Columbus Weekend

Jon and I decided to take a spur of the moment trip to Columbus. He recently was accepted into Ohio State and we wanted to check out the campus and get familiar with the good areas in town. We called people the night before and got subs for church so we would be able to go visit campus and one of the potential wards. We left early Sunday morning for our drive.  

As we were leaving the rush of adrenaline finally calmed down a little bit and our thoughts were “What are we doing? Are we crazy? We just left and have zero plans of what to do.” We keep on driving and the weather is awful. I mean terrible, rain, storm no good weather. Our plans were to go camping. We started to get nervous. We’re trying to not spend all of our money and camping was supposed to help with that. We kept going. We pulled around the corner almost to the church and I said a prayer that it would rain as much as nature needed… but just all at once so we could wander like we needed to. As we turned into the church parking lot the first thing we saw was the temple. We wanted to be close to the temple, but I hadn't noticed that we were in the ward building next to the temple. I was filled with more peace. Jon and I both felt good about the decision.

We ran into church (as it was pouring) and we walked in the back. Zoey was fussy (which is not really common) and so I went to the mother’s lounge. I met a woman who was so sweet and helpful. She told me all about the “mini provo” area where a lot of the students who are members live. She gave me her number and said I could stop by and check it out. Afterwards, she told the bishop and the housing coordinator that we were new. They both introduced themselves and were extremely helpful. We enjoyed the ward, even though it wasn’t what we expected.

After church, it was lightly sprinkling. We followed the cars to the “mini provo” area. We weren't in love with the housing there (I still haven’t gone inside though) and so we decided to continue our housing search. At the time I had an awful migraine and we still weren't sure what to do or where to go. Jon called his parents and they suggested getting the renters free magazines at the store and buying a couple of different Sunday papers. We did just that. My migraine finally lifted and we were able to explore. We then decided to check out the Computer building on campus. As we walked through the University we felt peace again. It is a beautiful university and I just know it’s going to be a good experience for Jon.

I forgot to say… the rain stopped. The weather forecasts showed rain all weekend and not just sprinkles, but 100% chance of mean, thunderstorm rain. It wasn't anywhere to be seen. We were able to camp (Zoey was a champ!) and ironically? (or not, because I prayed…) the sprinkles came again right as we were leaving our camp site.

Camping was great. Jon knows how to camp. We had bacon and eggs and we slept on an air mattress. Zoey was a little hyper but calmed down and slept through the night. We circled a bunch of townhouses we wanted to check out Sunday night and went to look at them on Monday morning. We were able to check them all out from the outside and check out the areas that they were in. Unfortunately, we picked Labor Day to do this and every single housing complex was closed for the holiday. Luckily, most of the places had pictures online of the complexes. I feel like we have a good idea of where we want to live. Now it’s just final details and still looking for a house with a garage to see if that is a possibility.

The real reason why I told this whole story though is the power of prayer. I know I haven’t shared the entire journey with you, but it’s been a long process starting with praying for Jon to do well in school and ending with making plans to go to a fantastic university because Jon did what it took to get the grades he needed.

I am so grateful that I can talk with God through prayer. I know he answers my prayers (even when they aren’t the answers I want—I got a lot of that this weekend as well). I can’t wait until all the details figure themselves out and we make final decisions.

\

In the meantime… Go Buckeyes! (But for real… I’m going to be wearing my Michigan shirts every day :P)