New in Town: Turning Point

There’s a turning point in everyone’s life.

Some of us have twelve of them in a year, and while I’m not quite like that, I’ve had plenty.

I want to share one of my more recent ones with you to give you a chance to get to know me a little more.

I’m Mel. I’m also a blogging newbie for the Patch.

I’ve been married to a pretty incredible guy, Tobin, for the last nine plus years. He’s a good man…he works hard, he lets me blog while he chases our daughter around the house, he makes sure I always have coffee, he lets me purse shop. He loves me.

When we first got married in 2002, we settled in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. We spent three years there, and it was a good place to start.

But we dreamed SO MUCH BIGGER THAN THAT.

We had both been overseas several times on mission trips, and that was the desire of our hearts. So we looked, we prayed, we waited, and God sent us to Indonesia.

Yeah, I had to look at a map, too…AFTER we said we’d go. I guess we’re just crazy like that.

We spent five of the hardest, most challenging…most wonderful…years there, returning in 2010 just before the birth of our daughter.

And that was the turning point I want to tell you about.

We returned to our home country…feeling like outsiders. We were about to become first-time parents…while most of our friends already had two or three (or more!) kids. And Tobin had just accepted a job in Elgin, Illinois…this obscure place where we knew not one single person.

But we moved here anyway…for two reasons. He had a job, which is nothing to pass up in today’s economy. And? We couldn’t shake the feeling that we knew this was the place God wanted us.

After too many tearful house-hunts, we found a place to rent in Old Carpentersville and moved in a week later. I fell in love…with our neighbors, with our friends, with our church…with our community. And we decided?

This was it.

As much fun as we’ve had seeing the world, as crazy as it’s been to hop all over the place, we were ready to settle down.

The purchase agreement on our house finally went through in June, and we closed in July.

We’re home.

And now I’m looking at my new home through the eyes of someone who has finally settled down, as someone part of a family choosing to put down roots in this area.

I’ll admit to you that everything’s new. Still.

I still have to get directions to places when my friends and I take our kids somewhere. I still give people blank stares when they talk about something everyone who lives here should know about.

But I’m getting there…learning my way around.

And completely loving my new home.

I’m new in town…and so that’s what I’ll write about most of the time. A view of the place that most of you have called home for a lot longer.

But maybe it will make you smile to see things through new eyes.