There. I said it. I blogged it, so now it’s official. We’re moving halfway around the world (OK, 4,529.63 miles to be exact)…and we’re thrilled! It’s been a bit of a whirlwind getting to this point, but we know that it’s part of God’s plan for our life right now.

For close to a year now Jon has been feeling like God was calling our family to some “big change”. We’ve talked a lot over the last several months about what that change might look like, but we just didn’t know exactly what it would be. We’ve just been waiting patiently for God to reveal His plan to us, and all the while we’ve been getting more excited to find out what it would be. A few months ago we found out that Jon’s company, Cypress Semiconductor, wanted to transfer him to their design center in Ireland. Big change.

Jon has been working closely with a team from that office, as well as with teams in Cypress’ offices in Ukraine and Turkey. Since Jon has been working so much with the European offices it just makes sense for him to be closer to all the “action”. Cypress actually asked us first if we would be willing to move to Turkey or Taiwan–so when the opportunity came up to move to an English-speaking, westernized country we jumped on it!

We’ll be moving to Cork, Ireland in late January/early February 2013 (the exact date is yet TBD). We’ll be there for 2 years which, apparently, is kind of our thing. Since we’ve been married, Jon and I have moved 5 times. We’ve lived in our house in Everett for 2 years, in Palo Alto for 2 years, then back to Everett for 2 more years, and now we’ll be in Cork for 2 years. From my experience, 2 years is a perfect amount of time for a “moving adventure”. It’s long enough to get settled, know the area, make friends, get involved in your community. At the same time, though, it’s a short enough time that you kind of feel like you’re on vacation the whole time and you don’t get too home-sick.

Cork is technically the 2nd most-populous city in Ireland…but that’s a bit deceptive. It’s a runner-up to Dublin, but has only about 1/10th the population of the larger capital. What Cork lacks in numerical growth, however, it makes up for in spunk. From what I’ve read about Cork, it sounds like a fun, quirky place. For one, it’s nickname is “the rebel city”. Awesome. It’s also known throughout Europe as a festival city where party-goers, foodies, and music-lovers converge each year. It’s also got a college-town/hippie-chic vibe going on with a vibrant pub scene. I just hope they let toddlers and babies into the pubs, cuz that’s how we roll. Cork is also home to Blarney Castle where you can kiss the blarney stone and receive the “gift of gab”. I think I’ll have to make that one of my first trips so these blog entries will be acceptable for you all.

Jon leaves on Sunday to do a house-hunting trip in Cork. I think once he finds our house and signs a lease things will seem very real. Up to this point it’s felt more like we’ve been planning a vacation that we might some day possibly go on. Putting down some cold hard cash will definitely help solidify this whole thing.

People have been asking us how we feel about the move. The short answer is: excited. The long answer goes something more like this:

We love where we live now. We love being close to our family, we love our friends, we love our house. We love having built-in babysitters who love our children immensely. We love our church, our community. We love our activities. We love easy-to-interpret accents. In short, we love the comfort of being “at home”.

But God doesn’t call us to comfort, he calls us to obedience–and we really feel like God is calling us to this move, for reasons maybe only He knows. In BSF this year we’re studying Genesis. For the last few weeks we’ve been examining Abram (Abraham) and how God called him to leave his life and follow Him to the promised land (which, consequently, happened to be a barren patch of desert in the middle of nowhere). Abram had to leave his family, his home, his culture, his comfort. He had to trust God and follow him in faith. And when he did that, when he surrendered everything to God, God blessed him. God turned that barren patch of desert into a prosperous land. God took all-alone Abram and made him the father of nations. God took Abram from his culture and gave him a new identity and a new name. God took Abram’s lack of comfort and filled that void with a deep, loving, personal relationship with Himself. God took something strange and unfamiliar and He made it perfect. PERFECT! When we follow God and stay in His will, it is always the very best, most perfect place to be.

Change is not always easy, but sometimes you have to go through some growing pains in order to move forward. That’s where we’re at now. We’re excited to move, but we know it’s going to be hard. We’re going to have to make new friends, navigate a new city, and learn how to live in a new culture. We’re going to have to learn how to drive on the left side of the road and dance with our arms stiff down at our sides. It’s going to be tough but wonderful. We can’t wait to start this new journey and see where God leads us next!