Finally at home
Finding a home has always been a real challenge for me. While I have always lived in Texas, never stayed in the same place too long. I lived in Crowley, Joshua, Fort Worth, Venus, and White Settlement, but none of these places have felt like home to me. Crowley was a small town but held too many memories I was looking to walk away from. Joshua was sort of in the country, but something was missing there. I lived in Fort Worth only briefly when I first moved in with my husband, but that was never home. Venus could have been a real home, but the weather made life difficult to deal with there. We lived in White Settlement for about 15 years, but we were too close to the Joint Forces Air Base and any time a jet took off or landed, the whole house shook, so again just not right for us. With homeownership and a need to belong heavy on our hearts, the opportunity came up where we could buy a house down the road from my dad just outside of Olney. My dad has lived here for about 10 years, and he raises cattle. I have always enjoyed the country setting, and I always enjoyed helping my dad when I came to visit on the weekends, and honestly, I just felt led to this place. It was like God had been whispering in my heart for years until I was finally ready to listen. So, while my husband took a little extra convincing, we finally took the leap.
We moved in with my dad while we remodel our house and although we are still little ways away from being able to move into our “forever home,” we have already found our home in Olney.
Now that we had moved here, I needed to find employment. I bought a paper out of one of the machines to look for a job. I saw an ad that Olney Enterprise was hiring. On a whim, I sent in my résumé. I applied for several jobs but ended up being hired by Wal-Mart as a cashier. One day I got a call from Ronni Walker asking me to come in for an interview. I started to get excited about the idea of working at Olney Enterprise, however, I did not want to be disappointed if I did not get hired. So, I prayed that if God did not want me in this job, that he would not let me get excited during my interview. During the interview I started to feel kind of giddy and excited, I had experience in a lot of the duties that she was telling me I would be doing, then Ronni called the board president Justin Piegat and we started talking and I could not contain my excitement. I loved the things that they were talking about doing in the Olney Heritage Museum and the things they talked about doing for the community. The L.F. and Carla Perry Foundation, Inc.- the parent company for Olney Enterprise and Olney Heritage Museum is exactly the place I am supposed to be. God put me here on his timetable. Then, as if I had not been blessed enough, God made a place, through the hands of others, for my husband here as well.
One of the things we noticed most after being hired at the Olney Enterprise and getting to attend several events, is that this town, this community, is more a family than a small town. People support the community, reach out to help others when there is a need. There is some bickering but then isn’t there in every family. You have your good times and your bad, your fights and your parties. In the end, it adds up to the same thing, a group of people who care about one another and the town they live in. Olney is exactly the type of place that I have always wanted to live in and the kind of community I have always wanted to be a part of. Here, I can be a part of something bigger than my little world. This is a place where I can give back, where I can serve the purpose God has for my life. I know he put us here for a reason, and I hope that we can be as much a blessing to all of you, as you all are to us.