Starting Over

I realized last night that neither of us have lived in any house/apartment more than two years since we left home for college.  J has lived in nine different apartments/houses, in five different towns.  I've lived in seven places, in five different towns.

That's a little exhausting.

You'd think we'd be experts with moving by now, and that I would be used to starting over again.  It's still difficult.  J adjusts much more easily than I do, or at least as far as I can tell.  I have a harder time, usually.

This move hasn't been very difficult as far as adjusting, and I think that is because the Lord gave us time to prepare ourselves, and when J had his accident, everything else seemed pretty insignificant.

The Lord is really taking care of us.

I've been feeling frustrated about starting over in some ways, because it's difficult to get things set up again.  I won't elaborate on that, because it's small and silly things.  Yet, it's discouraging to me.  I know it's the devil trying to get me down.

I  have to fight, and have faith.

Sometimes it's easier for me to have faith in the bigger things, than it is in the smaller things.  I'm not sure why. If I trust the Lord to take care of all of the big things, such as moving us to a new home, giving J a good job, etc, then I should trust Him to take care of the little details, shouldn't I?  Silly Jennifer.

I even heard before that when we complain, it's because we aren't trusting the Lord to take care of whatever we're upset about.  Deep down I know He will take care of things, but I do complain.  If I really believe He is in control of even the smallest things, then I need to push away those complaints and know His ways and timing are best.  It's really hard, though.

Before we moved, we were excited about selling the house, and paying off some things.  That all changed of course, when J had his accident.  We knew medical bills would come rolling in.  We may have to replace broken furniture, pay for the truck damage, etc.  We tried to push those fears away though, because we knew we were doing what the Lord wanted.  He would take care of us.  He always does.  It was still difficult for me, emotionally, but I always knew the Lord would provide.

A couple of weeks ago, the bills began to roll in.  Would you believe that the very same day we received a large bill, we also received a large check to cover our damaged items??  If that check had arrived a day earlier, it might have been a little disappointing to see it all leave when the bill arrived.  If the check had arrived a day later, it would have been harder to see the large bill.  His timing is perfect.

He's provided SO much for us in every way.  Yet, I still get angry when things don't work out the way I think they should.  We can't see everything that He's doing, but we can trust that He knows what is best, and will take care of things.

I remember reading an illustration of how we see things, compared to how the Lord sees things.  I think of this example often, because it makes sense.

When I was a little boy, my mother used to embroider a great deal. I would sit at her knee and look up from the floor and ask what she was doing. She informed me that she was embroidering. I told her that it looked like a mess from where I was. As from the underside I watched her work within the boundaries of the little round hoop that she held in her hand, I complained to her that it sure looked messy from where I sat. She would smile at me, look down and gently say, "My son, you go about your playing for awhile, and when I am finished with my embroidering, I will put you on my knee and let you see it from my side." I would wonder why she was using some dark threads along with the bright ones and why they seemed so jumbled from my view.

A few minutes would pass and then I would hear Mother's voice say, "Son, come and sit on my knee." This I did only to be surprised and thrilled to see a beautiful flower or a sunset. I could not believe it, because from underneath it looked so messy. Then Mother would say to me, "My son, from underneath it did look messy and jumbled, but you did not realize that there was a pre-drawn plan on the top. It was a design. I was only following it. Now look at it from my side and you will see what I was doing."

Many times through the years I have looked up to my Heavenly Father and said, "Father, what are You doing?" He has answered, "I am embroidering your life." I say, "But it looks like a mess to me. It seems so jumbled. The threads seem so dark. Why can't they all be bright?" The Father seems to tell me, "'My child, you go about your business of doing My business, and one day I will bring you to Heaven and put you on My knee and you will see the plan from My side."

Author Unknown

Something to keep in mind.  He's taking care of us.

A New Beginning... (Part Five)

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

We worked for the next week getting everything packed, which was NOT easy with an active baby girl!  She loved ‘helping’ me.  By helping, I mean, taking things out of the boxes, adding other things that weren’t supposed to go in the boxes, etc.  ;) 

Our plan was to leave Saturday, go to J’s parents’ house that night, then drive the rest of the way Sunday.  That would give us a few days to get a little bit settled before he started work.  Well, Friday we pretty much got past the point of no return while we packed.  So many things were packed that we decided it would be easier for M and I to go ahead and leave that afternoon.  I hated leaving J by himself to finish up, but knew it would be best if we went ahead. 

That afternoon, we had a pretty powerful little thunderstorm move through.  It went through fairly quickly, but we saw there was more coming our way.  So, M and I took off, trying to beat the next round of rain.  The ironic part is that we had been in one of the worst droughts ever all summer long, and THAT day it rained.  Of all days.  I was thankful for the rain, but I really hate driving in it!  The first part of the trip was okay.  It only sprinkled on me a little bit, and the worst part was that J had left the windows down in the truck so my jeans were SOAKED through.  Talk about uncomfortable, but I could either get mad, or laugh about it.  I think I did a little bit of both.  ;)

After driving for about an hour and a half though, I started hitting some major rain.  It was pouring so hard that I finally decided to pull over, thinking it was just a small storm.  Wrong.  It was a HUGE system, and it looked like I would be driving through it the entire time!  I was not happy at all, and it got dark while I was driving.  So, what should have taken 3 hours took closer to 5 hours!  I was so anxious and felt sick most of the way.  I kept thinking, “I should have stayed and come with J tomorrow.”  I eventually made it safely though, and I know without a doubt the Lord had His angels around me and our sweet girl, protecting us the whole way there.

