ARIZONA BOUND

instagram stolen from my cousin

this post is long overdue! i've mentioned our plans to family and friends, and sparingly on instagram and facebook but every time i sit down to blog about it, i start to feel overwhelmed by the prospect of another cross-country move and the giant to-do list forming in my head, and i put it off for another day. but no longer! i'm determined to get this done, and then i can brave the to-do list next.

i feel like graduating from law school is such a big accomplishment that whatever comes after should involve lots of naps on a beach somewhere, free endless guacamole and chips, and zero stressful 'planning our future' discussions. alas, it is nothing like that. {just in case you were considering law school for the free guac- there isn't any} instead there are a lot of stressful decisions demanding to be made and for orlando, an intensely awful BAR to study for.

to be honest, i am exaggerating a little bit. it is stressful because we are making such big, life-planning choices, but it's also very exciting and i'm thrilled for what's coming up for us in the next six months.  and i'm even more proud of orlando for all of his hard work these past three years. this is the fun part where it all pays off, baby!

right after orlando finished his second year of law school, we started talking about what we wanted to do after graduation. you have to register for the bar early so it was time to get crackin'! we mulled over the idea of staying in ohio for another 5-10 years, and we talked about the pros and cons of pretty much every state in the western usa. we prayed about it constantly. we wrote list after list. it was a jumbled pile of maybes and what ifs and i wishes, and sometimes it seemed like there wasn't a clear option anywhere. but then, very gradually, out of our jumbled pile, a fabulous idea emerged and the more we considered it and researched it, the better it became.

i can't remember how it started- i think i spent all of last winter suggesting we move to arizona so i wouldn't have to live through another freezing 5 months ever again…and somehow the idea stuck. our 'arizona pros' list grew and grew {at the top: GREAT MEXICAN FOOD!}. we loved that it was closer to home, right in between our two families, but was still a new place for us to explore. we could afford it {unlike dreamy san diego}! we love the heat! we would live close to a temple!

then orlando started looking into the arizona bar and job market, and he discovered the UBE {the uniform bar exam. basically you take the bar in one of the participating 13 states and if you pass with a certain score, you can be barred as a lawyer in ANY of the states. so now you have 13 job markets to look in, not just 1. and included in the 13 states are arizona, utah, and washington- three great west coast options!} which seemed like the perfect option for us since we are starting our job hunt from scratch, without any previous internships or networking to rely on {we like the option of broadening our search outside of arizona if we aren't finding many great jobs there, just as a plan b}. also, orlando is really interested in immigration or transaction/financial law and we've learned that phoenix has an excellent market for both fields, so the job prospects are great.

the more we've learned, the more we've felt like this is the perfect path for us. it has all fallen into place so nicely and i'm so grateful for the way heavenly father has guided us to it. and i must say, i'm SO EXCITED for year-round sunshine!!! i know it comes at a price of an incredible summer-long heat wave and rocks in my yard instead of grass, but those are things i'm happy to put up with for twelve months of glorious sunshine.

so! we are moving to ARIZONA, hooray! graduation is in may and right after that we will pack up and head west. orlando will spend the summer studying for and taking the bar, while luc and i visit family in utah and san diego {so we aren't a huge distraction}. everything after that is still up in the air, of course, depending on where orlando finds a job and what suburb of phoenix {or tucson?!} we like and all those details that we'll have to sort out when we get there. but until then, we have a plan and we love the possibilities in front of us. it's a crazy, hectic, exciting time, and if we manage to make it through our second cross-country move in three years, i think we are really going to enjoy it. wish us luck!

{and if you have any arizona advice, i definitely want to hear it!}