When we started telling people about our decision to move to Texas, everyone assumed it had to do with Derek’s job. Of course, that makes sense. That is the reason most people relocate – work or family. In our case work and family were both in California. Neither were in Texas.

 

If you have followed our journey (you can start reading about it here: Texas Announcement) you know this Texas-sized move was never about Derek’s job, but rather about our family. It began as an investigation to find a new school. It turned into a journey to a new land and a new chapter in our family’s story.

 

We arrived in our new hometown on July 3rd, just in time to celebrate Independence Day. Within days the boys were training with a rugby club in Plano. The following week they began participating in a strength training program at their new school, Liberty Christian. We were renting a home through VRBO in the neighboring town of Roanoke. Our original rental period of 1 month turned into 6 weeks then two months. We finally moved into our home in Argyle on September 8th, just a few weeks after the boys started school.

 

The boys were all playing football and they were adapting to their new classes and school, meeting new friends and settling in. I was fortunate to be able to continue my online health and fitness business without missing a beat. Although my surroundings were completely different, seeing my friends and teammates daily online eased the transition. And although Derek had given his Pleasanton boss two months’ notice before we moved, his boss asked him to continue to manage his ongoing construction projects from a distance. He continued in that capacity until the middle of August.

 

In the meantime, we were building a new home on the 1-acre Texas lot we had purchased from California at the end of 2016. We had begun the process from afar, then made monthly trips back and forth to oversee progress, meet with our builder and select finishes. We had originally anticipated the home being completed in July, and then that was bumped back to late August. Once we arrived on site we realized progress was slow and there was a lot of work yet to be done. Although working long hours, Derek and I were at the house daily to monitor progress and move things forward.

Something happened in that process. Not only was Derek utilizing all his construction management skills that he had refined over the past 15 years, he was falling in love all over again with home building – from the smell of fresh cut wood to the satisfaction of watching a building, previously only imagined in the black and white plans, come to be. God blew new life into his childhood dream of building houses like his father.

 

We both grew up in the construction industry. My family has a 45+ year old plumbing business and I practiced law in the areas of construction defect, business and real estate and worked as a risk manager for a national commercial subcontractor. Derek is a third generation builder and he grew up working on jobsites beside his dad. To better understand the building process, he obtained a degree in architecture from Cal Poly SLO, one of the nation’s top programs, and practiced architecture with a team designing and building custom homes for eight years. Subsequent to that, Derek worked in the commercial subcontracting/general contracting industry in business development, contract negotiations, estimating and project management.

 

Figuring out what Derek would do for a living when we got to Texas was the biggest unknown in the equation, and in many ways the biggest risk. But we trusted that if God was calling us out, asking us to uproot our lives and relocate, He would also provide that direction, when the time was right.

 

Since arriving here in July, the people we have met, the connections we have made and the opportunities and experiences we have had all began to bring into focus what the next step was for Derek and me together, and for our family’s future. Our professional backgrounds, life experiences, and family story, including designing our own custom home and overseeing the construction process as homeowners rekindled our passion and dream to build.

 

As we were reminded in church a couple of months ago, God will use our gifts, passion and story (or GPS) in our calling. We continued to ask, “How is God going to use our story?”

 

We are excited to share with you that we are starting our own family business, primarily building custom homes. Our company is called Story Builders. We believe every family and every home has a story and we look forward to using our own experiences personally and professionally to help others write the next chapter of their family’s story.