I talked with J the next morning, and he told me he was on his way.  He was driving a huge moving truck; I believe it was 24 feet long.  Plus, he was also pulling my car behind him.   I hated for him to be driving by himself, but knew he’d be okay.

Later that morning, I was sitting in the living room at my in-law’s house talking with J’s mom and she received a call on her phone.  She didn’t know who it was, but went ahead and answered it.  She sounded very calm, and asked a few questions, such as, “Where are you?”, then she said she’d be right there.  I had no clue what was happening, but never thought she was talking to J.

She got off the phone, stood up, and said to me, “Take a deep breath.”  I just stared at her, and she told me that J had been in a wreck, but he was okay, and she was going to go help him.  He was only a few minutes away, thankfully.  She was extremely calm during the whole thing, while I fell apart.  I had to stay at the house because M was napping, so she left by herself. 

My mind was swirling with questions.  Was he really okay?  How ‘okay’ is okay?  What happened?  Was anyone else involved?  I was trying very hard to stay calm, because I didn’t want my stomach to get upset.  I talked with a few of my family on the phone, prayed, and finally decided to go outside and get some fresh air.  After just a moment, I saw TWO butterflies.  I couldn’t help but smile, and this time, I wanted to cry out of happiness rather than fear.  I KNOW that was the Lord reminding me that He was still in control, and everything would be okay.  I was just amazed, though I shouldn’t be surprised, that He would speak in a way that is so special to me. 

Later, I found out the details of his wreck.  The moving truck had fallen on its side, and he had busted open his elbow when it hit the ground.  Thankfully, he was the only one involved in the wreck. 

I finally spoke with J on the phone, and he told me he was okay.  He was going to the emergency room for his elbow.  He sounded okay, but I wasn’t thrilled that he was going to the ER, especially because I still hadn’t seen him yet.

After being seen by a doctor and getting x-rays, they decided to do surgery to clean out the wound and check the bone of his elbow.  It was a pretty big opening on his elbow, and they set the surgery for the following day.  This of course meant he had to stay the night, which is never fun in the hospital. 

The next day he went back for surgery and it went very well.  There wasn’t any damage to the bone, so they just cleaned out his wound and sewed him up the best they could.  We ended up having to stay another night and day while we waited to hear from the doctor.  We eventually got out though, and headed back to J’s parents’ house.

I know this doesn’t sound like a huge deal.  Really, we are INCREDIBLY blessed that he wasn’t hurt any worse.  Yes, the elbow wound was bad, but it could have been SO much worse.  These were the things I kept reminding myself of while he was in the hospital. 

J is my very best friend, and we complement each other very well.  Where I am weak, he is strong, and vice versa.  This kind of thing is a weakness for me.  To see my husband lying in a hospital bed, even though he was okay, was incredibly difficult.  To have to hold it together in front of him, so he wouldn’t have to worry about me, was not easy.  To try and call the right people and take care of things is not my area either.  I felt so overwhelmed.  However, the Lord again saw our need and provided.  He used this time to make J more dependent on me, while making me stronger and more independent.  He surrounded us with loving people to help us.  Family members helped in many different ways, and several people, some that I barely know, went to move all of our stuff out of the old moving truck, into a new moving truck.  We couldn’t have done all of these things by ourselves, and the Lord sent loving people to help. 

There were so many things we could worry about.  Medical bills, moving truck damage, damage to my car, damage to our possessions, etc.  I’m not going to lie, these things did make me feel overwhelmed, but at the same time, I knew the Lord would work it out.  I could feel Him with us throughout the WHOLE ordeal.  The whole time we were waiting to move, I thought that was a faith exercise.  Now, we know that the Lord was helping us practice our faith so it would be strong when all of this happened.  Isn’t that amazing?!  He is SO good! 

Have you made the connection that M and I could have been behind him when the wreck happened, which could have put us in danger, as well??  I’m pretty certain that the Lord sent us ahead for that very reason.  Sure, it was a difficult drive for me by myself the night before, but the alternative would have been much worse.  The Lord was protecting M and I.  

I mentioned this a while back, but here are two verses He sent me:

“Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you and you will honor me.” – Psalm 50:15 

(We DID call on Him, He DID deliver us, and now I want to honor Him by telling y’all how amazing He was through it!)

“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; struck down, but not destroyed.” – 2 Corinthians 4:8-9

(We did feel like we were being attacked by evil and discouragement, but we knew it would be okay, because the Lord has taken care of us SO many times.  All of this happened while we were in the process of following where He was leading us.  OF COURSE the devil is going to feel threatened by that!  If God wants us somewhere, then the devil most certainly does NOT want us there.  We knew the Lord would take care of us.)

We still have a ways to go, and there are still a lot of things going on, but He is still taking care of us.  I’ll keep sharing with y’all more of the things He has done!

