1.) We Need to Sell the House 2.)We Need Money for tuition, moving etc. etc. etc. 3.) We needed jobs in Texas 4.) We needed a good school for Brock 5.) We needed a good home for our golden retriever
So these were are biggest issues immediately at hand and then, there was telling people. Truly committing to this and going through with it no matter what family or friends thought. No matter how crazy it seemed we knew we were supposed to go through with it because it was what God had asked us to do. Telling people is one of the hardest things when you put something into action because then all eyes are on you to see if you are going to go through with your decision. We had pretty diverse responses from our family and friends. Some were incredibly supportive and reassuring, some where just unsure, and some just flat-out thought we were crazy. There is a verse that I truly never understood or experienced until we made the decision to make this move; Philippians 4:6-7 which says Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Most of you, I would dare say have never experienced the peace of God, not because you don’t want to, but because most of us are unwilling to put ourselves in a situation where His peace is the only way we survive. I challenge you to seek after this opportunity because it will completely change your relationship with God and give you freedom in life you have never experienced. I will do my best to explain my experience but you will never have the full effect or understanding of God’s Peace until you experience it yourself. If I was completely honest, before I had this experience, I don’t think I ever believed this peace was attainable but it is and again, it is unlike anything you will experience on this earth. Literally, from the moment we made that decision in the hotel room to take this leap of faith God filled my heart with His Peace. Just to give you a picture of our timeline, we made this decision at the end of May and Josh’s classes would start in August so we wanted to be in Texas August 1 to give us a little time to get settled before his classes would start. So basically, we had sixty days to come up with money for tuition, secure our housing assignment at the seminary, sell our home, get jobs in Texas, find Brock a new school, and find a home for our golden retriever. We couldn’t part with our dog right away so we put him on the back burner, the school thing for Brock was going to be tough because we couldn’t go tour any of the schools but I did immediately start looking online and e-mailing different places to get more information on schools. We both started applying for jobs daily. Josh got a response to one of the part time jobs he applied to at the Seminary and ended up getting that job. We also started selling stuff we were not going to be able to take with us. We decided on the front end we didn’t want a storage unit so everything that couldn’t fit in the apartment we got assigned to would have to be sold or given away. I have never in my life seen items sell so fast. I would put something on Craig’s List or FB and most days it would be sold in less than 30 minutes. Josh and I were driving somewhere almost every day meeting people who had bought our things. Truly, a God thing if I have ever seen one and we made few thousand dollars. It was enough to cover his first semester and buy some if not all of his books. God always taking care of things! We also immediately put a for sale by owner sign in the yard and of course got the word out every way we could that we would be selling our house. That first month we had two different couples look at it and they both loved it! One couple made an offer on it and Josh and I both were in awe at God working. However, the other couple that was interested really wanted the house and since we knew both couples we were really torn about what to do. We prayed, and prayed, and had other people pray but we both came to the decision that God didn’t want us to take that offer so we didn’t. It gets down to the last two weeks before we are supposed to move: Josh has a job, and I didn’t have a job but I had a huge lead on a great job where I was going to interview that first week we were in Fort Worth. We had sold everything we needed to sell except a treadmill, We still needed to find a home for our dog, our moving expenses had been taken care of by our family, we had money for Josh’s tuition and books, I had narrowed down the school options for Brock, and the other couple was still interested in our house and actively trying to sell theirs with some positive leads. As you can imagine, the time went by so fast but in all the things that were happening it was so clear to me that God was taking care of everything and I didn’t worry about anything. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that He was going to take care of everything. His peace that He gave me in this situation assured me that He had everything under control. Everybody kept asking me if I was okay, was I stressing out, etc. but I genuinely wasn’t. And I know most people don’t believe that and that’s okay too, before I experienced that peace I would have never believed someone either. I mean I am Type A Control freak all the way, while I am overall pretty laid back, when there is a large task at hand I am all over it and go into drill sargeant mode but I never got to that point, a true miracle from God. So in the last two weeks, I was killing myself packing, going to lunches, dinners, and yogurt stops (I don’t drink coffee) in between to say goodbye to people, and then we also had a reception at our church where we receieved the greatest love offering, prayers, and encouragement beyond what I ever could have imagined. I don’t know that I have ever felt more loved in my life than I did that night. When Jesus shines His love so brightly through His people it is an overwhelming and humbling experience. I wish I could have bottled that love up and poured it out over so many more people because that is what our service here is all about. Sharing Jesus’ love with people!! We had waited so long to find a home for our dog because we really thought our neighbor would take him because he loved him so much. Well, the neighbor decided he didn’t want full responsibility I guess, so we started asking around (we were now down to two days before we were leaving town) when one of Josh’s buddies from the fire department messaged Josh and told him he would take him. It was bittersweet saying goodbye to that dog. He was our first baby. We went and bought him the day after we got married. I was happy to know he was going where he would have lots of land to run around on and a pond to swim in…Golden Retriever heaven 🙂 so Josh took him to the guy the day before we left. We finally