Part 2 of "My Story"

"Are You There God?  It's Me, Tonya."

OKLA-WHO???

 Yeah, my response went something like that when Bart mentioned moving to Oklahoma. I was not a happy camper!

 We were already 6 hours away from our families in Mobile, and now Bart wanted to move us 13 hours away?! I knew Oklahoma was near Texas and they had a lot of cowboys and indians, but that's all I knew and that's all I wanted to know.  Thank you very much!  This southern girl was staying in the south!

I tell people that I came to Oklahoma "kicking and screaming" and it's true!  I was willing to come here since it was God's plan.  We 100% knew, without a doubt, it was God's plan to move to Oklahoma thanks to many things that happened in the moving process.  God was right there with us every step of the way.  That didn't mean I was excited to leave, though.  Actually, it was quite the opposite.  I was so very sad to leave my friends, my Church, and my life as I knew it.

Our first year in Tulsa, was, by far, the hardest year of our married life to date.  Bart brought the boys and I to Tulsa to our rental house and then returned to Atlanta to finish up 3 months of work there.  He would fly to Tulsa most weekends for those 3 months, and then return to Atlanta on Sunday night.  I had to learn a new city and meet new friends on my own.  The days were long and the nights were lonely.  I don't ever recall feeling so alone.   It was hard and no fun at all.  I grieved the life I had to leave in Georgia, and I missed my family in Alabama so much.  13 hours was too far to make a quick weekend drive home.  Boy, did I take that short 6 hour drive for granted while we lived in Atlanta.

It sucked.  There is no other way to say it.  I was miserable and I hated it in OK.  I wasn't a very happy person to be around most of the time (poor Bart and poor kids).  Things weren't pretty for me that year.  I often wondered if God had forgotten about me.  I knew God has a reason for everything He allows to happen in our lives.  I just thought maybe He forgot to give me the good part this time.  We were obedient and made this really big move.  Now what, God?  What's next?  When do You give me the close friends?  When will I have a life again?  Will it ever feel like home here?  Help me Lord!  Please help me to be content here.  That's what I need, Lord.  Contentment.  Please give me contentment, Lord!

That's how my prayers sounded.  They were prayers of desperation.  I wasn't content where God had brought me.  I needed to be content before He could do anything else with me.

So, I prayed for contentment the rest of that year and the next year as well.

And finally...God gave me contentment.

To be cont...