Hi Friends, I'm happy to see you all here again!
My family and I have relocated from the Midwest to the East Coast for a contract job my husband got, and we have really seen the hand of God going before us to prepare our way. I really believe that God is in the details of our lives, even when we can't see him, but we can always choose to look for his direction and take his subtle guidance when it comes.
We feel like this move is a really good thing, and we have felt the Lord guiding us through the whole process.
First off, Andy wasn't very interested in the job compared to another interview he had lined up for later the same day but felt he should still take the interview seriously, so he prepared and was actually offered the job the next day. (the other interview he was excited about turned out to be for the wrong job posting--it didn't work out). We felt good about it and decided to take the job.
Then, as we looked for housing online (where there were next to no options in the small town where the job was) we gradually began to consider the idea of going in person to look for housing. Eventually, we decided to move up our moving date from the 17th of July to the 8th, instead of either driving or flying there to find housing and back only to move everything there anyway. On the 4th some other circumstances made us move our date up again to the 5th of July (the next day). Luckily my sister was away visiting a friend, and we had been packing up for some time, so we were able to get all of our stuff into the moving truck the next day (with a lot of help from people from church).
In all of this I remembered an expression of faith from someone in ancient times when they faced a possible move with an uncertain destination: "...[Brother] cry unto [the Lord] whither we shall go. And who knoweth but the Lord will carry us forth into a land which is choice above all the earth? And if it so be, let us be faithful unto the Lord, that we may receive it for our inheritance."
So we arrived in town the night of Sunday the 7th and began searching for a place to live Monday the 8th. We asked everyone we met if they knew about any available housing (we had some specific criteria, but its best to cast a wide net and sift through it once you catch something). We collected any numbers we could find in town and in the neighboring town, and we camped out in the library and called them all. We arranged a tour of the only place we had been able to apply to online before coming over and they had a couple other places to show us too. Each of them had big problems for us--too big and expensive, or the bedrooms shared a wall and it was out of town, and stuff. So after the tours I had Andy drive around the town so we could try and like it more, and maybe find more options. On the way out of town, on our way back to our moving truck, I had Andy pull into this trailer park right next to the entrance to his job "Can you imagine how amazing it would be to live RIGHT next to your job?? you could walk every day!"
Right then there was a guy walking out towards the street, so I channeled my inner Jody and rolled down the window to get his attention, and asked if he knew if any of the apartments were available--he said PROBABABLY THAT ONE and gave us the landlord's number. The landlord got back to us 30 minutes later (it was available!), and an hour later we toured it (it was perfect!), and 20 minutes after that he said we could have it! It had been vacated only days before, and they had not gone through their waiting list yet, but since we were there (by a miracle) with the money in hand they called through and since no one picked up they said it was ours. We moved in the next day and had everything put together in time to pick my sister up from the airport two days later.
And we had two weeks to relax before Andy started his job. We were both so grateful to have the move behind us, and so grateful to have time to rest, and so grateful for the amazing place. It really checked off all of our boxes: the bedrooms don't share a wall and we don't share a wall with any neighbors, the kitchen is bigger with more counter space, it has its own outside space and off-street parking, it even has a washer hookup, and it is the cheapest rental we have ever had, and is even closer to Andy's job than last time!
In this new situation all of the post-college life crisis has just evaporated. Andy has space to work on projects, so work doesn't sap his motivation like it did before. The contract job doesn't have a fixed end date, so it doesn't feel like we are just waiting for stability to start. My sister is even available to babysit regularly (for a price) since she doesn't have school to worry about anymore. It all feels just right.
I really am in awe every time I think about it--this is a situation I never could have manufactured on my own. It is amazing to me that God prepared this place for us and got us here and showed it to us. It is too amazing to me to be a coincidence. I know that God is in the details of our lives and he has amazing plans for our welfare, he has 'choice lands' prepared for each of us, and if we let him he will lead us there in his own time.
Comments
Post a Comment