Mainly, I'm just trying to convey how AMAZING the Lord is.  I could tell you all sorts of amazing things about Him, but I feel that telling our story speaks volumes more about Him.  We would not be where we are, or who we are, without Him.  It's my prayer that this will encourage y'all, and draw others to Him.  If you want to talk about anything, leave a comment, or email me at lovinggodwhilelivingsimply@gmail.com.  I would LOVE to hear from you.  :)  

Y'all have a happy week!!  :)

A New Beginning... (Part Four)

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

On August 13^th, J’s mom bought a new vehicle.  My car was getting a little old, and we had some major problems with it in the past.  It was working fine, but we had been planning on getting another used vehicle as soon as possible.  While we were working on the house that day, his mom called and asked if we were interested in her old car.  We said no at first, because it was a small standard vehicle, which I have only driven a couple of times, and we needed more room for the car seat.  However, after he got off the phone, we discussed it further and decided it might be a good idea after all.  I was still concerned about it, but we decided that it was a blessing, and told her we’d love to have it.

A couple of weeks later, we received another call from J’s grandmother, who had also just bought another vehicle.  She and her husband were offering us their old car, which was two years newer than my own car, and also a bit roomier!  We didn’t want to accept it at first, because it felt like too great of a gift.  However, we did need it, and they wanted to give it to us.  We finally accepted it, and I loved it!  How often do you hear about somebody being offered two vehicles in two weeks?!  The Lord saw our need, and once again, He provided.

On August 30^th, three days after he applied, he got a call for a phone interview that evening.  The company didn’t want him to drive all that way unless he sounded like he might be a good fit for them, which was considerate.  However, this also made us a little nervous.  It’s hard to make a good impression over the phone sometimes.  They hammered him with questions, and he answered them easily, which impressed them.  They asked him to come for an interview the following Friday.  We were very excited! 

His plan was to go down the day before and look at some places to live.  He called me that night and told me he had looked at a couple of places, and they were alright.  I kept wanting him to elaborate, but he just didn’t sound enthusiastic about either of them and wouldn’t give me any details.  This bothered me, because although I didn’t expect to move into a really nice place, I also didn’t want to move into a dump.  I was worried about it, but the Lord kept reminding me that He has taken care of us many times, so I needed to trust Him. 

The next day, Jarrod’s interview went very well, and he got the job!  Plus, his new boss even told us the company would cover some of our moving expenses!!  The company is faith based, which is a very good fit for J.

On top of that, the Lord had provided us a nice place to live!  I asked him where he saw the listing for our place, and he had to think about it for a second.  He realized that he was just passing by, and saw a “For Rent” sign in the yard.  We know that wasn’t a coincidence!  So, within a couple of hours, the Lord gave J a job, and us a place to live.   It was such a relief to see things falling into place after so much waiting!  How amazing is He?!  The Lord truly does provide.

Over the next few days, several things happened.  We listed my car on craigslist, and sold it that afternoon, for a good amount.  We also listed J’s tractor on craigslist, and sold it that evening.  We listed the chickens and sold them very quickly as well.  J’s parents told us they would take our cats.  The Lord was taking care of every single detail.  He is SO very good, more than we can imagine.

The next part gets even more interesting, because we had a major bump in the road.  God continued to take care of us.  I’ll try to write more about that soon!!

To be continued…

A New Beginning... (Part Three)

On August 8^th, J decided to apply for another job with the same company.  They had another position that he qualified for, that would be open until filled.  That sounds promising, right?  If J was qualified and they liked him, why wouldn’t they give him the job, or at least call him for an interview?  So, we continued to wait on the first job, but now we had another option.  I felt confident that we were going to ‘Auburn’, I just wasn’t sure that this was the job the Lord had in mind. 

Days kept passing, and we never heard anything.  We figured no news was good news, so we kept praying.  One day I just decided to go look up the listing of one of the jobs he applied for.  I noticed that at the bottom of the webpage, it said that background checks would be run on finalists.  They had sent him a form to fill out for a background check, so this was very encouraging news to us!  I thought it was really strange that I even noticed that sentence.  I had only skimmed the job description, but I happened to notice that.  I truly believe that this was the Lord giving us the tiniest bit of encouragement to keep holding on and knowing that He was leading us. 

  

On August 17^th, the first job posting was taken down.  We weren’t sure if that was good or bad, but J was still hopeful.  I wasn’t feeling very hopeful about it, although I still believed we would get to ‘Auburn’ eventually.  It was a little stressful at times, believing that something would happen, while not knowing how or when it would actually happen!  All we could do was keep having faith and praying!

The next day, we had a setback.  We found out the second job had been filled, but we still hadn’t heard anything about the first job.  

A couple of days later, J asked me if I thought he should apply for other jobs in ‘Auburn’.  I told him yes, because again, I was never sure that he was meant to have a job at the first place.  He applied for another job or two, but we didn’t think much about them.  On August 27^th, he found a job listing on craigslist.  The website of the job posting mentioned that their company was built on ‘Biblical Principles’ in their mission statement.  This was very appealing to us, so J wrote a short email and included his resume.  On his other cover letters or emails when applying for jobs, he had tried to catch their attention by telling them reasons why he would be a good match for their company.  This time, he decided to write a minimal amount in his email, trusting that if this was where the Lord wanted him, then He would make it happen.  In other words, he surrendered all control to the Lord.  If it DID happen, that would give us even more reason to believe that it was all the Lord’s doing, not our own.  We felt good about this one.

