Friday, August 14, 2009

Hello. My name is Rachel and I've been a Floridian for 6 months. :)

Its so hard to believe that 6 months ago yesterday we moved into our gorgeous Florida apartment, drug a sleeper sofa, 2 beds, multiple dressers and shelves, lots of kitchen boxes, table & chairs, more mirrors than I care to count (its ridiculous really!), and a lot more items, up 3 flights of stairs and made Florida my home (Andy was simply returning to home.)

6 months ago today we said the boxes could wait, and we headed an hour away to DisneyWorld to celebrate my birthday and finally being called to a church!

Tomorrow Andy will have been the Student Pastor at Southside Baptist Church for 6 months!

All of this is quite crazy. I never dreamed I would ever live in Florida. But here we are, living out our passion of working with students. In the past 6 months I have had 2 jobs...my current one is with CARD and its wonderful! Some of the random things that have occurred since moving here has been: getting lost at least 20 times, discovering the joy of eating Tijuana Flats (love it!), discovering a wonderful little cupcake bakery, eating at Campbell's DairyLand way too many times, going to the beach at least 15 times, going to DisneyWorld I think 5 times, learning to keep an eye out for endangered birds, and discovering Floridians inability to function at a 4-way stop.

Despite the overall joy of living in the Sunshine State, things the past 6 months have been rough. We've had to adjust to a new church, a new town, a new culture (for me), new jobs, and new friends (or often the lack thereof). There have been numerous tears - numerous meltdowns.

I am having to learn to function and live again. That's a funny statment, but its true. I am having to remind myself its OK to stop in a look at Target even though its no longer on my way to and from work and church. I still have yet to go into a Kohl's even though there is one right down the street from me, because its not on a main road so I forget about it. The Starbucks' here don't seem to invite me in the way my Memphis ones did, but its still OK for me to stop in for a bit. There are no Walmart gas stations here, no self-checkouts at Walmart, no Krogers, no Schnucks, no Malco's. I have yet to find a chinese buffet. None of this is critical, but only now are the things I do have - AMC Movie Theatres, Publix, Hess gas station, standing in line at Walmart, etc. - starting to feel normal.

It is what it is. I would not change the past 6 months for anything! It has brought Andy and I so much closer together. We are serving in a church where we are making a difference. We live in Florida!!!

My name is Rachel and I've been a Floridian for 6 months...

1 comments:

Becca Christensen said...

It is good to be a Floridian. : ] I hope were both here to stay.