Journal Entry January 2010

From my journal:

Today is January 17th 2010. Mike and I are in California! This is a different kind of place, I have to actually SEARCH for a palm tree, but Mike has one on the property where he will be working, so at least we will have a little of what we thought California would be. When we flew in, we saw all of these fields filled with water......all this rain explains that! It's raining, and the forecast calls for ALL rain for the entire week.....this could be a bad sign.....not exactly the "Welcome to California" we were expecting! We are in a nice hotel, the town seems nice, ate at a Ruby Tuesdays for dinner. It is late.....10pm here, which means 1am at home!

January 18th.
Met Sam Anderson today. What a KID!!! He's younger than NATHAN! He seems very down to earth, and very intelligent in the Rail Division. I really liked hearing about his family. He certainly has potential to run this entire company some day, very good work ethic. He seems very lonely, but I am happy to hear that he is getting married in July. He says he will bring his wife with him when he travels. Weird day just driving around a little bit, thank heavens for the GPS!! Gonna start looking for churches tomorrow!! RAINING CATS AND DOGS!

January 19th.
Chase is 16 today, man do I feel old! It was -30degrees the day he was born..now, where I am, it's 55 and rainy. Drove around looking for a church in Woodland today. I went to the one I had found on line, the Baptist church with the school....looks kinda "Old School" to me..the last thing I want is to raise my kids in all that tradition. UGH!! Saw a few other churches....look like Spanish missions.....maybe we're suppose to be missionaries!! WHAT???
Met with our new land lord, she seems sweet. Took pictures of the school for the kids and the house as best we could in the rain. The school is really neat! We ate at a nice place in Sacramento with Sam, it was really neat to drive in and see the Capital building at night. I think this is going to be a nice place to live....IF WE CAN FIND A CHURCH!!!!

January 20th.
Popped a lot of Xanax today! Anxiety is taking over!! I CANNOT FIND A CHURCH IN THIS TOWN!! I prayed about this....I KNOW God has a church for us, but I CAN'T FIND IT!!! I have to find a church to go to our first Sunday here. We can't move across the country and NOT have a church!! I am counting on having the church as our STABLE here when we leave all of our family and friends. It's raining, I'm watching movie, Mike has been gone all day, and I can't find a Freakin Church!!! It is storming so bad, the trees are being uprooted!! WHERE AM I??? I thought California was always SUNNY!!!! AAAhhhh!!! Gonna take a nap and wait for Mike....after I pop one of those little pills!~

January 21
Driving around again today while Mike was gone. I was driving down Gibson, totally on the verge of feeling like I'm gonna die from a panic attack because I can't find a church.....and guess what I saw.... A RAINBOW!!!!!! I took a picture and sent it to my sister and my dad and Laurie.....it was a PROMISE to ME from GOD that HE is STILL in this, even though I am completely feeling like curling up and dying! OK, so there was a peace that came over me, and the song "How Great is our God" started playing on the radio. I'm going to REALLY try not to freak out about this anymore...really try...in Jesus name....
Okay....so Mike came back to the hotel early, and we had a few hours so he comes in and says, "Let's look for a church in Sacramento". We drove to Natomas, which is closest to us, and looks like a new developed area. We put "Places to Worship" in our GPS, and we drove into about 4 different parking lots with empty warehouses. There was a sign that caught Mike's eye on a building cause it was red. He pulled in the driveway, it said "Mars Hill"....what the heck is MARS HILL??? He stopped the car, turned it off, and said, "Let's go in"...uh, that is SO not like him, so I'm going with God here, and I'm going in. Something amazing happened today, and I don't know if I can actually describe it. As soon as we walked through those doors, I felt an overwhelming presence of God. My heart started beating very fast, and I just got really excited. The lady at the front went and got a Pastor to come talk to us, and out came this young chic....I swear, I bet she's younger than me! She took us to her office. Her name is Kathy Cannon, she gave us a card. She is the FAMILY pastor there, not the Senior Pastor. So, we're talking, a bit, and I ask the MAJOR question..."What denomination are you".....she says: "We are Assemblies of God".....OH MAN!!! ARe you KIDDING ME???? My heart sank. Instead of attending to that feeling of NOOOOoooo, I asked her a lot of doctrinal questions about salvation and SPEAKING IN TONGUES.....Assemblies of God, people who speak in tongues, they always think they're so much "Holier than Thou".....well, I guess we think we are Holier than them!! HAA~!! Something else really kinda weird happened....while we were talking, another lady walked in the room and leaned up against the bookcase....I can't for the LIFE of me remember her name, but when she walked in, my heart did something very weird, and God spoke to me, said: "Don't worry, she's gonna help you".....Okay, whatever the heck THAT means, it was just an overwhelming feeling of....COMFORT when she came in, and about that moment, THE TEARS FELL!!! It was a little embarrassing, I'm thinking maybe they didn't notice I was crying, Laurie has always told me I was good at hiding it! Wish I could remember her name. I think she is a Pastor there, or works there or something, I will have to go on their web-site and figure that out. I have a couple of cards, one says Pastor Kathy Cannon, the other says Pastor Neva Swinson....I don't think her name was Neva, but I could be wrong. Funny thing is, she reminds me of Laurie in a way....not sure why....Oh Well...Anyway, I can't wait to do some research on this place, cause it is OBVIOUS that church is the first one we are going to try! I feel really good, like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders! At least I know where we'll go the first week, Ha! It seemed very modern and hip.....I hope they have a good ministry for the kids! Well, we're out of here in the morning, so it's better that I left here with this peace than the way I was feeling earlier! I told Dad it was an Assemblies of God, he said, "Bonnie, I don't care if you go out there and speak in tongues and all of that, as long as you are in a church where they believe in Jesus and teach my grandkids the basic and to put God first"....well, Dad, I'm NOT going to speak in TONGUES!! ha!



January 22nd
NO, we did NOT get to go home!!! Flight canceled because of this FREAKIN MONSOON!!! People keep telling us this isn't normal weather, that it hasn't been like this in 10 years....I sure HOPE NOT!! We went to San Francisco! I cannot believe we were there....it felt like a DREAM!!! It was SO cold!! So cool to see the Golden Gate bridge! Alcatraz..everything that I have always seen on TV!! I cannot believe we are being given this opportunity! My kids have no idea the gift God is giving them!! This is just unbelievable. Back to Ohio in the morning.....what a TRIP this has been!!!