The very next day, he got a call for an interview!  It was funny, because we had been waiting so long, but I wasn’t very surprised when he called to tell me about the interview.  Obviously, the Lord had given us peace and confidence about this job.  

Later, we were discussing a passage from the Bible that J had read earlier.  It was Mark 8:14-21.  In this passage, Jesus had just fed thousands of people from only 7 loaves of bread, and a few small fish.  Not only that, but they had seven baskets of bread left over after everyone had been fed!  Look a few verses down…

The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. ¹⁵ “Be careful,” Jesus warned them. “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.”

 ¹⁶ They discussed this with one another and said, “It is because we have no bread.”
 ¹⁷ Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? ¹⁸ Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? 
¹⁹ When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?”
   “Twelve,” they replied.
   ²⁰ “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?”
 They answered, “Seven.”
 ²¹ He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”


Translation:  "I'm taking care of this.  Wait on my timing."


This is what we felt like He was saying to us.  He has proven Himself to us again and again, which sounds silly, because He's God.  He doesn't HAVE to prove Himself to ANYONE.  Our five years of marriage have been very adventurous with all the things He has done in our life together.  There have been so many times that we have done things that seemed crazy, but He gave us the boldness to do it, and He has always blessed us for following Him.  So, here we were again, about to do something crazy, and waiting on His timing.  Why shouldn't we trust Him with this??  His timing is perfect, because He sees everything that we can't see yet.  


God's timing is perfect.  You'll see what I mean soon!  :)  To be continued...


Hope y'all have a fabulous weekend!!  :)

A New Beginning... (Part Two)

Since we had committed to believing we were moving, it was time to make some changes.  We had to do something with the animals.  We had three outdoor cats, three pigs (one we would butcher), two chickens, and a rooster.

A man had contacted J a few months earlier asking about the pigs.  The breed we had was somewhat rare around our area, so he was interested in buying piglets.  We didn’t have any piglets yet, but J planned on contacting him once we did.  At this point, he remembered this man, and contacted him, asking if he was interested in taking the pigs, because the female would be ready to have piglets very soon.  He was interested, and we received $550 for them.  Again, this seems like a small thing, but we kept thinking of how the Lord orchestrated this months ago.  He made the man contact us earlier, when we had no idea that we would be moving, so we would have someone to sell them to now. 

That very day, we received a medical bill for $555.  So, we sold the pigs for $5 less than the medical bill.  Jarrod had agreed on the price for the pigs before we got the mail.  Coincidence?  I think not.  God was taking care of us. 

J had also applied for a different job in a town near our house, and decided to withdraw that application.  If we believed we were going to Texarkana, then we better act like it and have faith! 

I had moments of feeling anxious, and other times I would feel calm.  I wasn’t worried about things working out, but I was worried about the moving process, and how my stomach would handle the stress of it all.  We kept that in our prayers as well.  Sometimes my mind can be calm, but my body doesn’t get the memo, and does its own thing.  I did NOT want this to happen.  J kept encouraging me to view the move as an exciting thing, rather than a scary thing.  He was right; I needed to change the way I viewed it.  I was afraid of leaving my “safe zone” and becoming uncomfortable for a while.  Fear is NOT from the Lord.  “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” – 2 Timothy 1:7

There were also moments when I would begin to doubt if we were doing the right thing, but I would immediately try to shut those doubts out.  The Lord had given us peace about it days before, and I tried to focus on those verses that He had brought to our minds.  There was even one day that I was wavering in my faith, and I opened my Bible.  I opened it to a page where the passage title said “Encouragement to be faithful”.  And some people think the Lord doesn’t speak to us anymore.  ;)

We still had not heard anything about the job.  I wondered if maybe the Lord was delaying it so it would cool off a little bit.  After all, we had temperatures above 100 degrees several weeks without rain!  Plus, ironically, we have moved EVERY time in the summer.  It would be nice to move when it was a bit cooler!  I also think he was giving us time to prepare.  You see, we had plans to fix up our house over time.  When the Lord started telling our hearts we would be leaving, we decided we better get to work!  We painted walls, installed new floors, took down border wallpaper, etc.  It doesn’t sound like a lot of work, but we were busy! 

It was so difficult to wait for a call from J, telling me that he had gotten an interview.  My heart started beating quickly every time he called.  I even got annoyed with him a few times, because he would call extra times in the day to tell me something else.  ;)  It was especially discouraging once we reached the weekend and had not heard anything.  It was definitely a time to trust in the Lord and learn to not be anxious.   “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” – Philippians 4:6

One day Jarrod received a daily devotional email talking about Joshua and Jericho, and how Joshua had the faith follow what sounded like a crazy plan to do the Lord’s will, (Joshua 6).  Of course, the Lord calling us to go to a new town wasn’t exactly as crazy as walking around a city, expecting it to fall down on the seventh day, but to outsiders, doesn’t this sound a little crazy?  If you had talked to us around this time, here is what our conversation may have sounded like:

Us:  “Oh, by the way, we’re moving to ‘Auburn’.”

