Yes, Arkansas is home -- it was and always will be. My family is here, I would argue with anyone that there's no place quite like Arkansas on an October Saturday and there's just something special about a state where you can easily run into someone you know no matter the city, state or Walmart you are in.
However, Tuscaloosa became home while I was there. While we are confident in God's bringing us here, thankful to spend time with family, comfortable in our home and I am ridiculously blessed by my job, coworkers and students, we also miss Tuscaloosa and our friends and family there greatly.
This is why I say Roll Tide:
These precious friends, who I met my first few days in Tuscaloosa. Veronica (Back right) opened up her home to all of us that first week. With these girls, I had weekly dinner club, carved pumpkins, played lots of games, dressed up in tacky costumes, sang karaoke, relieved stress after a bad day, celebrated Christmas, Valentine's days, ate tons of Hokkaido, holed up on snow days and so many other things. There's nothing like a good group of friends to make you feel at home. They were my first family in Tuscaloosa.
Tuscaloosa is where I met, got to know, fell in love with and married Jeff. Baumhauer's Wings, backroads of Holt, Summer Snow, driving through the strip on the night before a big game, Monday night dates at Barnes and Noble after small group, him teaching me about the history of Alabama and Tuscaloosa -- these were the scenes of our courtship and first year of marriage. Tuscaloosa was our first home together; it's a special place anyway, but especially for this reason.
Safe Haven Church - A friend, Katie, wrote a blog today about how special our church is to her and I echo her sentiments. Before Safe Haven began, The Summit Church, in North Little Rock, prayed for it to be a church like in Acts.
"They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." Acts 2:42-47
Pridefully, I probably thought I was going to Tuscaloosa to be this for other people. God definitely had other plans. There's a relationship that is built by ministering together that is very rarely matched. That is part of what makes SHC special to us. These were also the people who mentored us as we became husband and wife, who carried us spiritually, emotionally and financially as we faced trauma, job loss (x3) and uncertainty. Additionally, God is present there -- community is built as people are allowed and encouraged to be themselves and spur one another on, Troy is preaching the Bible and God is working in individuals and in the church. It's an amazing place and so much of what is special about Tuscaloosa to us.
This beast. This home is where so many of my favorite Tuscaloosa memories were spent as well as my most fearful. This is Veronica's home where Jeff, Catherine and myself survived the Tornado. I watched a special about 9-11 this week and a man on the documentary mentioned that in the banding together after 9-11, New York became home. No one quite understands the tornado like people in Tuscaloosa. It, though a tragedy, unlike the other reasons, makes Tuscaloosa home.
This family, and the other students and coworkers I had while there. I keep meaning to write a status about how I've been blessed with such amazing coworkers here in Little Rock. I don't at all want to take away with how blessed I was in Tuscaloosa -- I seem to consistently have the best coworkers.
I definitely didn't cheer for the hogs to lose and I didn't sing Rammer Jammer at the end (though it was definitely true today), but I wore my crimson proudly and cheered "Roll Tide" with the best of them.
