Answer from Tom in Corning, New York

by Tom Brown
(Corning, NY)

And if life was not interesting enough yet, God decided to make it more interesting still. October 2006, Shawnie asked me what I thought about moving to Elmira, NY so that our kids could grow up next to their cousins. Immediately, it felt right. So we started laying the groundwork to move right after school ended for the girls in the summer of 2007. I gave my company a 7 month notice. For some reason they did not believe me. One week later, I was tested. I was offered a new job with a base salary of $150,000 with commissions that would easily put me in the $250k-350k range. I turned it down. All my friends said I/we were crazy. But this move had been placed on our hearts by God and I/we would listen. Lots of roadblocks started to appear, but disappeared as we got closer. We needed to sell the house of course. We talked to a realtor and he gave us some tips and told us to contact him in February. When February came up, and we told him we were leaving May 30, he said there was a problem. Houses in our market and price range were on the market for an average 8-10 months before being sold. We prayed. We listed the house as soon as we could which happened to be April. We sold the house in six days, for our asking price minus $400 for the home buyer to put in new grass. Unbelievable. Shawnie had already found us a house in NY. We visited in March and loved it. We were not allowed to make an offer until our other house sold.
The girls finished school on Friday, we left for New York on Saturday. My wife, two kids, ages 3 and 5, two dogs, a bird and a U-haul. It was a great trip. A lot of pain to buy the house, but it was done and after living with my in-laws for a month, we moved into our new house. Now to make it a home. We were living off of my 401K money, and I did not have a job or even a prospect when we left Texas. I found a job briefly that fell through. I continued looking and working on the house. We set up the karate school and opened that business. We found a home church that we absolutely loved. Then God showed us one of the reasons we needed to be in New York. October 2007, Shawnie’s mom was diagnosed with Stage 3 kidney cancer and it had infected her brain. Lots of heartache, and more. She passed away December 27, 2009 after a long battle. Now we are on a continuing journey with Jesus. Life is hard and we are hoping for better, but I know if I keep Jesus at the center of all that I do, we will be blessed. Then I have to be a good steward to the blessings that He will provide.