Our life has been a whirlwind of change and uncertainty since March and even more chaotic since we left Idaho on June 14
th. Since we left Idaho we have seen God work in so many different ways I can't begin to chronicle each one of them, but I feel I must share what He has been doing.
We are so thankful that we have been able to live in this "temporary" home for the last two months. It has been wonderful to have our own space during this transition time. But we haven't been able to feel quite at home since we aren't in our house and we're using other people things. I'm always afraid that we're going to mess something up or break something that can't be replaced. But I'm so thankful we've had a roof over our head and to top it all off, one we haven't had to pay for. This family has been more than generous to us and they don't even know us.
But, our time here is coming to a quick end as they are returning on September 8
th. We've been looking at options and praying that we would do what God wanted us to do. We've looked at places to live but we had to sign a years lease or they wanted first, last and security deposit which would not only clean out all the money we had but take more than what we had. So I started praying a few weeks ago, that God would show us a place to live where they wouldn't care that we didn't have jobs, we didn't want to sign a lease and that we had two small children. I know it seems like a tall order, right.
On Tuesday, I started calling places in the paper again. Every place I called had just been rented that morning. Feeling very discouraged I called one last place that said it was being rented by the owner. I though just maybe this person will be flexible. I called to ask about the lease and he said we could do whatever we wanted, sign a lease or month to month. One request answered. Second, I asked the rent and what other things he would need. All he wanted was the first and last month's rent. No deposit, no application fee, no credit check. Second Request answered. We went to see the place. It's an adorable little duplex where the owner lives on the other side. It has 3 HUGE bedrooms, two bathrooms, lovely little kitchen with tons of cabinets and a dishwasher. Love the dishwasher! Jokingly the man said something about when we move our furniture in and we laughed since we only have beds right now. The man said he was willing to loan us a bed if we needed one. He's so sweet. As we were talking we told him we didn't have jobs and he didn't seem to mind that. Tell me that isn't an answer to prayer.
So Bill and I prayed about it for 24 hours. We decided that the only thing we're afraid about was the money. Since we don't have any money coming in right now it's scary to spend a large chunk of money. Let me back up, it's scary to go to the grocery store some days not knowing when more money is coming in. But we both felt like God was telling us to take a huge step of faith and move into this place. It is very scary. Steps of faith, especially big ones are very scary at this point in our life. But we had to take this step.
If you remember about a month ago God provided us with a washer and dryer. I knew He was going to provide us with a place to put it, I just didn't know how. Now He has provided a place to put that washer/dryer. Then we start thinking about furniture since we don't even have a place to sit or a table to put a lamp on and for that matter, not even a lamp. Not having much money now we agreed we would buy the things that were essential right now and then when money came in we'd get things a little at a time. Talking to my Mom yesterday afternoon she was asking what we needed. I gave her a huge list. About an hour later she called back to say that one of the Pastors at the church where she worked sent out his regular email and included that we needed some things to set up our house. Someone called her and said they have tons of furniture they are looking to get rid of and we can come on Sunday and basically go shopping. We are so excited to see what new furniture we're gonna get.
Today Mom and I unpacked the kitchen and it was so much fun to open the cabinets and see my own dishes in them. There's a place for almost everything and it's so wonderful. Sometimes I tend to think if I'm going to wait on God to provide something for us it's most likely going to be used, or outdated, or not quite what I wanted, but it's usable and we are always thankful for anything that God provides. I am so excited though that this time we have some really nice things. We're excited to see exactly what God's going to do over the next few months. This journey hasn't been easy and I doubt seriously the hard part is over. But for the first time in a LONG time there seems to be many more positive things in our lives than negative things. I'm so thankful for God's continually blessing in our lives. We must realize that God is always blessing us, sometimes it just doesn't look like what we thought it would look like.
We will keep you updated on the things happening in our lives and the stories of how God is continually providing our daily needs.
