For July 8th:

Today’s entry was published incompletely last month on June 26^th. Here it is in its entirety. Our apologies for the mishap.

 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

In July of 2010, Scott received a call from a recruiter to interview for a job in Chattanooga.  He hadn’t been looking, but this was a great opportunity.  We decided we were tired of NY winters and the cost of living, and in September we moved the family to Tennessee.  We grew up in Goshen, New York, and moved back to that same small town to buy our first home and start a family.  We left family, friends, great neighbors, and a town where we had spent most of our lives, knowing that this was the right decision.  About 2 months into the move, I wasn’t so sure.  The kids were struggling.  I was homesick and couldn’t seem to make a friend to save my life.   We had some of life’s typical ups and downs, but things were pretty good in NY.   I trudged along day to day, lost and pretty much convinced that there was no way I was going to make it here.  It got so bad, Scott told me to take the boys and go back to NY at the end of the school year.  We weren’t leaving, so I decided I would just have to learn to deal with life here in the south.

Then, one day Christopher had one of his friends over to play.  He had on a Cub Scout shirt and I asked his mom where he went for scouts.  The boys hadn’t connected with the boys in their scout pack/troop.  Sam’s mother told me that lots of kids from the boys’ schools went to scouts at CUMC.  Not long after, the boys started going to scouts at CUMC.  That spring, Scott took the boys to Scout Sunday at the church.  He came home and said that he thought maybe we should check out Christ United.  Scott has never really been a church person, so if he likes a church, that is really saying something.  I was raised Catholic, and we were raising the boys Catholic.  We had joined a Catholic Church in Chattanooga, but something was missing.  I was hesitant to leave our church, but I knew that we had to do something if we were going to ever settle in here.  We met with David Hall and started attending services sometime in May.  As it turns out, Christopher’s friend’s mom is Christina Malone.

We go to Sunday morning classes, the kids are very involved in the youth programs, and I go to the Mom2Mom group.  The change in all of us has been amazing.  Even though I went to church every Sunday, I was missing something.  I am finding my faith, Scott is on his way, and the boys are different kids.  I truly believe that God’s plan was to bring us to CUMC so we could find our way to him.  Had I fit right in and not struggled, we would still just be going to church every Sunday.  We will be here 3 years in September, and there are still days that I miss my friends and family (especially when we miss a big event or birthday for one of my sister’s kids), but I now know that God was with me all along and we will make it if we trust in him.  God’s blessing was not just Scott’s job opportunity.  His plan was to bring us to TN so that we could come closer to Him.  He had a plan all along.

I found this on the back of a box…  “God is never early and He’s never late-He’s always right on time and His plan for you is good.

Danielle Brinkley