You:  “Oh yeah?  Did you get a new job?”

Us:  “No, but we’re waiting to get one.”

You:  “Did you find a house there or something?”

Us:  “No, but the Lord will find us a place to live.”

You:  “Do you know somebody or have connections up there?”

Us:  “No, the Lord has just given us this desire to move up there.”

You:  "Are y'all crazy??"

Us:  "Maybe a little."  ;)

It seemed crazy.  We didn’t tell anybody, because we knew that it only made sense to us.  We knew that the Lord would provide for every detail, if we trusted Him to do it.  And He did.

To be continued... (told you it was long!)  ;)

Part one here.

A New Beginning... (Part One)

Alright, I'm going to start writing down what has been going on the past few weeks.  This is going to take a long time, so I'm going to break it up into parts.  If you aren't interested, then just stop here.  ;)


It is my hope that this will encourage somebody, and that's why I'm sharing all of this.  As always, please remember that if you want to talk about anything, or have questions about what I'm saying, you can contact us at lovinggodwhilelivingsimply@gmail.com.  :)


I've blogged before about how God brought us to our home (Part One, Part Two, Part Three).  We really thought when we moved last time, that we would be staying there a long time, maybe forever.  Obviously, the Lord had other plans!  Counting our move made almost two weeks ago now, we have moved five times in our five years of marriage!  Whew!  Talk about exhausting... but worth it.  :)


Let's begin, shall we?  In early July, I received a letter from the school where I earned my master's degree.  It was a letter talking about a new doctoral degree program in counseling, which is what my master's degree is in.  I have NEVER considered getting a doctoral degree.  In fact, the only reason I decided to get my master's, is because I couldn't do anything with my bachelor's degree in Psychology!  ;)  When I first read the letter, I disregarded it, thinking that it was silly to even consider going back to school.  After all, I have a little one to take care of now!  Plus, did I even LIKE school that much??  I threw the letter in the trash, but couldn’t stop thinking about it. 

I was shocked that the idea appealed to me at all.  Was it even possible?  It turns out, it was, in theory, at least.  Even though the school is hours away, the degree plan is seminar style, so each class would only last 3-5 days.  The more I thought about it, the more I felt led to apply.  Lately, I had been missing counseling.  I missed helping people, and being involved in it.  I had considered taking out my textbooks and reading them, and we even sold a rooster to a Psychologist!  (I realize that sounds completely random, but the Lord works in ways that seem crazy sometimes!)  These things, although small, added up and made me feel like I should at least apply.  Finally, I talked about it with my husband, and he was very supportive. 

On July 13^th, I decided to apply.  There were many things to work out, such as J having time off of work to travel with me to school a couple of weeks or so each year, but I knew the Lord would work out all of the details.  That evening, he informed me that he had applied for a job in what we’ll call “Auburn”.  He chose to apply for this job because he was so unhappy at his current job, and this particular job appealed to him.  He had worked with the company at another location, so he already had experience with them.  I was surprised.  I had thought we were finally settled, but at the same time, the idea held appeal.  We would be closer to my family, other vacationing spots that we liked to visit occasionally, and we would be a good bit closer to the school, as well.  Of course, this would mean moving again, and leaving the place we had tried so hard to make into a home the past year.  This was a huge decision, and we certainly didn’t want to make the wrong one, so we began to pray for guidance. 

Although it seemed unlikely that it would happen, a big part of us believed it WOULD happen.  We were afraid to commit to believing we would leave though, because we wanted to be content with whatever God chose to do with our lives.  So, we straddled the fence in a way.  We looked at the positives of both sides, and continued to pray. 

At times I would feel freaked out.  If this happened, we would be leaving what had become familiar to go to a brand new place, where we would be starting over, yet again.  I could feel myself clinging to things around me, trying to find comfort in them, while distancing myself at the same time.  It was a struggle to place my comfort in the Lord rather than in my surroundings, but He was helping me. 

On July 21^st, even though absolutely nothing had happened yet, we decided to start believing that we were going, because we both felt that we would.  This is what I wrote in my prayer journal that day:

“Okay, here is what I decided.  I think if I feel strongly that you want us in ‘Auburn’, then I need to have faith that you’ll work it out, even though nothing has happened.”

Here is where the faith exercises really began.  On the outside, nothing had happened.  There wasn’t ANY reason to believe anything would happen.  Yet, in our hearts we felt it.  We believed that this was going to happen.  We didn’t know when, or how, but we believed it.  Everything that we had gone through up to this point in our lives, had prepared us to have this kind of faith.  However, we weren’t naïve.  I knew that because we were trying so hard to follow the Lord, things would be difficult at times.  The devil WOULD try to discourage us, as much as he could. 

There was one day J came home and told me they had extended the deadline for the job he had applied for, and he was discouraged at what this might mean.  We began to discuss that it would be difficult to keep our faith, and then in that very moment, the Lord began bringing verses to our minds.. 

“We live by faith, not by sight.” – 2 Corinthians 5:7

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” – Hebrews 11:1

“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” - John 20:29

To us, this was a huge affirmation that we were heading in the right direction.  We weren’t alone.  J

To be continued…

Part Two here.

