For weeks now I’ve been planning to write something profound here that would justly document the last ten years of my life. You see, Sunday October 24 was the 10 year anniversary of the day I loaded my truck with the last of my belongings, my two dogs, and headed to Georgia. I seem to have hit a road block. I don’t know where to begin or how I want the piece to end. What I do know is that I’ve been happier these past 10 years than I have been in all my life. More importantly, I’ve been happier with me!
To understand what the last decade as meant to me, I suppose you would need to know what led me here. Let’s begin by going back to the summer of 2000 and southern Oklahoma.
In 1993 I began working for the Oklahoma Department of Human Services in the Division of Children and Family Services. More specifically, I worked in child welfare. I had worked hard, proven myself to be dependable, passionate about children, and a public advocate for children. My supervisors noticed this and I advanced quickly in the division and was promoted a few years before the policy standard. This was great for me professionally, but hard for me personally because I was criticized and disliked by those who had labored longer and thought they deserved the promotions based simply on years of service.
Nevertheless, I found colleagues that would become lifelong friends. We supported each other. We learned how to laugh out loud when your heart was breaking on the inside. We understood that when dealing with child abuse and neglect you are dealing with the ugliest side of humanity. It takes a special person to make a career in that field. I guess I wasn’t that special.
As I advanced to the state office adoptions unit, I daily worked with wonderful people that truly wanted to make a difference in children’s lives. But I also worked with the legal system, and I worked with lazy case workers. I worked with children that had been abused, neglected, and abandoned. Eventually, it would all take its toll. I came to a point when I simply didn’t know how to handle situations. I knew what the law and policy stated, but I also knew what my heart and my faith were leading me to do. While I wasn’t looking for another job, I was looking for answers to tough decisions.
One afternoon in the summer of 2000, I stopped by my house on Pine Avenue in Duncan, Oklahoma. I picked up my mail and headed back to the office with the intention of working late. After everyone had gone for the evening I pulled out my mail and began to read the most recent edition of the Christian Chronicle. It was there that I first read about Georgia Christian School in Valdosta, Georgia. They were looking for a Director of Development.
Fast forward to the evening of October 22, 2000 - All of my family living in Waurika came to Duncan to load everything I owned onto a truck headed for South Georgia. It was a happy occasion. Everyone seemed to know that this was a good thing for me. The next day, my sister Valarie and I would return to clean the house. The day after that changed my life. Sometime around 4:00 AM on the morning of the 24th I decided to stop fighting the inability to sleep and just get on the road. I quietly got dressed, walked the dogs, and woke my parents. I didn’t know what to expect. Daddy and I both cry at the drop of hat, and I feared goodbye would be difficult.
To that point, the decision to apply, interview and to move all came relatively simple. But what happened next was something I had never experience. What happened as Momma, Daddy and I gathered in the kitchen was a peace I had never felt before. I felt a sense of excitement. I saw smiles on their faces. For once in my life I was walking with God – I knew it, and they knew it.
Since the summer I had prayed more on this decision than I had ever prayed before in my life. I didn’t know what was ahead of me, but I trusted God and it felt right. I know now that my parents were praying equally as hard and they were feeling the same things. So there were no sad goodbyes; just well wishes and a challenge to have fun, and keep God in my life. As I pulled out of the drive it began to rain a little. I’ll never forget the two of them standing under the garage holding hands, smiling, and yes, happy tears.
There’s either a really great book or a tacky country and western song in all of the thoughts, reflections, plans and ideas that crossed my mind as this man and his two dogs drove 1200 miles (in one day) to his new home in Georgia. It was an adventure – a feeling I will never forget.
Bubba
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