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Less than a month ago I was in another state.  All of my belongings were tucked away in their own spaces and normal was something that my family had been used to for the past 6 years.  Today, the same cannot be said.  We are clear across the country in a western state, 1/3 of our belongings are still in boxes, and normal is something that we are creating now.

I must say that this is a beautiful place to live.  There is a constant scenery of the mountains in every direction that I turn.  The people who I meet here are very kind and friendly, which is always a plus.  As long as I’m here, I’ll never be able to say that I can’t find a store to shop in or that I need to order something online.  There are malls about 10 minutes away in all directions.  How exciting right?!  I’m looking forward to shopping for myself and my family…not to mention our new apartment.

I wasn’t sure what I was going to be walking into coming over here.  Now we didn’t just decide to pick up and move clear across the country.   No, this was a career move and what a move it is.  We thought that we could possibly move to New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, and other east coast states, but that wasn’t the case.  The good thing is that my husband and I welcomed the opportunity to venture into another land with high hopes and great expectation. I heard such wonderful things about this place, Utah.  I was told that I would love living here.  Many people told us that it is a very family oriented state with lots of things to do.  Since we are from the east coast we were curious to see what it was like living in the west. What no one failed to mention was the fact that it isn’t very diverse.  They would say things like, “It’s a great place to live, but you don’t see very many black people.”  Now that would have scared me if I came from a place where the black population was very high, like Georgia, perhaps.  Instead it just intrigued me.  I mean race isn’t really an issue for me.  My husband is Puerto Rican, my pastor back home was white, and I have friends of all different races and cultures. I wondered what type of adventure was awaiting me on this side of the US.  Now that we are here I am glad that I’m not the person that takes what everyone says to be gold.  We moved to a very nice place where, like I said earlier, the people are very nice and it is pretty diverse.  Although I am the only dark face that is seen in many of the places that we go, I am happy that God gave me an optimistic look on life.  I see such great potential for me and my family here.  We will be here for a couple of years and I plan to make the best out of it.

You know, it’s a blessing to be the way that I am.  Nothing gets in my way.  I think that there is good in everyone and there is always potential for greatness around the corner.  So what, there is only a 3% black population in this state and, yes, I am aware of the fact that the majority of the culture around here is Mormon.  I’m a Christian woman, who is ok with being different. I choose to stand out for Jesus, with a big heart and a smile.  I enjoy meeting people and hearing what they have to say.  I want to see more of Utah.  I want to learn of its culture and I a curious to find out why it’s people believe what they do. I enjoy history and this place is full of it.  I am excited because I am sure that God has something here for me and my family that we are not expecting.  I hope that the people who I come in contact with will get a taste of God’s love in an unforeseen way.

My house back home no longer has its family, but my apartment here has a new one.  I know that is a weird way of looking at things, but everything looks so bright and full of opportunity.

On another note, my children are not used to living in an apartment at all.  They are used to running and jumping and ring free…but that’s a post for another time.