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Something Special...

Do you ever feel like God has done something special, just for you?  He didn't have to, but it just feels like He did it... just because?

That's what I feel like He did for me when He sent us these little ones.  :)

Job

Missy

Last November, we had two little kittens show up at our door.  It was a dream come true for me.  :)

We named them Job and Missy.  I knew I needed to get Missy fixed, and I looked around for the best price. I had plans to take her one weekend.  It was that week, that I noticed she was a little bit plumper.  Obviously, she was older than I realized!  So, she had kittens on May 16th.  :)  I didn't have any plans to keep them, because we already had two cats.

I love this picture :)

Sadly, Job got run over a few days later.  :(

I think this is where God did another special thing for me, because in the midst of losing a pet, I had a litter of kittens in our garage to pick a new friend for Missy.  :)

Daisy

Jasper - the keeper :)

Macy

I know it may sound silly, because in the grand scheme of things, why would God care about whether or not I have cats/kittens?

I just think He does.  :)

Our Home - Part Three :) (last part!)

You can read part one here, and part two here.  :)

A few days later, they called us back and gave us a counter-offer.  We had made a very optimistic offer, so we didn’t expect them to accept our first offer.  The counter offer was very good though.  They said they would pay 6% of the closing costs, which our realtor had never heard of them doing, and that they would pay for a 1 year home warranty.  They also said they would fix our air conditioner, which HAD to be done considering we’re in the middle of the summer in Texas.  ;)  We planned on closing on June 30th.  Are you doing the math?  That’s right—we made an offer on this house less than a month after we first saw it, and without looking at other houses.  Crazy, right?  Only if you’re looking at it from your own perspective, and not the Lord’s.  Trust me though—we knew it seemed crazy.  I was really nervous about telling our parents because I feared that they would think we were crazy.  In fact, I didn’t mention how quickly it all happened at first, because anybody’s first reaction would be to worry that we were making a poor decision.  However, we knew that the Lord had brought us to this point, so we followed His leading.  So, we started packing.  Fun.  Especially with an almost 2 month old baby.  ;)

  

I was still concerned about J working so far away from us.  I know people commute all the time, but at this point, I was still very new at the whole motherhood thing and wanted him nearby.  He had been looking online for jobs in "Townville", and found one listing on Craigslist.  Just one job listing in "Townville".  It had no details about how much it paid, the benefits, the hours he’d have to work, or really any details at all about what the job required.  All he knew was that it was in "Townville", so he applied for it.  A week later, on June 22nd, he went in for an interview.  We continued to pray that if God didn’t want him to have this job, then he wouldn’t get it.  We also prayed that if God DID want him to have the job, then He would help the interview to go smoothly and that He would influence those who interviewed J in his favor.  

  

The interview went really well.  J was interviewed by the owner of the company who told him that he would get back to him very soon.  Of course, we didn’t know how soon ‘very soon’ meant.  We felt like he would get the job, but we didn’t know for sure.  We just kept praying that the Lord’s will would be done.  (I told y’all we prayed a lot—I wasn’t exaggerating!)  A few days later, J found out that he had gotten the job!  Not only that, but we were getting insurance immediately!  This was PERFECT, considering that our old insurance would be ending the day before our new insurance began.  Coincidence?  I think not.  With this new job, he’d only be 15-20 minutes away from home, and would be working 8-5.  We were SO happy and thankful.  Everything was going SO smoothly that it couldn’t have been anything but the Lord working everything out!

  

We ended up closing on July 1st and moved in the next couple of days.  It was a whirlwind!  What would you think if a friend came up to you and said, “Guess what??  I just saw a house in a different town and am going to buy it without looking at any other houses!  Not only that, but I’m going to buy it and move into it all in a little over a month!  Oh, and we’re going to do it all while being new parents with a newborn baby!”  What would you think?  Crazy.  That’s what I would think.  That’s what I DID think.  Thankfully, this is NOT how God thinks.  He sees what He wants for us, and tries to tell us what He wants us to do.  When we listen and follow His guidance, He works out the details.  This isn’t the first time He’s worked fast in our lives.  In 2007, we decided to move from Texas to Missouri to go to graduate school.  We decided this in May or June and moved in August.  We didn’t even know where we were going to live until 2 weeks before we moved, but we knew He’d provide.  When we were wondering if we would move back to Texas in 2009, we found out he had gotten a job, found a house to rent the next day, and moved back all in a matter of two weeks.  Later that same year, we had been trying to decide when we should start trying to have a baby.  One evening, we discussed it and just decided that the timing was right.  I found out that I was pregnant with M a month later without letting any of our family know that we were even trying to have a baby.  Let me point out that God gave us boldness to step out of our comfort zone and do things that seemed crazy.  God has worked out BIG things in our lives VERY quickly.  So a lot of things have seemed crazy in our lives and very scary, but every time that we have followed these ideas that seemed out of the blue and crazy, He has blessed us SO much.  Will things always be perfect when we follow Him?  Nope.  Life is hard, and following Christ is hard.  However, it’s also easier than not following Him in some ways.  We ALWAYS have hope.  We ALWAYS have a friend who understands EVERYTHING we’re going through, when nobody else can.  When we have accepted Him as our Lord and Savior, we always have the hope of eternity in Heaven one day.  

