To Arizona or Not to Arizona

When Alan and I found out how high our law school student loan payments would be, we were shocked. As in $2,000 per month shocked. We started wondering whether or not we'd be able to afford to live in CA anymore. We've both always thought Arizona might be a nice place to live. We like the desert beauty and we like the cheap real estate and lower cost of living even more. I even like the heat! (Although I'm sure summers are brutal). And hey, there are so many members of our church that our kids could have tons of friends who believe the same things they do. And they could go to release time seminary instead of getting up at 5:00am all through high school. (A past time I'm still a little bitter about personally.) ;)

So Alan began researching the market for jobs and applied for two in Scottsdale, just to see what would happen. Both companies were interested and one flew him out to Phoenix last week to interview him. Everything went well and lo and behold they made him an offer. A good one, too. It would be a raise in salary from what he's making now, and we'd be able to put a little more towards the loans and afford a bigger place than we would here in CA. So we prayed and pondered and prayed and talked and crunched numbers and prayed some more.

And today he turned the job down.

Hard to believe, I know. It was a TOUGH decision and we're both emotionally exhausted. We honestly felt the Lord said either choice would be fine. To Arizona or not to Arizona. Both choices were good and approved by Him. So it was up to us. And after more number crunching, we realized we wouldn't be saving as much money as we had hoped by moving. (Mainly because of much higher health insurance costs and the fact that Scottsdale in particular is an expensive area to live compared to the rest of AZ). The savings wasn't enough to make it worth leaving my family and the city we adore. Alan loves his job here and his 5 minute commute. And the girls love their school. Our ward is fabulous, etc. etc. I was honestly itching for an adventure, and I'm sure it would have been fun. But we love our life here. And so we will stay, even though the cost of living is higher. We may re-visit the idea someday, who knows.

And about the student loans, we've been approved for a government repayment program that is based on our income. So the payment will actually be somewhat do-able. Thank heavens!