God Answers

We built our home on family land in 2010. Selling was not an option for a number of reasons, but we knew nothing about being landlords. And how could we do it from such a distance? There were moments that we felt this was impossible – that the house would be our undoing. But God placed some fantastic people in our lives…people who knew what to do. Some couples in our church who are experienced landlords were an incredible help to us in getting the ball rolling and figuring out how to rent our property. My parents were more than gracious in offering to be on-site landlords. This was not lost on us – we knew that it was incredibly hard on them to watch this process unfold. And on top of that, to help us wrap up the details so we could move hundreds of miles away…well, that’s just heart-wrenching. As a side note, my parents (who have been our neighbors for the last 5 years) were amazing in all of this. We had some tough conversations and some very emotional moments, but we couldn’t have asked for better support and love than we got from them. Giving them a shout out in this blog doesn’t begin to cover how thankful we are for them, but it’s worth mentioning! With all the help we received in getting our house ready to rent, we began to see that God was taking care of the “impossible.” The people who were helping us navigate the rental process encouraged us to list our home as available for October 1 move-in. We were hoping for September and they told us that was impossible. We were ok with adjusting the date if we needed to, but we gave it a try. We posted it on craigslist and within a few days, a woman called and said she was very interested and would like to come look that afternoon and was even ready to make a deposit! And when were they available to move in? September! After going through a process of reference, credit and employment checks, we agreed to rent the home to them. Once again, God blew us away!

Our next hurdle: how on earth can we make this move? Financially, it seemed impossible. But, we continued on, knowing that God had taken care of all the other “impossible” details in this and that if we were supposed to be going to Joy Ranch, He would get us there. We didn’t tell anyone about this hurdle. And as if God hadn’t already blessed our socks off, He then provided abundantly through the prayerful and financial gifts of support through our church family. We were humbled through all of this. None of this was because we deserved it – it was all simply because God was at work being the Giver of good gifts that He is. We are so undeserving!

In the midst of all this, we were purging, packing and cleaning like it was our job! We were able to get rid of quite a bit of stuff and even made a little extra money for tolls and gas in the process. Those few weeks were a whirlwind of activity and emotion! We made visits and said our good byes to as many people as we could on such a limited time frame. I remember it being such a strange mix of emotions – excitement, nervousness, sadness, happiness…but overall, a sense of calming peace. I knew (and still know) that this is where we were supposed to be going. I will forever treasure those last days in Maine, though because we made some great memories with some special friends and family and no matter the distance I know those relationships remain.

 

On August 31st we got up early, said a tearful "good bye" to my parents and set out on our new adventure! We stretched the trip out a bit, to make it easier on our girls. We stayed a night in Pennsylvania, a night at Jason's parents' house and then pulled into Joy Ranch on the evening of September 2nd. We had shipped out belongings down with a moving company and they weren't due to arrive until the 4th. Since we were without most of our things, we couldn't move into our new apartment. We stayed in McHenry Cottage for a few days, which is currently used for guests and work teams. (So those of you that would like to visit us and check out what we're all about down here, let us know and we can potentially fix you up with a place to stay!) That first night, we enjoyed dinner at a local Mexican restaurant with our supervisor, his wife and kids. It was a nice way to spend our first evening here and our girls immediately hit it off with theirs. When we got back to our cottage, we settled in for a quiet night as a family. The next few weeks of training promised to be very full. We knew that with the dawn of a new day, life would be changing for our little family...