Not long after my last post, we took a vacation just shy of a week long ... a simple vacation to a state park campground about 5 hours north. As usual, it took a few days of vacation for my head to clear from the busy-ness of life (and especially my occupation).

Although I hadn't previously put our family vision on paper, it's a shared vision that Erin and I have discussed and developed for several years. And on this vacation, we reflected on the changes we've made in our life to achieve that vision, and on what still needed to change.

When our first child was born in 1995, we decided that Erin would stay home to raise our family. When JJ was 3 or 4, we began homeschooling at a small level, easing into it more when he truly hit school-age. In early 2002, I asked for a demotion at work to a non-management role in the hopes that I would be able to work fewer hours and eliminate the endless preoccupation that my mind seemed to have with work issues. By early 2003, it was clear that I wasn't working fewer hours, so when my firm offered to make me partner, we decided that I would accept in the hopes that 1) I would be able to lean more on staff, and 2) I would make enough money to quickly pay off our mortage. Not sure what we were thinking in early 2003, 'cause by late that year it was clear that neither of those objectives would be met.  

In early 2004, we decided that I would leave that company and start a small firm working for myself ... in many ways, this has provided the flexibility to help us achieve our vision to a greater level than ever before. Self-employment has provided the ability to bring a kid or two to my office quite frequently, letting them be with me while they do their schoolwork, letting them get an idea of what I do for a living, and letting them start learning the same skills. It's also meant less stress, as I can work according to my own schedule and also not worry about office politics.

By late 2004, business was booming and has never slackened since. In fact, much of the time I've actually had more business than I want -- that's OK for a while, but eventually it takes the fun out of work and means less quality time with the family. In mid-2005, we began wondering if God was pushing us to make another change in line with our family vision ... moving to a more remote area.

I've wanted to live in a more remote area since long before we were married. In my younger days I had opportunities to live for short periods in Oregon, Wyoming, and Alaska, and I thought it would be great to live somewhere like that permanently. Once we started having kids, though, we realized how nice it was to be closer to our folks.

But we began praying and researching this idea. We figured it would force my business to slow down a bit, as clients would no longer have the luxury of frequent meetings with me. We figured it would force US to slow down a bit -- for example, living out in the woods somewhere would necessitate running errands only once or twice a week, rather than running out of the house multiple times a day like we'd been doing in suburbia. We decided to look at areas that were 4-5 hours away from our current home ... not as exotic as Oregon, Wyoming, and Alaska ... but still remote while being not terribly far from our folks. We took a two-week vacation exploring possible areas, and settled on the general vicinity of Gaylord, Michigan ... almost as far north as you can go in the lower peninsula of Michigican. It's right at the 45th parallel, half-way between the equator and the North Pole, so theoretically it's a place to truly experience all four seasons.

The next big hurdle was our house -- it still had some unfinished areas that would make it hard to sell. Still, by October we felt that God was really asking us to put it on the market, so we put a FSBO sign up and started working like crazy to finish the work. We finished in early January 2006, and man, we liked it so much we were sorry to think about leaving. But we decided to stay faithful to what we heard God telling us to do, so we increased our FSBO efforts and even interviewed realtors (though never felt led to actually sign with a realtor). And nobody made any offers on the house for months.

Which brings me back to the vacation we took in July 2006. We prayed and decided that God wanted us to proceed with another step. Erin investigated rental homes around Gaylord, and we picked one that seemed like a good fit, including a small office for me. And so as of October 1, we are here with a six-month lease on a rental home. Because we still have our house back in Perrysburg, which is not yet paid off, our living expenses will be higher, but it's only for six months. This is a good opportunity to see if we like it here, and whether the move really does bring us closer to our vision.

The kids are excited, because although there will be homeschooling and work to do, it feels like a six-month vacation to them. Also, although they've never read our written vision or even comprehend the meaning of the word "vision," they know this move is a step closer to our dreams for our family life. And Erin and I are excited, especially as we've moved in and realize that -- even though Erin picked the rental house in somewhat of a hurry -- it is wonderfully suited for our family and is in a gorgeous location. More on that another time.