The Beginning

It was a Tuesday night in July 2011 and we were about to put the children in bed. My husband was walking toward the boys' room and glanced at an email on his blackberry. Then he stopped. He stood there in the middle of the living room, blackberry in hand. It may sound dramatic or cliche, but in that moment I knew something big had happened. After a few seconds he finally said,

"I just got an email from Paul Williams."

"And..."

"He wants us to move to South Africa."

It was one of those rare moments in life when you feel like you are living in history- your own history. Though we talked and prayed about it before making an official decision, in that moment I already knew. I knew that I'd look back and recount the tale of "the email" to others. I knew we couldn't just ignore that email and go on living our lives. Really, there was no decision for us to make- it was already made. The real question was not if, but how we were going to do it.