The Bryant Family

Many people have asked us why we’re moving to Washington. When I tell them it is because we want to, not because we have to or because we have family there, I can tell they don’t understand or they think we’re crazy. There is a story behind our decision. And though it seems like a fast and careless decision to some, we have put a great amount of prayer, thought, and discussion into our decision. So, here’s the story.

Tyson was raised in Los Angeles. He was sent to Mountain Home, ID with the Air Force. He did not choose to be here, but he settled in and got involved in a church. When he separated from the Air Force, he found work locally and decided to stay longer. When we met, he made it clear that he did not plan to be in Mountain Home, or even Idaho, forever. I was okay with that. In fact, during college, I had thought about looking into teaching certification in a couple of other states, mostly Oregon. I thought it would be a neat experience to move to a new place.

A year or two after we got married, we bought 8 acres of beautiful forested land in North Central Idaho near the town of Grangeville. We drove through Grangeville every year on our way to the annual white water rafting trip, and just fell in love with the area. The plan was to eventually build a house on the land. The only thing holding us back was Tyson’s job- he worked at St. Alphonsus hospital as a software engineer. Our hope had been that he would find a technology job he could do from home eventually and then we’d move. We liked the idea of living in a small town- Grangeville only has about 3,000 residents, and we loved the idea of having the beautiful mountains and rivers around us.

Well, we waited on the Lord, praying that Tyson’s job would change. A couple of years ago, St. Alphonsus came under Trinity Health Corporation, based out of Michigan. Tyson knew that Trinity was friendly to the idea of their IT workers working from home, so he waited for the right job opening within the home office in Michigan. Last summer, he moved into a senior technical analyst position, working directly for the Trinity home office and he transitioned to working from home full time.

At this time, I was midway through my pregnancy. Though we never talked about it, I began to secretly have doubts about moving to Grangeville. Did I really want to raise my baby in that area? Did I really want to worry about wolves and bears in my backyard while my kids played outside? Did we really want to worry about forest fires during the summer and dealing with four to five feet of snow every winter? What if Tyson lost his job? He couldn’t commute anywhere- the closest ‘large’ town was Lewiston- over an hour away. As my thoughts took this turn, I started thinking about all of the wonderful places we had visited in the past few years- Boston, Washington D.C., Michigan, Nashville, Seattle, and several more. Though I loved the places we visited, I knew that Seattle had always been my favorite. I started studying the map, looking at small towns near Seattle, as we’ve never wanted to actually live in a big town.

One day, Tyson said, “You know what I realized? We could live anywhere we want!”. That opened the door to discussion. Tyson agreed that the Seattle area had been his favorite too. In August we took a road trip to the area. We ended up spending a lot of time near Tacoma and just south of it. We fell in love with the area. It is beautiful, even right in the middle of town. We knew we would have easy access to shopping, churches, museums, science centers, recreation, etc., while living in a smaller town. Plus, we knew that if Tyson ever lost his job, he would be able to look for work in Puyallup, Tacoma, Seattle, or even Olympia. While we were there, we looked at the local MLS listing, and just for fun, drove around and looked at a few houses. The first house we drove to was a large, brand new yellow and blue house on 5.2 acres in a sort of neighborhood of nicer homes on acreage. We loved it, but knew it was too far out of our price range, and we weren’t seriously looking anyway. We were just having fun. About a month after we got back, we decided that we would look into selling our land in northern Idaho. We called our agent, and he immediately said he had a client looking for land. A few weeks later, the deal was done, and we had sold it for double what we paid for it. After that, we decided we’d wait until late spring, and then start seriously looking at homes in Washington.

In late December, I pulled up a listing we had saved in our favorites folder on our computer. It was the listing for the yellow and blue house on 5.2 acres. It had foreclosed and was drastically reduced in price. Suddenly, it was well within our price range. Tyson called the agent and chatted about the house. A month later, he flew to Washington for the day. He walked through the house, and then made an offer. Our offer had to be contingent upon us selling our Mtn. Home house. Normally, banks selling foreclosures won’t agree to a contingency, but since the market had stalled, they accepted it with a clause that stated if someone else came along with an offer, they had to give us two days to lift the contingency, or we’d lose the offer on the house.

When Tyson got home, we went to work on getting our Mtn. Home house listed and sold (thanks, Dad!). We only had 45 days to sell our house, barring anyone else making an offer on the Washington house. Our house sat for a couple of weeks without any notice. Then Tyson decided to lower the price, and within a week we had shown it five times.

Last Thursday we got the call- someone had made another offer on the Washington house. Our house here in Idaho needed to sell, and fast. I was sure we were going to lose the house in Washington, and I was so disappointed. A few hours later, an acceptable offer was made on our house in Mtn. Home! We accepted it, and called our Washington agents. God is so good! We’ll be closing at the end of February.

Looking back, I can totally see God’s hand in the process. He worked on both Tyson and I to slowly change our thoughts about our plans for the future. He saved that house for us (and lowered the price!). Our house sold just in the knick of time.

We aren’t moving because we think Idaho is a terrible place. We love Idaho. I have a special place in my heart for Idaho, and my hometown of Rupert. I think this is a wonderful place to raise a family. I will always have roots here. And we’ll always come back for lots of visits! I can't go too long without seeing my family, and I know I will miss them terribly. And we'll actually see more of Tyson's family, even though they live in Nashville. They tour and do shows in the Pacific Northwest quite often, and getting a flight to SeaTac is much easier than to Boise!

Tyson, Mercy, and I are a family now. We have to make the best decisions for our own family and we have to follow the Lord’s leading. Maybe moving to Washington will be a big flop. But honestly, I am so excited to see what the Lord has in store for us there.