Answers to question

I’ve been getting questions from our blog reader (yes, I count one (1) reader right now, unless you include Angela and I), and wanted to respond. The question, specifically, was in regards to where we are in our decision to move to Alaska. The answer, specifically, is that we are still weighing some things. I’ll dive a little deeper into where we are at:

A huge reason we are considering going to Alaska is because there is a possibility for Angela to work at a hospital where they will help pay off a huge piece of her school loans. This is very important to us, as we need to get out of debt before we go into missions. This opportunity would allow us to get out of debt much more quickly (possibly more than twice as quickly) than if we were to stay in Washington and do what we are doing now. However, it has come to our attention that these loan payoff programs are not a “sure thing”. We have to apply for the program, get approved, and then the hospital will pay off part of the loan, based on their funding that year. We are not worried about the approval as much, but if we are uprooting based on this piece of the puzzle, and then they only pay off a small part of the loan, we are worse off than if we stayed in Washington. Angela is researching how much funding the hospital in Alaska gets typically and working with the hospital for assurances that this piece of the puzzle is less precarious than it seems right now. So we are at the research stage of this piece.

Another piece of the puzzle (maybe a corner) is how I will make money if we go. I think we would still be better off moving to Alaska if I had no job and the loan repayment went as we hope it will. However, we were crunching numbers and found that I can make about half of what I make now and we would be able to pay off even more of our school debt. The problem is that I don’t think I could handle not working and bringing in money. There are not that many jobs that I know of up there, and the ones I do know of I’m not really qualified for. So I’m trying to figure out if I can keep my job with Microsoft and work remotely. This isn’t completely out of the question, and actually might be an option. But it isn’t a certainty. Once some of Angela’s things fall in place, I will see if I can get a direct answer on whether I can work remotely in my current position or not. Once we get that answer, I think we will have a little more direction in whether this is the right plan for us. But if I can keep my job, it is likely that we will be able to pay off all of our debt as well as save a good chunk of money over the next two years.

The biggest piece of the puzzle is trying to figure out what God wants us to do. We are praying for his guidance as we plan for this and decide which direction to go in. We are excited about the possibility of all of this, and do feel God leading us in this, but we definitely want more clarity. We may just step out in faith on this, whether we have certainty on the things I’ve mentioned or not, but obviously, we would love a roadmap and GPS.

So I hope that satisfies our reader for now. We will definitely update as things move along. But in the meantime, let me tell you a couple facts you probably didn’t know:

Last meal I ate: Waffles
Last Netflix I watched: Extras - Season 2 – Disc 1
Last thing I put in the garbage: Our Christmas tree (last year it was up until March I think, so we’re doing better)
Last board game I played: Scotland Yard (at Christmas), I won