There is so much that I already have and want to share about living in Quincy, California. And, honestly, this shocks me since we have only been here for one week so far! In trying to decide where to begin, I figured I would start where we are starting in Quincy… Our “home.”
You might be wondering why I keep putting “home” in quotation marks. As I had stated in my previous post, we moved to Quincy because my wife, Christi, got a job here. She is going to be the 1st Grade Teacher at the Private, Christian School here in town. As most people know, teachers are not given a very high salary. Private school teachers are given even less. And then when one is teaching at a private school that has about 125 students, kindergarten through 12th grade, the pay is even less. However, just like me with Youth Ministry – Christi is not a teacher for the money – she is a teacher because she loves children, she loves to help them learn and grown, and she is absolutely, unbelievably amazing as a teacher, instructor, and mentor. Christi is so gifted. I LOVE to watch her interact with and teach children. It is incredible. This teaching position was an incredible opportunity for Christi to be a teacher, and to have a classroom of only about 10-12 students. This will allow her to really invest in the lives of her students and teach them in much greater ways than if she had a classroom of 25+ kids. And, then, aside from all of this, we truly believed God was leading us here (more on that in a future post). And so we came.
However, given the salary issue combined with the cost of living in California, brought about a challenge. However, God had a solution for that challenge (which I will share briefly here, and more details in the future post about God’s leading us here). God’s solution – Christi’s Aunt and Uncle have lived here in Quincy for 20 years and they have a fairly large house (about 5,000 square feet), and all 4 of their children are now grown and out of the house. Therefore, they offered us a couple of rooms upstairs to live in: One room (about 400 square feet) for Christi and I, and one room (about 250 square feet) for the girls – and then a Jack and Jill bathroom for the 4 of us to share. They offered this to us for an incredibly low rental rate – making it possible for us to live here in Quincy and for Christi to take the teaching job. What a HUGE blessing! And that is the LONG explanation for why I have been putting quotation marks around “home” when talking about our new place. It may not belong to us, but it truly is our home! And with the incredible touch that Christi has for interior decorating, she really has made these two rooms feel like our home!!!
And in case you have read any of this and thought, “oh, so sorry Ryan” – don’t be. Let me share with you a few pictures of our new home!
First is a picture of the house:
Next is a picture of the view we have outside of our bedroom window.
Third is a picture of our new front yard.
Finally is a picture of part of our new back patio and the view we have out back.
It may not be what I was expecting… but often God’s blessings rarely are what we expect! And I am feeling truly blessed. And so begins our lives in Quincy. I can’t wait to share so much more!
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