Signs

I'm a big believer in signs. And after the past few weeks, I think Matt is, too. So this is why we're moving to Minneapolis:

• Matt was laid off on July 31st. We had been trying to get pregnant for about 10 months. We failed, without any medical explanation, and notwithstanding the fact that we'd been successful twice before on the first month out.
• At the time Matt was laid off, my parents were on an Alaskan vacation. When they returned, we told them Matt lost his job. They said, "We think you should move to Minnesota. Everyone we met on our trip was from Minnesota, and they were so nice."
• So we looked around at what Minneapolis had to offer. Seemed nice. One decent-sized firm had a posting for a corporate finance associate, so Matt sent his resume.
• Within a few days, we had a chance, last-minute visit with my aunt & uncle. My uncle (by marriage) grew up in the Twin Cities, and his dad has lots of connections there. He had us forward to his dad Matt's resume.
• My great uncle-in-law, so to speak, is golfing buddies with a guy that used to head the practice of the firm (Briggs & Morgan) that Matt had applied to. Within days, he had found out that they had decided not to hire anyone at all, "passing" on Matt's resume. But this former partner convinced them to give Matt's resume another look. They scheduled a phone interview with Matt for the following week.
• In that time, we were watching Antiques Roadshow. We were drawn to a painting, and kept talking about how much we liked it. Then someone said it was a picture of a farm in Minnesota.
• The next day Matt had his phone interview and it went great.
• The firm called two days later and the hiring partner talked to me since Matt was out golfing. He went on and on about how great of a talk they had with Matt, and asked how soon we could move there. He apologized for taking so long to get back to us (about a total of 50 hours) and said they were sure this was on our mind and wanted to get back to us before the long holiday weekend (Labor Day). Oddly compassionate and thoughtful. They said that Matt had a few more people to meet, but they thought it would be a "great fit."
  
• The next Monday, my mom was taking her students to the hospital for a tour of the area they'll be volunteering in. A nurse approached my mom and told her a woman sitting in the corner knows her and would like to speak with her. Turns out, this woman recognized my mother's name because she was a member of a group that gave me a scholarship to law school ten years ago. They started chatting, and mom finds out that this woman has a daughter who just moved to the very suburb in Minneapolis that we were leaning toward moving to.
• When we got to Minneapolis, and after Matt had received the offer (a whole 20 hours after he had finished his interview), we were taking a driving tour around. We were reconsidering the move, because money would be tight and we couldn't find decent temporary housing. We started driving in silence, listening to Weekend America on NPR. Just then, a listener called in from Edina, MN -- the exact neighborhood we fell in love with and decided to focus our home search on. And just as he said, "Edina," the water tower reading "Edina" came into view.

So, there you go. Nothing in an of itself means anything. Any many of you probably think that, even taken together, none of this stuff means anything. Probably just a coincidence. Maybe. But what the hell. We're moving to Minneapolis.