SOOOOO blessed!
I know it hasn't been that long since the last post, but I have so much to share before Ezra gets here! I will try to keep this one short and sweet, but I wanted to really give the Lord honor and thanks for all that he has blessed us with this last year. In our season of trials that we recently went through(and surely at some point will go through more again someday), there were times when I sure needed the encouragement it brought me to see God come through for my friends, when I in my natural (practical) mind was fighting the doubts that things will ever work out for us the way they had for them. So, I wanted to just share a few miracles the Lord has done for us here lately.
The first one being the creation of Ezra, of course and our wonderful church. The other being the beautiful home that God has blessed us with! There is quite the "God story" in how it all went down, and we ended up here. There is nothing we could have done to orchestrate things as perfectly as He did, but for the sake of your time I will summarize it all for ya.
We came to interview here in Gainesville and had just short of a week to check out the city. During our last day here (after we were pretty sure we would be accepting the position) we drove ALL DAY looking at homes for rent. To our utter disappointment we could not find anything over 1000 sf that we could afford. We knew for sure we would be selling most of our furniture and we were coming to grips with that. We just wanted to find something that was move in ready, and because our kids were 7 yrs apart and opposite genders, we felt they needed their own rooms.
We ended up leaving with nothing really in mind. We went home and prepared the kids, that, though we were living in a double wide trailer on the church property in Texas, (that was in need of some repairs), we would most likely be moving into a smaller space and downsizing most of our things. They took it all in stride and didn't complain, but I'm sure it added to the anxiety of moving to a new place. We really were all at the place where we had our priorities pretty straight, and where we lived wasn't a big concern, but still we are all human and not having a clue where we were going to be living was a little disheartening.
Well, thankfully, the Lord opened a door through a dear friend that we meant during our visit who had a home that he was about to rent. This home had tenants living in it, but it seemed they might be moving out the same weekend we were moving into town. (As a direct favor to us, I think). ;) So, we made plans to move into a home that we had not seen before and just prayed, hoping for the best! We were just glad to have somewhere to take all of our stuff, and we trusted this new friend of ours.
When we got here we couldn't believe the house. It was GORGEOUS and SO very spacious!!! Every room was HUGE and we even had an extra room (Ezra's room) and a school room that we had no idea how much we would use! We have so much room to have our leaders and students over, it is a blessing we could not have imagined. We are able to have them in our home on a monthly basis. We even have a space for my parents wood dining room table that (I love) and we almost got rid of, because, we said we would never have a home big enough for it. Our favorite part of the home ended up being the BEAUTIFUL porch that stretches across the living room! We are SO VERY thankful that the Lord moved on our friends, and the tenants hearts to bless us so much. We are so grateful to them and the sacrifice they made to allow us to live here.
It is so funny to me that at times God seems to strip our hearts of the superficial things that don't matter in this life, only to turn around and hand them to us, just when we don't care whether we ever get them or not. If you follow our blog look back to a post called "The journey continues" back in 2009, (the first post I ever posted on here), and you can see when God really began to strip us of so many of our superficial desires. During that time we were leaving our home that WE LOVED and had put so much blood and sweat into, a church that we loved, and our dear precious family, friends and youth group that had given so much to us and held pieces of our hearts. To go where? We had absolutely no idea! The same happened with having little Ezra, being a part of a wonderful church, and living near our family. It was almost as if the Lord waited and watched like he watched Abraham to see if he was willing to sacrifice Isaac, only to turn around and give him another way. We genuinely got to the place where we sacrificed our desires to Him. We crawled to the place where we could accept that if we never had those blessings again, we knew, we would be okay. We knew because we were in His will, following him. Besides, we realized we were never promised the worlds comforts anyway. See the post called "American Theology" to see a glimpse of the journey God took us through to get there.
Now, please hear my heart and my disclaimer. I don't think God always moves this way. He does whatever He wants, and I don't ever want to put Him in a box because He moved a certain way for me. This has been our experience, and some of the miracles of the season we are in. At the same time, I never want to be a Christian that is so afraid of offending someone, or seeming proud, that I don't give God the glory that is due to Him during seasons of blessings and when He moves mountains for us! Don't know what tomorrow holds, but am thankful for today!
