I had come up with an outlandish idea, as is my nature.
I’d research the states in the US to find the ones we’d be interested in living in, and then narrow it down to a couple towns in each state we’d like to visit. Then, we’d get the house ready to sell, buy an RV & truck, and travel through these states for 3 weeks until we found the place that resonated with us.
Dustin agreed, cause that’s how we work. I do all the planning and research, share it with him, he sees that it aligns with our goals, and he trusts my instincts. I do have quite a good track record, I must say.
The plan was simple, though incredibly complicated.
I had a spreadsheet comparing certain states in ways that were important to us:
What were their homesteading laws? How about their homeschooling requirements? What was the climate like? How expensive was real estate? What were their taxes like? How far were they from our family in Michigan? How far was the town from a grocery store, airport, capital city, skiing, and Azure drop? Did we feel we would fit well in that particular county?
There was a lot to research and I went into it like I always do when I research… completely
It took a few months to narrow it down to 4 states, and 3-4 towns in each state. Then we decided to throw out the Carolinas – they were too expensive compared to the two states we were betting on – Tennessee & Arkansas.
After doing months of research, I was leaning towards Arkansas, and more specifically the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas.
But Tennessee looked great too, and there was the added bonus that my sister cousin had recently moved her family there. It would be pretty cool to be living in the same state as a family member again.
However, Arkansas looked amazing on paper! It truly seemed to have everything we wanted.
So I asked God for a favor before we left for the trip: I prayed, “Please, just make it obvious which state we should choose.”