Human Transplant x 5

I was blessed to have been born and raised in the Skagit Valley of Northwest Washington State. Skagit Valley is probably one of the most beautiful locations in the world. Hold on, let me rephrase that. Northwest Washington, on a sunny day, is probably one of the most beautiful areas on the planet. According to Sperling's "Best Places" web site, my home town of Mount Vernon, WA squeaks out an average of 154 sunny days per year, and 154 days of precipitation. That represents a lot of cloudy days. In contrast, our new town of Austin, TX boasts 229 days of sun per year, and only 82 days of precipitation, on average. Interestingly, Austin gets an average of 34 inches of rain - which is surprisingly close to the 39 inches Mount Vernon gets each year.

Talking about the weather, really? While it seems a fitting topic to break into discussing a family's move from Washington State to Texas, the weather is simply a perk (albeit, a wonderful perk we now enthusiastically soak in almost every day).

The words "New Start" or "Fresh Start" are commonly used for our life's recent change of course. These phrases are very abrasive to me. I have affection for our life before we moved to this new world. There are reasons we left, and reasons we came to where we are now, but life was good then, too.

Why we moved is almost as puzzling to me as it is to the dozens of people who ask us each week. Was it for work? Was it for the weather? Maybe. Somewhat. One thing we know for certain is that God sent us to Austin. It is miraculous that the idea of us selling the one of a kind 20 acre farm, on which we have raised our kids from toddlers to teenagers, surfaced and finalized within a month for the terms we needed. In Austin, we found one home in the area that best suited our family, and that one choice was within our budget and was available for immediate occupancy. Of the very few days we spent in Austin, the day we arrived to register our kids for school (the only day we were available to do so) was the day the school was open for registration of our kids' classes. Every detail fell into place as if there was divine intervention.

The real estate market in our community in Washington had seen approximately a year and a half of extreme hardship, and the lenders were responding with what seemed to be severe, fear-driven actions. Our financial livelihood had been supported by real estate investments, and that financial livelihood took a hit. A disaster was looming, and we knew we had to act.

Prior to seriously considering a move, we began working with EA Brevita with the idea of helping locate sites for drive-thru espresso units. Having started several businesses, we recognized the business model that EA Brevita offers was one we wanted to pursue. However, we did not want to open - yet another - drive-thru espresso shop in the Pacific Northwest. We later decided that if we sold our farm, we would open two drive-thru's.

In addition to business considerations, we were exasperated with the local schools. Having volunteered for the chamber of commerce for years, I have deep compassion and appreciation for the Superintendent of the public schools. There was no question that the leadership seems to be fighting for better schools. It is my opinion that for some unfortunate reasons, the community we were in could just not seem to make it over the wall and into a world of safe, quality education. I have many opinions as to why, but for now I'll just leave it at that. The private school was a resource we had been a part of, but we deeply wanted more for our kids.

If you could move anywhere, where would it be? Have you ever sat down at a restaurant, looked at a menu with six pages full of tantalizing dishes to choose from? So many options - but you can pick just one. That's how we felt much of 2008. With the real estate market continuing to tank, the drive-thru espresso businesses calling our name, and three kids in school to consider, we had a menu full of options. Armed with Sperling's Best Places and Great Schools web sites, as many "top ten" lists I could get my hands on, and our first hand experiences driving around the country through the years, we determined that Austin, TX would be a great option. I then pulled demographics reports and a list of competing coffee shops to confirm Austin could support our drive-thru's.

Findings: Southwest Austin has several phenomenal schools. We narrowed it down to the middle and high schools with the highest ratings, and whose high school mascot would not offend our oldest son who was entering as a Junior. Visits to local churches refined our search to one area, one high school, one house that would work for us.

We now live in Covered Bridge, where kids go to Clint Small Middle School and Bowie High School (home to the "Bulldogs"- just like in Mount Vernon, Washington, and a great baseball program). As the sun sets each night, casting a burst of color and light across the tree-covered hills that flow from below our home to above it, is a beautiful gift we receive almost every night, reminding us that we are truly blessed. Washington State is beautiful, but so is Austin.

There is no question that our family could be happy living anywhere. As God reveals what His plan is for us here in this new land, I pray our family continues to grow together in Him, and that we be sensitive and responsive to His will.