From West Jordan to Ketchikan

Deer blocking traffic on the walk home from school in Ketchikan

You probably already know that when we bought our house in West Jordan, we were living quite contentedly up at the U and planning to be there for another year.  I was serving as the Relief Society President, getting ready to help a new bishop transition into the ward, and Andrew was happy to be teaching Elder's Quorum.  School was close and convenient for me as I was anticipating my final year before graduation and the boys had a great school to attend as well.  Life was good.

And then we felt done.  All of the sudden it seemed like our time there was over.  But really, we didn't know what to do about it because logistically we weren't in a position to move.  Andrew was just coming out of a few months of unemployment, starting a job where he was still significantly under-employed.  We had been making more money in the time we had lived there and hadn't opted to move then, so certainly it didn't make sense to move with the new circumstances.

Then we heard that we were facing a significant rent increase.  It made me curious.  And I looked at some houses.  I found that with the way the market was, and with all the short-sale homes, we could realistically move and potentially even SAVE money.

We pounded the pavement and pounded it hard scouring the valley for a potential new home.  We found out that the rent increase was not going to be as extreme as originally announced, and we quickly found ourselves looking at homes that were NOT going to save us money, but by this time we were on a course that we felt compelled to follow through with so we kept house hunting.

We started thinking that it wouldn't work out after all.  Nothing was coming together and we were getting tired of the hunt, and really - we were content where we were.  We found three more houses to go look at as a last ditch effort.  They were all new listings.  One didn't even have pictures up yet.  It was a split-entry which was a floor plan we hadn't really even considered.

We went to the first house, a rambler that I immediately knew wasn't what we wanted.  Then we went to the second house where even the real estate agent apologized and said, "Just because they list it at a certain price doesn't mean it's worth that price..."  Then we got in our cars and headed to the third house.  Andrew was driving separately from me because he had to leave for work immediately following the showing.  I remember having the oddest sensation of comfort and peace.  I called Andy and said, "I feel like we are driving home."

Despite my "impression" that this was going to be home, I was still reluctant.  Andrew immediately LOVED the house and KNEW that it was what we wanted.  I am less impulsive than he is and was more hesitant to make a quick decision.  With the way the market was, we knew we would have to offer quickly, so I agreed to at least throw in our hat, but went away still pondering the choice while he headed out to work.

By the afternoon I began to realize that this was the right house for us.  We were under contract that night.  And really, it wasn't until we moved in that I realized how PERFECT the house was for our family.  We had put in a back up offer on a different house that I had seemed "cuter" in appearance.  But for actually LIVING in, we ended up in the better home.

The entire process had seemed inspired and things with the sale went smoothly.  We didn't feel like we could really afford the house and were prepared to have a cosigner.  We didn't need one.  Everything came together and even though we *knew* we were biting off a bit more than we could chew financially, staying in the apartment was also a little more than we could chew financially and this was the path that felt right and inspired.

So we spent the next year praying.  We had some cash leftover from the closing that we figured could get us by until tax returns at the beginning of the year.  We hoped the tax return could get us by until Summer.  The plan and intention was to have Andy get a promotion in that time.  Back up plan was school loans.  Back up back up plan was me working.

Of course, money slipped away faster than we hoped and planned.  We prayed and fasted and fasted and prayed.  There was never a question about whether or not we should have bought the house.  It just seemed too right.  But we were sinking.

Andy applied for promotion after promotion.  He had several second and third interviews, but ultimately he needed more time/experience with the company.  We went to the temple weekly, continuing to pray for answers and over and over again we just kept feeling like it was going to be OK.  That answer, though comforting at times, was also ambiguous enough to drive us crazy.  HOW would it be OK?  What were we supposed to do?  I kept looking into possibilities of working.  We considered Andy taking on a second job.  None of those things felt right.  We kept getting the answer that things would "be OK" but we didn't know what we were supposed to do to MAKE them OK.

Then I didn't get into grad school.  Remove "back up plan" from the list.  THEN I got pregnant!  Huge MIRACULOUS blessing at a very inconvenient time.  This made the idea of me working suddenly seem a lot less logical and way more challenging.  Serious issues with the back up back up plan...  We were at a loss as to what to do.

One night Andrew and I had an argument.  I felt like we needed to start REALLY LOOKING for opportunities outside of Utah.  He felt very strongly that we had been prompted and led to our current home and couldn't comprehend why Heavenly Father would lead us there if it was just to move a year later.  I couldn't really answer that question.  I just knew that we were at a point of desperation and that we needed to show the Lord we were willing to do ANYTHING He asked of us.

