God's hand

Last summer I started thinking about sabbatical plans. An initial Google search lead me to two possible schools. By "happenstance," we visited one of the towns to celebrate my IL's 50th wedding anniversary. I went to a conference, and ended up "randomly" car pooling with the chair of one of the two departments. She helped me set up a visit. While I was visiting the campus in October, I received notice that a "hail Mary" grant I had submitted had been funded. While sitting in the hallway, waiting to talk to the aforementioned department chair. When we visited one of the area elementary schools, the principal was from the same very small (population: 657) town as Patrick's mom. While going through a tough time, I posted a scripture that spoke to me. The pastor of the church in sabbatical town posted a very helpful blog on the exact same passage that day. Last night I freaked out about not having housing, and about finding a good school for the kids. Today the postdoc in the research group I'm joining sent me a note, saying they're going on sabbatical and wondered if we'd like to rent their house. I'm very thankful that God has basically put a big "go here" arrow to Knoxville--I can't wait to see what God has for us there!