PART 2/4
TAP TO LISTEN
As a mom with many moves under my belt, after a clear understanding from God with the peace that came with every prayer, I went straight into going through the mom move list. First up was school for the boys. Matt and I both went to school in Gadsden where we would be moving, but both had a feeling that we wanted them to experience school for themselves and not follow in our footsteps. We loved our school experience at Southside, but we both knew we wanted them to have their own way. Westbrook was what we both felt would be best for all three of our boys. I wanted them to have a deeper understanding of the Bible at their young ages and Westbrook would open up this opportunity for them along with it being a great school. With much prayer, family connections and friends after two weeks of emails and calls, Westbrook was full for the upcoming year and no spots were available in the grades the boys were going into. After fasting and prayer, I still felt like Westbrook was the answer, but on an earthly level the answer was no. Then one day after intentional fasting and prayer I woke up to an email letting us know that the boys all had a spot in the school. Sometimes it is easy to take the earthly no as a sign that you are going down the wrong road. I knew with the peace that we had in our decision that God would move mountains and He did in a big way. Sometimes no’s are for our protection and some no’s lead us into a deeper relationship with our Savior revealing the importance of thanks in all circumstances.
We were walking into so many unknowns with this decision while carrying an invisible sense of peace in the midst of not understanding much. None of this was easy and my nervous system felt like it was on fire from the morning of our first conversation about this and still is in a way. We were walking out of a perfectly calm beautiful comfortable bubble into some unknowns that God was clearly leading us into. I knew the days of questioning everything would come and go. This was going to be our seventh move as a family and the wrestling with God through constant prayer was on the horizon. God knew I would bring all this to Him long before I did and that gave me such comfort through all these uncomfortable unknowns. So as I was processing this move and trying to figure out all the details, questions raced through my mind. How will the boys handle this move? How do we explain God is in this when we barely understand it for ourselves? This is where faith is lived out. This is where obedience to God is the only way. This is where we step aside and watch all the prayers for wisdom and understanding come alive. This is when God reveals Himself to us, just like I had prayed over the past year to see and feel happen. God was moving and we were feeling it. There was no way I could be upset about any of that!
Some days within the month of all of this starting up I felt like I was living under a large storm cloud, in the shadow of it all watching it from a distance while things almost seemed to be happening supernaturally all around us. To obey God when it all aligns with your own plan is pretty easy, but this obedience felt deeper because it took some shifting and renewing of our minds while our hearts were completely softened to God’s plan of leading us out of the desert and into the south. The house projects on our list of to-do’s were marked off one-by-one. Selling everything we didn’t need to move with us was all in order. This is where being a minimalist really comes in handy. I can sort, give away and sell pretty quickly. Every sell felt like an opportunity to share a little dose of Jesus with people I had never met. With a smile, a listening ear, a price that was unheard of. None of the stuff that we gather in our homes is worth much once you realize it is just stuff. God had walked me through this lesson many years ago in Honduras while on a medical mission there. He clearly revealed to me the most joyful people that I had ever met were the Honduran people that walked barefoot, had red dirt floors and knew the love of Jesus and the provision of Jesus on a level I had never understood before. I’ve never been attached to items in our home since coming home from that trip. I could sell everything in our home, minus our family photo albums, because I know that if we have Jesus in our hearts and have the seven of us together, including the dogs, then that is truly all we need. The rest was just beautiful fluff that I was very capable of donating and selling opening up an avenue to follow more closely to what God had for us. We sold almost every piece of furniture within a few weeks and had the house almost ready to be photographed for the market.
Matt had a long list of projects that he was completing on top of having his real full time job.. A big part of that to-do list was painting the exterior of the house. I knew Matt would not have the time or energy to paint the house. Could he paint the house was not the question. I knew he could, but I really wanted him to let someone else help him. I had gone out to pick up groceries one Sunday afternoon, the week before we had planned to get the house on the market and by the time I got back there was a painters truck blocking our driveway. I parked my car and walked up to the house. My first thought was why in the world would someone block our driveway then Matt met me at the door saying, this guy just walked up to our door and asked if he and his crew could paint our house this week. My mindset shifted from the blocked driveway to thank you Jesus for sending this man. Thank you for taking this task off of us. They painted the house and cleaned up the outside beautifully. As they painted they cleaned up the roof taking another thing off of our list to do. The fourth and final morning of work, they started early and we were all getting ready to head to school. Porter was in the bathroom brushing his teeth and I heard a sound that sounded like someone or something fell through the ceiling. I ran to the back just in time to see Porter dart out of the bathroom as fast as he could. One of the workers legs fell through the sky light and there was glass everywhere. Thank God, no one was hurt. Things like that puts everything in perspective and opens our eyes fully to what really matters. Our to-do list for the house was done, but more importantly we all were healthy and safe with a roof over our heads. God was in every circumstance. The good, the bad and the hard. He was in every detail and revealing Himself all along the way. We felt ready mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically to list the house.
Our realtors were the same realtors that helped us buy our Arizona house just four short years ago. She was the boys emergency contact on their school forms the first year we moved here because we didn’t know anyone when God led us out west. I trusted her and knew she would tell me truth about the house and how the market was going. Our meeting was quick and she and her husband both kept it real with us saying, “look the rates are high and the market isn’t moving much.” I knew God had not brought us this far in this decision to leave us now. I trusted God would move in a big way. I told her in my prayers, I felt like God was saying, “watch this!” The house was scheduled to be photographed the next day. The house was clean and the pool was as clean as it would be with living in the desert. The morning of the photographs, I noticed that our pool had been a good landing spot for the wind storm that had rolled in the night before. I surrendered to that and beautiful photos of our home were taken. There are many things we can be active about and make better, the pool wasn’t on my list that day. The house went live on a Thursday. We didn’t plan on having an open house unless we just had to because the boys were in the middle of baseball season and Saturdays were kinda off the table. If you have ever sold a house with dogs in the picture, you know exactly what I mean. Again, my nervous system is still on fire throughout this process even though I know that God is fully in control of all things. Keeping a house clean with three children, two dogs and a husband is equal to brushing your teeth while eating an oreo.. It is nearly impossible, but God was saying through every step, “with man this is impossible, but with Him all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26
The house was on the market and I was in constant prayer. The day after the house went on the market, it was a Friday and I had a full day of errands and things to do on my off day. As much as I needed to get my to-do list done for my mental clarity, I felt an even stronger sense that I needed to stay home to pray throughout our house. I walked the halls and into each room covering the house in prayers. I was filled with so much gratitude for this house that God walked us into buying four years ago. I needed this day alone in the house in continuous prayer with God as He met me exactly where I was. It felt like this was a day of closure for me and it had nothing to do with the house itself, but everything to do with the chapter that was closing within myself. I’ll never forget this day. God took me back to who I once was before I knew the quietness of the desert, before I recognised His provision within the birds, before I had to watch my every step and observe my surroundings before responding and more importantly God healed parts of me that I never knew healing would even be possible. Our move to Arizona was much bigger than a job moving us here. It was where God became very real for our boys and all three asked Jesus to be their Lord and Savior. Arizona will forever be the place that taught us that our home is not a place but that God is our home and if we remain in Him, He will remain in us. (John 15.4)
To be continued.
All glory to God.
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” Psalm 46.1
Family photo by Christine Johnson