  

I’m so very thankful that God thinks big for our lives.  If you had told us a year ago that we would be living in our own house out in the country, and that we would have a vegetable garden, kittens, chickens and pigs, I would have laughed in your face.  Not because I didn’t want it, but because I never expected it would have come true.  We are blessed, and we are thankful for all His blessings. God is good, and that’s an understatement.

As always, if there is anybody that wants to talk about any of this, leave a comment or contact us.  I love making new friends!  :)

Have a happy Wednesday!  :)

Our Home - Part Two :)

See part one here.

We prayed constantly.  We always asked that the Lord would give us guidance, and that He would stop us from moving forward if He didn’t want us to buy the house.  In fact, we pleaded that He would stop us if it went against His will for our lives.  We did NOT want this house if it wasn’t what He wanted for us.  We finally decided to call the realtor on Memorial Weekend to see if we could go take a look inside the house.  J was off that Monday, so we were hoping the realtor could meet us at the house that afternoon.  Sure enough, God was at work, and we were able to go look at the house that afternoon.  The house looked like it was in good shape.  I was slightly disturbed at the sight of a dead mouse on the floor of the kitchen, but the house hadn’t been cleaned yet, and we were out in the country after all.  (At least he was dead!)  There was a bird nest in the utility room because of a huge hole in the wall where the dryer vent should be.  I also had to escape a wasp in another part of the house, and saw a spider in one of the bedrooms.  I was used to bugs when I was growing up, but since then I had lived in apartments where bugs were seen less often.  So, I knew this was something I would have to accept and that I just had to get used to it again.  (This was actually one of the things on the ‘con’ list, haha!)  

There were definitely some things that needed upgrading and the land needed to be cleaned up, but overall, things looked good.  In fact, it looked much better than it did in the pictures online.  Honestly, the pictures online were pretty awful.  They really didn’t do justice to the house or the land at all.  After taking a look around, we realized that the house would need some work, but nothing major, which was a huge blessing.  We honestly believe that the Lord made it so the pictures online wouldn’t attract very many people, so it would be saved for us.  There were only 4-5 pictures, and they were taken at some bad angles.  They didn’t capture the beauty of the land or the potential of the house.  It's actually pretty strange that it even caught our attention.  It was no doubt the Lord!  In fact, the main reasons this house captured our attention was because of the price and the amount of land.  We had already decided before that we would rather buy an older house that we could fix up that was on some land, than have a new house in a neighborhood. This was a perfect opportunity for us.

We discussed the house more as we drove back home, and J asked me if I could see us living there.  I tried to picture it, but it wasn’t really easy.  I felt myself being pulled in two different directions.  I loved the idea of ‘living our dream’ out in the country, but again, I LOVED the house we were already living in.  I didn’t know what I wanted, and I was glad it wasn’t up to us to decide.  We were truly trying to trust the Lord to answer our prayers and stop our progress if we weren’t meant to buy the house.  

The first week of June, we decided to make an offer on the house.  That’s right… we saw the house online and placed an offer within a couple of weeks.  Crazy, right?  We felt that the Lord had brought us to that point and that we should move forward.  All the while we continued to pray that if He didn’t want us to buy it, our offer would be flat out rejected and that we wouldn’t be able to move forward any more.  I was still really scared about the whole thing.  I had complete faith that if we were meant to have the house, the Lord would provide for us and would help it happen smoothly.  Everything up to this point had happened smoothly.  What I had difficulty with was believing completely that He would stop us if we were making the wrong decision.  I questioned if we could be rebelling against Him without even realizing it.  We wouldn’t want to go against Him on purpose, but could we be wanting this house so much that we were ignoring what He really wanted for us??  As I prayed, I began to believe that because we were sincerely praying for His will to be done, that we weren’t rebelling.  I wanted to have faith… I didn’t want to doubt that He would take care of us.  I’ll give you a peek into what I wrote in my prayer journal about this on June 7, 2010.  

“It’s weird—I have faith that if you want us to live there, you’ll make it happen.  What I’m having trouble with is having faith that you’ll prevent us from getting it if it isn’t your will.  In my heart I know you can do all things.  My head just doesn’t always believe.  Forgive me Lord—give me faith!  I WANT to believe more and not doubt.  I’m kinda ashamed of myself actually.  The devil whispers in my ear and I doubt.  Keep him from us!  This is what I know—you can do ALL things, and we are your children.  You have a plan for us.  If this is what you want, you’ll make it happen.  If it isn’t, you’ll stop it.  We’ve prayed for this, and prayed sincerely.  If we were rebelling, I could see you allowing us to make a mistake to learn from it.  Because we are seeking you so much, I don’t think you’d let us make a mistake.  Is that right?”

At that very moment, a scripture popped into my head.  I didn’t know if I was remembering it correctly, so I looked it up. This was the scripture HE sent me.  

“I lift my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from?  My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and Earth.  He will not let your foot slip—He who watches over you will not slumber.” – Psalm 121:1-3

Can I just say WOW?!  What an amazing answer to my prayers!  He assured me that He was there and that as long as we were truly seeking His will, He would help us to make the right decisions.  I was relieved and in awe!