The next morning, my cousin (who works for Wells Fargo as a Branch Manager in Alaska) told me about an opening for a branch manager position in Ketchikan, AK.  I called Andrew and told him, "Just because you apply, doesn't mean you get the offer, and even if you get the offer, it doesn't mean you have to take it.  But I really need to know that you tried.  After that, we'll trust in the Lord and follow whatever revelation we get."

So he prepared the forms to apply - VERY begrudgingly.

I started to look into this place called Ketchikan.  It was not the Alaska I was expecting.  It was a beautiful rain-forest island with what I felt were fairly moderate temperatures.  In fact, several of the winter months in Utah are colder than anything Ketchikan sees.  Andy was working but I started sending him pictures and statistics and details with everything I was learning about Ketchikan.  By the end of the day, he was shockingly excited about the prospect.  In fact, he told me that evening that as much as he hated the idea of applying for the job, that as soon as he hit the submit button he just felt like it was the right thing.

We were so excited that when we were having dinner with a good portion of my family that evening we told them all about it.  While we were at the dinner table, Andrew's phone buzzed and he discovered an e-mail asking him to schedule an interview!!!

We were amazed with how quickly this was moving.  Until he looked at the interview time options.  They were three weeks away.  It seemed like an eternity when our entire lives were potentially being turned upside down.

We spent three weeks obsessing about Ketchikan, sure that we were going to move.  We didn't know exact details about the income.  We knew that where my cousin was, the financial compensation left a lot of extras that he was able to put into savings and debt reduction.  We had the impression that Ketchikan wasn't going to be quite that good in terms of money.  But after realizing that, we still felt that even at the base salary of the job, we would move because it felt like the right thing to do.  In fact, in the midst of all of this, Andrew was interviewing for several local promotions and even some positions outside of Wells Fargo.  We got to the point where we felt like we would have to turn down any other offers to hold out for Alaska.

The interview finally came on a Friday afternoon.  Andrew was told that bad news would get an e-mail and good news would receive a follow-up call to schedule the next interview.  That wasn't quite right.  He received a call back on Monday, but they explained that his lack of retail experience was a big hang up in being able to offer him the position.  HOWEVER, they liked him enough that they really wanted to get him in their region to give him the retail experience and prepare him to be a valid candidate for future openings.

By this time all of our emotions were wrapped up in the job working.  It had felt SO right and Andrew had told me that he would be DEVASTATED if he didn't get it.  Surprisingly, he felt really REALLY good about it.  He explained to me the situation and the new potential job he described sounded TERRIBLE.  It was a significantly lower pay, he was going to be travelling all over South East Alaska.  He wouldn't know for quite a while where he would be permanently located.  I had no idea how this was going to work for our family.  And yet I remember  feeling extremely impressed that we needed to follow through with it.  I told him, "Moving to Alaska isn't about the position you get.  The job is what is taking us there, but that's not WHY we are going.  We are going to Alaska because it is what we are supposed to do."

And so he put in an application for the Personal Banker Training Program.

The next interview was a week later, on a Monday.  It was the same person he had spoken with the week prior and she surprised him by saying, "You know, the whole point of our training program is to get you trained and settled into a permanent spot.  I just so happen to have a permanent spot open in Ketchikan, which is where you had originally applied.  What if we just hire you directly into that position.  That way you don't have to travel and you get the three percent raise from being permanent immediately."

Uh - yes!

So they finished the interview and he was told that he would be "strongly recommended" to the Branch Manager, who would call him by the end of the week.

About an hour later the Branch Manager was asking Andy to come in the next day for an interview.

"Um, I'm in Utah...  Can we do the interview over the phone," Andy replied.

They worked that out and the next evening Andy interviewed with Keith - his current boss.

Then came the scary part.  We got the offer at the end of that week.  We knew with finality what the income was.  It was a good raise dollar to dollar, but how far would that money go in a different economy?  Where would we live?  Would every penny of our raise be lost on cost of living differences?

Just like our West Jordan house, we immediately knew it was right, but I needed to process it.  It was scary and overwhelming.

Ultimately, we spent the weekend freaking out over it, knowing full well the entire time that we would accept the position.  And we did!  Life has been a crazy whirl wind since then.  MANY people have commented on how this must be "meant to be" since everything fell into place so smoothly for us.  There have been moments of sadness and loss at saying goodbye to our family, our home, our LIVES that we LOVED there in West Jordan.  But we have been completely united in this choice and neither of us has ever once questioned whether or not this was the right thing to do.  After 15 months of praying for answers, we finally found the next step in how Heavenly Father intended to make things "be OK."