IN ATHENS!!!! We hadn't gotten to see the city by that point but just knew that this small town wasn't for us.
The next day we went to church with Ted Christensen. He is the most amazing guy. We loved spending time with him and his wife. They are just in their own league. The spirit that they carry with them is tangible. Church was good. It reminded us a lot of our Tallahassee ward, just a little smaller. After church, we went to Ted's house for lunch. That's when things really started to change for us. Ted told us all about his experience and why he came to Athens. He had been at BYU for quite some time and assumed that he would be there forever. However, the Lord clearly had a different plan for him. He got a call one day from UGA asking if he would be interested in coming to GA and becoming their new department head. He said absolutely no. He loved BYU and Utah and didn't have any intention of leaving. At the same time, his wife was driving through GA on the way to the airport after a vacation and had the thought about how they used to love living in GA and maybe they should consider moving back there one day. She called Ted and told him and he thought it was all some kind of joke. He had literally just hung up the phone with UGA and he wondered if someone had put her up to this. Long story short, they prayed about it for months and months and one day the answer came. The Lord needed the Christensen family in Georgia.
He said that shortly after he got his answer, he was at a football game by himself in the middle of a blizzard. Most of the people had left and he was by himself. He said, "Lord, I know I'm supposed to go but why? Why do you need me in Georgia?" The thought came to him that was in his patriarchial blessing. It said that he would be a missionary to his friends, peers, and colleagues. Well, at BYU, all of his colleagues were bishops and stake presidents. That's when he knew why. He needed to go to Georgia to help bring people to the gospel.
The spirit was so strong in their home. It really changed things for me. Maybe the Lord needs us here. I knew that this definitely had to be a spiritual decision. Right after that story, we met with our real estate agent, Phil. Phil was phenomenal. I was so impressed with him and the huge wealth of knowledge he had. He took us to some beautiful homes. It was very convincing and very helpful to know what life would be like there. I left after the real estate tour and Josh stayed to interview. I didn't get to talk to him again until after everything was over. He said that he was so incredibly impressed with the whole department. He loved it there. He said everyone was top notch and just as kind as could be.
So, now we were left with these two big decisions. Georgia or ASU? Ahh!! It was so tough. We struggled and struggled. We talked about the pros and cons about one thousand times. We street viewed, we researched, we prayed and prayed and prayed. Josh was getting physically ill with worry. We both wanted to make the right decision so badly.
One night we were laying in the bed talking about all of this and we had gotten pretty deep into the conversation when Josh said, "Do you know what I think? I think we should move to Georiga." I about fell over. I didn't think he would ever WANT to move there. He said as soon as he said it aloud, he felt the spirit really strongly, and he knew that it was the spirit confirming to him that this was the place we should move.
I felt so grateful that he felt that great confirmation. However, I did not feel one way or the other yet. I told him that I still needed to get an answer for myself. I kept praying and praying and studying and trying to figure it all out. I felt sad and anxious because I really wanted to know what to do. I didn't feel like Josh's answer influenced me at all. I was probably leaning more towards ASU. After about four days of all of this, I woke up and started reading my scriptures. I really was hoping that if I read enough, I would get my answer because I would be able to feel the spirit more easily. Nothing. I went to Josh and cried as he held me in his arms. I wanted to know! That night, we were watching a show when Josh got an email from John Campbell. It was quite long and incredibly nice. Josh read it out loud and as he read it, I just started crying. I felt the spirit and thought, this is what we want. This is right. This is where we're supposed to go. I cried a little more and told Josh my feelings. We were both so happy that we had both gotten our answers. I asked him if he thought it was okay for me to call my parents. He thought we should, so at 10:15 at night, I called my mom and dad. They were sooooo excited. They totally thought we were going to ASU. We talked for a long time about all of the possibilities of the future. It was a really fun conversation.
The next day, we called Bryan and Ashley. They were screaming and yelling and just so excited. It was so fun to tell them. We're both still feeling really good about it. I had a freak out moment yesterday and felt super anxious. However, I've calmed down and feel good about it all again.
We're going to wait about a week before we tell UGA so that we can be really sure. This is a huge decision and we want to make sure we make the right one. It's all very exciting.
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