Below are a few pics from our home. There is a pic of the walking trail across the street from our house, our backyard, and I think the rest is self explanatory.
The first one being the creation of Ezra, of course and our wonderful church. The other being the beautiful home that God has blessed us with! There is quite the "God story" in how it all went down, and we ended up here. There is nothing we could have done to orchestrate things as perfectly as He did, but for the sake of your time I will summarize it all for ya.
We came to interview here in Gainesville and had just short of a week to check out the city. During our last day here (after we were pretty sure we would be accepting the position) we drove ALL DAY looking at homes for rent. To our utter disappointment we could not find anything over 1000 sf that we could afford. We knew for sure we would be selling most of our furniture and we were coming to grips with that. We just wanted to find something that was move in ready, and because our kids were 7 yrs apart and opposite genders, we felt they needed their own rooms.
We ended up leaving with nothing really in mind. We went home and prepared the kids, that, though we were living in a double wide trailer on the church property in Texas, (that was in need of some repairs), we would most likely be moving into a smaller space and downsizing most of our things. They took it all in stride and didn't complain, but I'm sure it added to the anxiety of moving to a new place. We really were all at the place where we had our priorities pretty straight, and where we lived wasn't a big concern, but still we are all human and not having a clue where we were going to be living was a little disheartening.
Well, thankfully, the Lord opened a door through a dear friend that we meant during our visit who had a home that he was about to rent. This home had tenants living in it, but it seemed they might be moving out the same weekend we were moving into town. (As a direct favor to us, I think). ;) So, we made plans to move into a home that we had not seen before and just prayed, hoping for the best! We were just glad to have somewhere to take all of our stuff, and we trusted this new friend of ours.
When we got here we couldn't believe the house. It was GORGEOUS and SO very spacious!!! Every room was HUGE and we even had an extra room (Ezra's room) and a school room that we had no idea how much we would use! We have so much room to have our leaders and students over, it is a blessing we could not have imagined. We are able to have them in our home on a monthly basis. We even have a space for my parents wood dining room table that (I love) and we almost got rid of, because, we said we would never have a home big enough for it. Our favorite part of the home ended up being the BEAUTIFUL porch that stretches across the living room! We are SO VERY thankful that the Lord moved on our friends, and the tenants hearts to bless us so much. We are so grateful to them and the sacrifice they made to allow us to live here.
It is so funny to me that at times God seems to strip our hearts of the superficial things that don't matter in this life, only to turn around and hand them to us, just when we don't care whether we ever get them or not. If you follow our blog look back to a post called "The journey continues" back in 2009, (the first post I ever posted on here), and you can see when God really began to strip us of so many of our superficial desires. During that time we were leaving our home that WE LOVED and had put so much blood and sweat into, a church that we loved, and our dear precious family, friends and youth group that had given so much to us and held pieces of our hearts. To go where? We had absolutely no idea! The same happened with having little Ezra, being a part of a wonderful church, and living near our family. It was almost as if the Lord waited and watched like he watched Abraham to see if he was willing to sacrifice Isaac, only to turn around and give him another way. We genuinely got to the place where we sacrificed our desires to Him. We crawled to the place where we could accept that if we never had those blessings again, we knew, we would be okay. We knew because we were in His will, following him. Besides, we realized we were never promised the worlds comforts anyway. See the post called "American Theology" to see a glimpse of the journey God took us through to get there.
Now, please hear my heart and my disclaimer. I don't think God always moves this way. He does whatever He wants, and I don't ever want to put Him in a box because He moved a certain way for me. This has been our experience, and some of the miracles of the season we are in. At the same time, I never want to be a Christian that is so afraid of offending someone, or seeming proud, that I don't give God the glory that is due to Him during seasons of blessings and when He moves mountains for us! Don't know what tomorrow holds, but am thankful for today!
Below are a few pics from our home. There is a pic of the walking trail across the street from our house, our backyard, and I think the rest is self explanatory.
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