James Ray Startz is 54 years old today. He is officially old...ok, that was mean but he is...and I am just nine months from being old, too. So I better hush...but the neatest part of this birthday for James is that this same exact time last year, we laughed and promised each other that a year from now, we would be living in Alaska. God as our witness, we were going to sell it all and move to Juneau. The entire world around us scoffed and tee-heed and thought it would never in a million years happen. The entire world was wrong. I think there comes a time in everyone's life where you get tired of being safe and boring and you think maybe, just maybe, there is more out there and it would be great fun to "go for it". As my sister said, "You have always been the sensible one...you can't move to Alaska! That is something I would do!" and you know, she was so right. I am the sensible one...the one that everyone counts on to just be plugging along, boring as all get-out! When James and I took that second cruise to Alaska, we took Caleb with us, and he was so amazed by the scenery and the native culture. So when we got home from the cruise, James and I began to bandy about the idea of actually really moving...which would mean closing our very successful business and selling our home and basically everything we owned. It would all have to be sold to be able to have the money to move. So from January 2012 to April 2012, we kicked the idea around, even putting the house up for sale. James began to start fixing up his collection of old tractors to be sold and I started looking at our finances to see if we could possibly do this move, as it would not be cheap to get us clear across the United States, and then on a ferry to Juneau. In April, my mother gave us the money to buy tickets to Juneau for Caleb, James and me to go scouting around and see if we could find jobs and a house. At the last minute, Mom decided to come with us so she could make sure we were doing the right thing. After the big scouting trip, we came back home to Harlingen, ready to get the ball rolling again. We called an auction house and within days the auction was set. The plan was full steam ahead...and we never looked back....
So this birthday is sorta historic...we made a promise to each other and ourselves and the kids and we plowed forward till we got here. It was not easy...the trip across the states was way harder than we could have ever imagined, and finding jobs wasn't as easy as we had hoped, but at this point, we seem to have forgotten the hard parts and now we are reaping the good parts....the parts that we hoped would come and they did and they have and God is good, all the time. We trusted in God to bring us here safely and He did and we are forever thankful and in awe of our God and his plans for us. 2013 holds such promise for this family...a grand baby is on the way, and we are all healthy and have great jobs. And every single day, we get to wake up in the most beautiful place in the world.
So Happy Birthday, baby! We did it! We really did it! May God give you 54 more years...wait, that would make you 108....well, it could happen...:)