Part three (the final part) coming up tomorrow.  :)

Our Home - Part One :)

I wanted to share with y'all the story of how we bought our home.  I know, it sounds boring, and it probably IS boring to some, but to us, it is amazing.  It's a testimony of how God works things out when we trust Him.  It's my hope that this will encourage at least ONE person.  This will be three parts, so if you end up reading this, stay tuned.  :)


Let's rewind to May of 2010.  Sweet M had just turned one month old, and we were trying to adjust to our new life. It was very difficult for me though.  I have a hard time dealing with life-altering changes, but at the same time, I suppose a lot of people do.  Anyway, around this time, other things started changing.  My husband considered applying for another job in town.  This was pretty surprising, but I didn't mind what he did because I wanted him to be happy.  He ended up not getting that job, but I believe that this was the first step in pointing us in a new direction.  

We were also attending a large church in town that I LOVED.  I mean seriously loved.  I really enjoyed going and looked forward to it every week.  At this point, we were only making it to Sunday morning service because we had a newborn, but I enjoyed it nonetheless!  One Sunday, J mentioned that he really liked our church, but he missed going to a smaller one.  I wasn't surprised that he felt that way, because although he really liked the church too, I think I enjoyed it more.  Well, once he said this, I began to see his point.  I still loved our church, but I began to feel like maybe we should be in a smaller place where we would know everyone.  That seems to be more of our style anyway.  This really bothered me, because we had finally found a place I loved, and here I was starting to feel somewhat convicted about switching again.  I was afraid I wouldn't be strong enough to leave this church to go to a different one in town.  We had already visited several of them and I didn't like any of them nearly as much.  Our greatest desire is to do what the Lord wants us to do though, so I wanted to follow Him.  I decided to not worry about it too much until the Lord led us elsewhere.

A little bit of background on my husband and I for those who don't know:  We both grew up in the country (in separate towns) and LOVED it.  We lived away from town and enjoyed it.  We were used to having to drive a ways to get to a Walmart or anything like it.  We have always known that we wanted to have some land of our own one day in the country.  I knew it might not happen, and that if it did, we may be in our 60's or 70's before we could afford to make this dream come true. In the town where we were previously living, we were renting a nice house on the edge of town in a neighborhood.  It wasn't the way we wanted to live forever, but we planned on being there several years, and we really loved our town. We both desired our own home in the country of course, but J desired it most of all.  He's very outdoorsy.  The man LOVES to be outside and to work on things out there.  He liked our home as well, but he didn't have the space or freedom to do the things outside he wanted.  I know it sounds silly, but to me, it really seemed like he was like a caged bird in some ways.  Because of this, he always enjoyed looking at land for sale online.  He had been looking just for fun for years, and occasionally he would show me something that looked really nice.  (He's so cute.)

One evening, I was dying to get out of the house, and we had a gift card to a grocery store in another town nearby (we'll call it 'Townville',  just for privacy reasons).  We decided to make a fun trip out of it and go to this town that we had never visited.  While we were driving out there, we noticed the land was very pretty, and the town was small.  After we bought our groceries, we went home, and that was that.  Or so I thought.

A few nights later after M was in bed, he called me into the office and showed me a house for sale in Townville.  It was an old house--built in the 40's.  The pictures of it weren't impressive, but it was a really good price and had a good portion of land.  I just kinda humored him, nodding my head and saying "Oh yeah, that's cool."  I figured it was just another one of those times he was showing me something for the fun of it.  


Wrong again.  


Before I knew it, he suggested that we go take a look at the house.  I was all for this, because I was excited for any excuse to leave the house.  So M took a nap in the car seat while we took our drive out to this house.  Upon first sight, I still wasn't very impressed.  It's not that it looked bad--it was cute in some ways, but it needed some cleaning up.  The grass was tall and there were a lot of fences and weeds.  We looked around a little bit and then headed home.  As we drove home, we talked about it a little bit, and I realized that we were seriously discussing the possibility of buying this house.  

I think it’s important to note that we were content where we were living.  We weren’t looking for something because we were miserable or disliked our home.  The reason I think it’s important to tell y’all that is because it shows you even more that THIS WAS ALL GOD!  

We discussed the pros and cons of buying the house.  We even made a list!  It would definitely be something we had to put a lot of work into, but it had a lot of potential.  It was in a small town out in the country on several acres of land, which was the dream.  There was a school nearby that had a VERY good reputation, and we had already had some concerns about where M would go to school one day.  We'd have to pay for the down-payment and everything that goes along in the process of buying a house, but we were already 'throwing away' a chunk of money on rent.  I was terrified at the idea of moving in general, because moving is SO difficult.  We had only lived at our home for almost a year, and I SO didn't want to pack up and move AGAIN.  I was so exhausted and hated the idea of packing WHILE taking care of a newborn.  I worried about how I would handle the whole process emotionally as well as physically.  I worried about J not finding a job in Townville and having stay in our old town at his old job, which was almost an hour away.  I was worried about EVERYTHING.  (Keep in mind that we're still only in May, so I'm still emotional from giving birth!)  We decided that the best thing we could do was just pray and ask the Lord for wisdom and guidance.  

To be continued... ;)

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