Places I Have Lived

Its been a rough week so I decided to list the places I have lived. Here's my list of where my journey has taken me:

1. Murray, KY... born there

2. Palmersville, TN in Weakley County...(lived there out in the country on the farm that has been in my family for many generations) This place was deeded to my family after the Revolutionary War. It has three family cemeteries dating into the early 1800's.

3. Sharon TN lived there 2 0r three years (way out in the country) Dad sold fertilizer, mom raised four kids and ran a small dairy.

4. Paonia, CO went to first to twelfth grade here (lived three miles from town on a farm) I milked cows every morning and evening and fed hay to 30-60 head of cows twice a day. We grew 95% of our own food and put the excess in cars at church that weren't locked. It is in the North Fork Valley of the Gunnison, surrounded by 12,000 to 13,000 foot mountains. Dad was a fruit farmer and worked in the coal mine. My mom worked at the coal mines four years and worked even harder running the farm (and raising four kids). We moved there to help a struggling church as vocational missionaries...they are still there working with the same church, creating a close knit family of believers. I was the president of FFA and the World Travel Club and broke my back wrestling Troy Dunham from Olathe my senior year.

5. Edmond/Oklahoma City, OK went to college at OCC (now OCUSA) Moved here one week after graduating high school. I grew up fast and learned that the world is not always a friendly, happy place like Paonia. It was a launching pad for learning how to do relationships, friendships, and life vocation. I got the confidence to dream that God may have a purpose for me in my life and learned I was actually kinda of smart (a fact not indicated by previous grades or effort).

6. Abilene, TX Went to Abilene Christian University. Met my wife here as we were both working on our Master's degrees. Also met Rick Collett, who was my best friend and Best Man for my wedding. I was the youth minister for a year for the Highway 36 Church of Christ, 18 miles SE of Abilene. Awesome. My mentors Ed Headrick and Charles Rudolph were instrumental in helping me grow intellectually and spiritually.

7. Denton, TX My wife and I were both accepted into the Counseling Psychology PhD program here. Met some very good friends who supported us through the birth of our first child, a traumatic yet wonderful time of learning to help a medically fragile, special needs child. He wasn't supposed to live through the first week...now he is 17 years old.

8. Irving, TX After my son was born, we needed to be close to family, friends and nurses who would take on the load of his care with us. Eva, Lori, Robin, Amy, and Becky have all become a part of our family. We also expanded our family with two more sons, finished our PhDs and have accumulated even more friends, who are our brothers and sisters...our boys see them as family. We also lost our precious friend (and Jared's nurse) Robin to breast cancer three years ago while we lived here...we still feel the loss of her in our family.

Have you been to any of these places? Where have you lived?