got everything packed up that was going, or sold and given away that wasn’t, and headed out for Texas on Aug. 1. I don’t think I have ever experienced an easier move, now don’t get me wrong, it was HOT like 108 when we got here and I think a couple of us almost passed out while unloading the truck but outside of that we got everything here and unloaded the first day then the next day we got all the boxes unpacked and thrown away, I guess there is a bonus to downsizing! Again, in all of this I still had a peace that carried me through. I was still applying for different jobs in case the one I had a lead on didn’t work out. I enjoyed my first couple of weeks here hanging out with Brock and getting things in order and looking for him a school. I was loving being able to have hours of quiet time before Brock got up each morning and then getting to play with him all afternoon! Then began the “tough” parts of the journey. The job I had the big lead on didn’t pan out, I wasn’t sure what to do about Brock’s school because I didn’t know what we would be able to afford since I still didn’t have a job. I was getting really frustrated because I was applying for jobs that I was way over qualified for and getting no response and August was approaching an end. Then finally I received a call about a position I had applied for at the seminary to come in for an interview, the next week they offered me a job. Now, I should have been incredibly grateful because this was really what Josh and I though God’s plan was all along, for me to get a full time position on campus because it would cover his tuition. However, being the selfish human I am I just started thinking man I am really starting all the way over. I have worked so hard to make a career for myself, a good one that pays well, and now I’ll be making a little more than what I was making when I first started my career. It was a HARD pill to swallow. Of course, everyone was like you can keep looking for other jobs etc. etc. but I knew in my heart this was the job God wanted me to take. So, I somewhat begrudgingly took the position. Again, who am I to act such a way when God directs me to do something, I don’t know, all I can say is that my Pride in that moment was coming out kicking, screaming, and punching, trying to over take the desire of my heart to follow God’s plan for my life. I believe this was when I lost God’s peace. His peace that had gotten me through two months of craziness with effortlessness on my part was now gone. I didn’t lose it because He took it from me, I lost it because I lost faith in His plan. Don’t get me wrong, I took the job, I am still in that job and I am not miserable in the job! However I did lose faith in God’s plan when it came directly in contact with something I thought I had worked so hard to build. The truth is I was only where I was because of God’s grace but I always took credit for where I had gotten myself in life. Disgusting Pride, it will get you every time. As God stripped this away from me I could see what He was trying to do. Ever since my parent’s divorce, I have only depended on myself. I learned painful lessons when I was younger that showed me people, no matter who they are to you, are just not dependable. And so, relying on anyone but myself was just not going to happen. Been there, Done that, got the t-shirt and burned it, if you catch my drift. Again, back to the truth, I knew deep in my heart that the only reason I survived all the crazy things in my past was only by the grace of God. Even if you had asked me that back before all the drastic changes in my life it would have been one of the answers I would have given you. However, that self dependency mentality had me keeping God at an arms length that I didn’t realize. I trusted Him and had the utmost faith in Him to work out this move and take care of everything but when it really got down to taking care of me and my family I saw that as my responsibility not His. I was in control of that portion, I was the one who took care of my family. God had to do something drastic to open my eyes to who the real caretaker of me and family is and always has been. Attention gotten! So, while I still struggle with not being the “primary caretaker” I thought I was, I do have faith and know that He is the ultimate provider of all our needs. And I love that He loves me enough to open my eyes to things that I have to let go of in order to have a closer relationship with Him. Now, onto Brock’s school…. I had a couple of places to check out before I started so I called one to set up a tour. I went and thought it was great so signed him up to start a week later. The Monday I took him to his first day of 4k was a disaster. It is also a very long story that I may go into at another time. However, to shorten this up let’s just leave it at I hated it, and Brock hated it so much he started crying the night before because he didn’t want to go.(side note he loves school so this was a major red flag). At the end of his first week I had already decided I was going to have to put in my two week notice(at his school) and find him a new school. I was crying out to God please help me find something else we can afford, we really wanted him in a private school but we couldn’t afford most of the ones here and most of them didn’t have all day programs. I was searching on the internet one day at lunch and a school popped up that never had. It was a Christian school 7 miles away that we could afford and that had an all day program. I emailed the lady telling her my situation and she said that they had a waiting list but I could come tour the school at the following Tuesday. I also set up a tour with a different center that wasn’t a Christian school but I need a back up plan because I was getting Brock out of that daycare(control freak :)). I went and toured the one that wasn’t Christian and was satisfied with it and then Josh and I both went to the Christian school to tour it. Again, we were praying like we had never prayed before!! We get to the interview and she shows us around and talks to us for a while then she asked me something about when I wanted him to be able to come and I told her that Friday was his last day at the center where he was and that we really wanted him to go to that school but if they didn’t have an opening he was going to be going to a different school either way. And then she just started handing us paperwork to fill out and telling us when to have it back and I just about started crying in her office. Praise the Lord for answered prayers because this momma was on the verge of a nervous break down!!
Ok, I still have a really long way to go with the rest of this story so I’ll try and finish it up tomorrow!
Jesusgirlz 
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