We're here!!

I've been meaning to write a little bit about our recent move, but I have been busy - you can imagine!!

I have to start off with saying that I think my faith was weak...but that I also believed that God was in control and would provide what we needed even if it meant financial hardship for us. But in the last two months, waiting for what was God's provision for us was extremely hard and, at times, I was not sure that anything would really happen. And to add to that - if you read my last blog post...I also had some medical concerns that were very frightening. I'm so happy to say that the tests came out okay - no cancer or anything! We were so extremely thankful for this as it only heightened my anxiety last week!

Our "family verse" (started out at our wedding!) has always been Proverbs 3:5&6 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart and in all your ways acknowledge Him and he shall direct your paths". This was on the cover of our wedding program that Tim, David's brother, designed, and for a gift, he gave us a large print of this that has been hanging in our home ever since.

We have definitely seen God just directing our path in this whole move as we did our last move. In fact, all six of us can look back at our move to Oklahoma and count the number of ways in which God was working in our lives to change us and to grow us and to bless us! And so - we look to this move to Austin and wonder how/what God will do in our lives here.

Since we have known we would be moving for the last six months, we knew a few things had to happen: we needed a place to live, we needed someone to buy or rent our home in OK, and we needed to all be living together!!

We spent the spring looking at homes to buy and excited about some of the possibilities but knowing that we had to sell our home first. We put our home on the market March 7th and spent some money and decluttered...and NOBODY even looked at it!! We had it on the market for almost 4 months with even one person to look. After some phone calls to some area realtors, it became apparent that it just was not looking good for the economy where we lived and the homes that were selling were all foreclosures.

So we began the search for looking for a rental home in Austin and putting ours up for rent in OK. David was working in Austin and had found a "room to rent" in a very big house near Lake Travis. He had a wonderful situation, and we were so thankful. He was also able to come home for a week at a time and work from home, so when he came home, he could stay for awhile. Things had worked out well for us so far. But in May, we also realized that he couldn't rent a home unless he was ready to move in right away because they were going fast in Austin! So, we waited until June 1st as we had planned a move-out day of June 30th. That was our plan.

David was coming home the weekend of June 13th, so he had permission from his boss to come home and stay until we moved then. He left our home May 15th after Jon's graduation and began to look for a home to rent. He couldn't really look until after June 1st...and then, would you believe, there weren't many options available where we were looking! Since the girls will be attending a Christian school in the area, we were hoping to find a place within 15 minutes of the school. And - our realtor was out of town on vacation and just wasn't as helpful looking for a rental as she had been for a home to buy!!

So - here we are with just a couple of weeks to finalize where we would live and there weren't many options. On the Sunday before David was to come home, he still did not have anything that would work for us and the realtor only had one home to look at and the renters there weren't cooperative, so he couldn't even look at that one! He remembers that night before church just going through the list of homes that we had looked at to buy that were close to the school and picking about four of them. He asked the realtor to see if any of them would be willing to rent to us. On Sunday afternoon, he got a call from her saying there was one who was willing to talk about it with us and show David the home. It was truly an answer to prayer! That last week that David was in Austin, we were able to apply for and get approved to rent this home - and it is almost perfect for us! And the amazing thing was it wouldn't be ready until August 1st, so we had another month to figure out what to do about our home in Oklahoma AND David's boss gave him permission to work from home until that time. Also - the guy David was renting a room from allowed him to just pay half the rent in June and so he was out of that rental situation, too!

So now, we have a place to live! And would you believe that we are just a block from the school?! Already it's been wonderful as we've had a couple of meetings to go to and it's so close!

One of the things we have loved about life for us and living under God's timing and His provision and leading is that we can see Him work in all of our housing situations since we've been married! As I recount them in my mind, I just am filled with joy overflowing!!

Anyway, in spite of this, I think I was still worried that we would have to leave our OK home without renters or empty or something. It was pretty scary for me looking at that possibility not only because of the financial risks but because of the risk to our home leaving it empty, etc.

In the middle of July, we had a couple come out to look at the house. This couple kind of reminds me of the devil in disguise! They had the one thing going for them that was so tempting - they had money! For some reason, this young man's Indian tribe in California pays their members $13,000/month!! So he and his girlfriend and their baby son came to look at our place. They were not married, they both smoked, they were pretty messy (at least their car was), and they had two pit bulls!! Oh my!! They were ready to rent it for August, too! But after a call to my realtor the next day, there was no way our company would cover pit bulls in our homeowner's insurance, and she told me to steer away from anyone with those kinds of dogs.

So - we had to tell them no. That was hard!! I don't think David was struggling like I was...he was the calm for me and kept telling me to just trust the Lord. He was going to take us through this and would provide what we needed!

The next week - one week before our move, we lowered the price. We had one couple (not married) come look at it, but I think it was just way over their heads. They took the application and then didn't call or come back. But on Tuesday evening, the night before we were to leave, we had an e-mail from a guy that said this..."If you'll lower the price to ..., we're you're family". His signature had "R.N." by it, so that was at least intriguing for us because he had a real job!

So David wrote him back and said - we can't lower it that far, but could probably come to another number. If he was okay with that - then could he tell us why we should rent to them. Then we got a nice long note from this young man telling us all kinds of wonerful things!!! He was a Christian, married and had four kids under 10! He and his wife homeschooled their children and she was part of a ministry called Kids of Virtue (or something like that). He had just finished his R.N. training in Little Rock and had just taken a job at the hospital in Siloam Springs and they would be moving out here very soon!

We were both kind of like in awe!! This was the perfect family we were looking for in our home! He came out Thursday and looked at it and loved it! He even came back on Friday to sign the lease and get his membership cards from Flint Ridge, etc, and got the key!! This home was an answer to their prayers as they had wanted to live out of the city but in a nice home that was big enough for them to grow in! And we desperately needed renters! He had lunch with us on Thursday and we so enjoyed getting to know him. He is hoping to join the National Guard and also do medical missions as God allows.

So, you can see that we are just sitting back at this point and just saying WOW!!! God is so good! How could I NOT trust Him?!! Thank you Lord!!!