BIG (apple) NEWS

What is this?

This is Columbia University's Teachers College.

It's also where we are going to be living NEXT YEAR.

Yup, dear friends. WE ARE MOVING TO NEW YORK CITY.

It's been a LONG week of discussions, prayer, and reflection that all began last Tuesday night when Clay got the call from Klingenstein (the Institute within Teacher's College that focuses on private school leadership). "We've got good news and we've got bad news," the representative said.

Bad News: Clay wasn't accepted to the two-summers, 18-month master's degree program to which he had applied.

Good News: Clay was accepted to the exact same degree program--just the 9-month, full academic year session.

Oh boy.

So last Tuesday night we cried, thinking that the door to this opportunity had closed, that there was no way we could sell our stuff and quit our jobs and leave our friends and pay for this degree and move to NYC with a baby for 9 months having no idea what the future held beyond that.

But we couldn't stop thinking about it.

This might just be a once-in-a-lifetime chance for Clay to grow professionally. Will is young enough that we wouldn't be uprooting him from his school. I could spend the year focusing on nurturing and investing in my own child's development. Our savings turned out to be the exact amount we estimated we would need to make this work. It could be an adventure. Right?

Are we crazy?

We might just be. But after talking with family, dear mentors, and our heads of school, we realized that this might be exactly the right thing at exactly the right time. Sure, it isn't all what we expected, and we only had 5 days to make the decision (it was a looooong five days), but it amazed me how quickly I went from totally anxious about the decision to insanely confused and overwhelmed to convicted that this was what we should do, what we must do.

We love our schools, and I pray that one day our paths bring us back here (and there is still a chance that could be sooner rather than later) because our friends are so, so dear to us. But Clay's desire to grow as an educator and nurture and apply his abilities has been growing for some time now. He is ready for this. And I thought about the "Love" blog post I wrote the night before we got the call and I knew that if I believed in anything, I believed in him. He doesn't just want to do this; he needs to do this.

On Monday morning, Clay called Klingenstein and accepted the offer to join the Class of 2012.

We are SO excited, but I will be honest: we are also scared. Scared this could be a tough year for our family emotionally and financially, scared to leave wonderful jobs not knowing what future jobs await us, scared to sell most of our stuff and move hundreds of miles away and live in a city where we literally have zero friends.

But we also feel total peace. We made the right decision. We are taking a big leap of faith, sure, but we are also investing in the field both of us have dedicated our professional lives to. And at the end of the day, we want to know that when we tell our students to believe in themselves and pursue their dreams, we are practicing what we preach.

NYC, here we come.

Prayer Requests (thank you!):

1. That we would indeed get Columbia TC family housing for next year.

2. That we would secure summer jobs that provide both compensation and housing (we will move out of McC in late June but we won't move to NYC until Sept.)

3. That Sara will secure some online teaching posts she is exploring for the next school year.

4. That we can sell a lot of our stuff.

5. That this situation will benefit Will and enrich his life.

6. That we will be able to financially support this year.

7. That this program will be meaningful and challenging and life-giving for Clay.

You better believe I'll be blogging about our year in the city. This is going to be quite the adventure.