Many of you have reached out asking for the whole story of our move. I warn you it is a bit lengthy. I hope I can do God justice for all He has none. To Him be the glory!
Most of you know that we were I Louisiana last fall following hurricane Ida for an extended period of time. We also have taken numerous 2-3 week trip all over the US. If we totaled things up one or both of us were gone close to 2/3 of the year last year. Thankfully, our children were home, and we had an extra roommate for a time. Even with them home we had flood due to a faulty toilet. Thankfully clean water only but it was still quite a clean up process. This got us thinking:
o What do we do with the house while we are gone?
o Rent? Fully? By the room? – Olivia is still home is that fair to her?
o Sell? – No, we need a pace to come home to.
Then Olivia graduated and we knew potentially moving out. Then what? We have animal to care for and the house sitting empty is concerning. SO, WE PRAYED. And we waited.
In the end of April to the beginning of May we saw a post from friends in our church. They had been looking for a home and struggling for months. My heart went out to them having been in a very similar situation. So, we prayed for them. Then one day Eric says I think we should talk to them. Really?!? I have been feeling the same. So, we had them over. Right upfront we told them we weren’t sure we even wanted to sell but God asked us to talk with them, so we did. They looked around, liked the house, loved the yard. We talked. They may be interested. SO, WE PRAYED. We prayed together with them right there in our backyard, that God would guide us, that we would all know His plan. We did our due diligence, got comparibles on our house, had the conversations with our girls. And we waited.
God blessed our friends with a better opportunity for them, in the neighborhood they wanted, close to family and we were thrilled for them. It seemed we had our answer. But God was working in our (mine, especially) to free me to give up our house. You may or may not know how much I like my house. But, I love our yard. I love to have people over. We’ve had a wedding here. Our daughter’s wedding reception was here. I love my yard. I am even tearing up just writing this. But God had plans we didn’t know yet. Our friend who gave us the comps on our house asked if we were still interested in selling and we answered honestly - we weren’t sure. We had a lot of work to do to get it ready if we were going to list it and not a lot of time to do it in before we are travelling again. SO, WE PRAYED. And we waited.
Not two days later, he called and said he had someone who wanted a video walk through of our home. Could their realtor come and do that? Well, I guess. Now our house is a complete disaster. This was the week of Liberty University graduation. We had people staying at the house. We had a 6-family garage sale at our house that weekend. And you want to take a video to document the mess?!?
Two days after that we had a offer. Isn’t that just like God? We are praying and leaving it in His hands, and He sells the house AS IS in a way only He can do. We had appointments set up to carpet the basement and they wanted to finish it themselves. We don’t have to do the work to get it ready we can literally just walk away and move on to what God has next. This is the second week of May. Halfway through the third week of May we were in Minneapolis going through long term interviews with ReachGlobal. Long days and lots of brain work and then the contract come through. We are under contract. But now what?!?! SO, WE PRAYED. And we waited.
Our closing date was July 22nd, but the buyers asked if there was any way they could have it June 28. Really?!? Well, maybe. We have no plan and no place to go but we can try. So, I start packing. Eric starts researching RVs. He must have looked at thousands of RVs and read lots of advice/warnings/experiences online. He talked with friends who RV full-time. Our plans changed multiple time a day it seemed. And every time someone asked what the plan was, we gave them a new version. People must have thought we were nuts. SO, WE PRAYED. And we waited.
Eric finally came across a model that we both thought would work. He looked all over for that model or something very similar. He found one in Florida that we thought would work. We even put a small deposit on it to hold. The very next day we go news that our buyer’s salle of their home fell through. Now what?!? We just reserved an RV. I’m halfway packed in efforts to be out early for them and now it may all be off? SO, WE PRAYED. And we waited.
We gave them two days to find a new buyer. Then what? We really didn’t know. This was the first week in June. We were going to be out in time for that June 28th day but it all came to a screeching halt. But God knew. He provided a second buyer for them the very next day. We were back under contract. The June 28thday was off the table so now we have until July 22nd. We continue working through the plan. What plan? Oh yeah, in the midst of all of this we did manage to come up with a firm plan. Here it is:
o Buy an RV. One that is small but comfortable for all our traveling.
o Put in an RV hook up out at my parents’ land in Huddleston.
o Build a cottage and a storage shed on the same land so we can spread out when we are home.
During that time, friend and teammates of our happen to be driving by where the RV in Florida is and stopped to take a look for us. Their eyes and knowledge of RV living gave us some things to consider. They encouraged us to get into an RV of the size we want and really get hands on to see if we could actually live in it full time. Even with the ability to spread out at home. Yikes!! But this gave us pause and we let the RV in Florida go. Eric and I both felt this was the right thing to do and we had the extra three weeks so…WE PRAYED. And we waited.
The very next day we found the same type of RV online in Pennsylvania. It was considerably cheaper. Maybe God put those doubts in our heads to save us some money. We were still thinking small so we decided we would go look at it after the wedding Eric was performing in Northern Virginia at the end of June. I am really beginning to feel the stress. The stress of living in a house half packed. If you know me, you know that I am a chronic organizer. I do not like things out of place. Everything has been out of place for at least three weeks now and I don’t have an RV to organize into. I admit I may have gotten a bit snippy with Eric. But he loves me. The week of the wedding an add just happened to pop up on Eric’s Facebook about an RV in Moneta, VA. That is just 45 minutes away. We decided that we are going to go look, just to get inside one the size we think we want and see it. We really didn’t even consider that this could be the one God had for us. But we went and we had a great visit with the owners. They shared their story and talked about their church and the amazing things God is doing there. We shared our story and why we were looking for an RV. They asked great questions and we had a nice time. Then we went to the camper and drove it. It was exactly what we were looking for. We went away pleasantly surprised. Then we played the comparison game. Lists of features, storage comparisons, and cost, mileage, and age comparisons. We concluded that we would like this one that is close to us, and we were able to see it first-hand. Now what? We decided to go to the wedding and pray about what to do. We figured maybe we would go look at that one as well after the wedding as we had planned.
That evening Eric received a message from the owner of the RV saying that they felt God was leading them to help up get into the RV for our ministry. They were not sure just what that means but asked us to pray with them about it. SO, WE PRAYED. And we waited.
So, as we talked about it that weekend during our drive, we really felt that we did not need to drive the extra distance to PA but decided to pray that we would here from the owner of the RV close to home before the weekend was over. Is that putting out a fleece? Maybe. But God is good, and we heard from the owners of the RV on our last night of the wedding weekend. I cannot express how good God is and how grateful we are to God and to these wonderful new friends who chose to be obedient to what God was asking them to do. We bought our RV well under market value and were able to get right into it. Even our insurance company said they had to insure it for more than we paid for it just in case we need to replace it. GOD IS SO GOOD TO US. We could never imagine him working all of this out in just over two months’ time.
I have been reminded of a few verses throughout this crazy time:
Proverbs 16:9, “The heart of a man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.”
Isaiah 43:19, “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
