When I finished Columbia International University, I was in love. The girl I was dating was that girl that only the luckiest of guys have the opportunity to marry. You have this girl that if she even showed the least bit of interest, you would drop everything for and marry. Well, my wife happens to be that girl for me. She is brilliant, beautiful, and a regular Proverbs 31. But our marraige was pretty much surrounded by drama because she has a little boy, and the perspectives of my in-laws of me at the time was that I was one of those Bible tottin, male chauvenistic, control freak, preacher boys. They really had no conceptual framework for an intelligent thinking young man that for the lack of a better word happened to be labeled a Christian because of his relationship with God. Couple that with the fact that being slamed with the blessing and responsibility of this little boy we were both very overloaded. I felt like Joseph introducing Mary to people, "Yes, this is my fiancee, and yes she is pregnant, but God did it."
Need less to say, I wasn't really crazy about living in my hometown after college because I didn't think that our marraige could survive lovely but over concerned in-laws, my allready overly dramatic redneck family, and a giant struggle with my little stepson's biological father who is a descent young man, yet not highly motivated to quit making excuses and take responsibility (a.k.a. get vocational training and an actual job).
Plus, the coolest thing ever happened. I had this dream back when I was little that I wanted to build a ranch for kids that had struggling families like mine. So I had designed the whole thing. I named it Eagle Ranch. In college, I even flew to Vermont to see a model of what I thought I may one day build. What I found out was that they had build it allready an hour and a half away. I went to see it, stopped at a Chick-fil-a where I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be cool if I ended up moving here." And then cried as I looked at the place that I had dreamed about for so long. The next day, I went to an interview at the YMCA for a management job. This was a big deal because I had been working for the Y for five years allready, and this town actually had an opening right by Eagle Ranch. I couldn't get a job at the ranch because you had to be single to work there in the only job opening they had, so I took the job at the Y when they offered it to me.
This is how I ended up in Oakwood, GA. It was like God said, "Brandon, this is your city of refuge, your Egypt. Pharaoah will try and get you, but hang tight and you'll be safe here."
My wife and I really do like it here. Our little boy does too. And I got the opportunity to get my Masters degree to teach, so that has given my a great position where I work with this guy who actually worked at Eagle Ranch for five years. He is awesome and the principal is really good about trying to build a school that is about helping the students the most. Truelly. My wife works at the church and is finishing here degree too. She is helping plan all kinds of incredible things.
A long time ago I decided to do this: "Trust God to Provide and Go Along for the Ride!" When I came up with that, I had no idea how many curve balls life could throw!
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