Working for the Dream...

This morning was wonderful! I returned to St. John's West for another service of great prayer, preaching, and (at the risk of bragging!) great music!

As has become our practice, I chose the hymns for the service and then got the approval of Rev. Gary. This time, I really tried to base all my song choices on the Biblical passages. I used those indexes at the back of the hymnal to choose pieces that would really sing the stories of the Gospel and other readings. I think it worked well. People really sang out, and "To God Be the Glory" was a great way to end the service.

For my solo, I did one of my newer songs, "Infinitely More". It's really uptempo and fun, and just talks about the great things God does for us. I love bopping around while I sing it. Makes me feel like a total rock star!

This morning was a real blessing, because music has shifted over to the side burner as of late. Not the back burner; I'm still keeping things going. But the real focus has been doing the un-glamorous, often frustrating work, of getting ready to move to Nashville. This is the gross stuff that never makes it onto people's websites and photo galleries.

Be forewarned: This next section may delve into ranting, but it will all work out in the end.

First, there is preparing for the Visa. I'm applying for an O1 Visa through a lawyer. I need to collect a lot of 'evidence' of my professional status, including letters of reference, newspaper articles, posters that have featured my name or photo. Suffice to say, it is a huge amount of work. The most frustrating part is waiting for the letters of reference to arrive. Most people are awesome about getting it to me quickly. Some people... not so quick. It's also wickedly expensive. It doesn't cost too much to actually apply for the Visa, but you can probably guess that my lawyer ain't so cheap.

Next, there is getting the house ready for the market. We really don't want to move very much stuff to Nashville. Just our guitars, our computers, a keyboard, some clothes, a bit of business stuff, back-up tracks, and my car. So, anything that doesn't fit into that short list gets one of three fates: It is either to be sold, given away, or put in storage. Selling is our favourite choice, as it helps feed the cost of moving. And we're really picky about what is being stored. Basically, it's just family stuff, antiques, and art.

The house is taking some work. Mostly, it's just the moving of stuff. But we have to do some refacing in the kitchen, so there's some small renovations that need to be done there. And we're repainting a fair bit of the house. Nothing too hard. Just a lot of work.

I'm a real pack-rat and total homebody. All of this is just torturous for me! I'm going through everything I've even owned and having to ask "Is it worth keeping? Would I rather have this book/pillow/chair/sweater, or a CD recorded in Nashville?" Yes, the answer is obvious, but still, very hard to do.

I've always dreamed of owning my own home, so selling is very hard for me. We will be renting in Nashville, so I won't have another house for a while. We really debated keeping the house and renting it out. But after weighing it all out, this just works better for us. It will give us the nest egg we will need to help float us while we get set up, and it will help us make our CDs.

I did say I would rant and that it would get better, and here's the better: This is just such an insane amount of work, but we have no doubts at all that it will be worth it! No one can ever doubt our dedication to moving to Nashville to develop our craft and pursue our dreams. And when we're in our nineties and sitting in our rocking chairs, we can listen to our CDs and reminisce about the time we sold everything to move to Nashville and make music.

Who wouldn't want that?