We did it. We moved to Texas.
We left the only place we've ever called home.
We left our family, our friends, and the church we loved.
Why?
Because for a while now, we have felt this nudging from the Lord. In fact, a couple of years ago, we started to think about our 5 year plan and how that would most likely involve moving out of state when the girls graduated from high school. Texas was tops on our list (for various reasons) but we had never been there before. Then, this spring, the pandemic hit. And for many of us, it brought some things into laser focus.
We began to prioritize what was most important to our family. Morgan and I began to seriously talk about what the future might look like for our children, how we wanted to parent them during what we believe to be the end times, and our legacy going forward. As Christians who have read the bible and believe it to be God's Holy Word, we already know how this story ends. Praise God, we know Jesus will return to defeat evil once and for all (Revelation). Despite its breathtaking beauty, California was beginning to feel very oppressive in many ways and therefore, our freedom was at stake.
And for us, freedom is everything.
And so, we made the very difficult decision to move. But where? We vacationed in North & South Carolina this summer and although we REALLY liked North Carolina, we ultimately decided it was too far away from our families. Next, we took a whirlwind trip to Texas in early October and truth be told, I wasn't all that impressed. It was actually a terrible trip because all we did was drag the kids around to look at houses for 4 days straight. NO FUN! It wasn't until the very last day that God was gracious in showing us a town that we could see ourselves in. Still, we came back from Texas and didn't feel compelled to move right away. I kept saying things like,"Let's just wait until the New Year and re-evaluate." And, "Maybe Springtime would be better?" Honestly, it was such a big and scary move that although I wanted to move, it was just plain hard to think about us actually doing it!
One thing was for certain. When we were in Texas visiting, even though we were discouraged with what we saw (we were looking in the wrong area), the Lord clearly told me I needed to step down from ministry when I got home. I thought maybe it was because He wanted me to be more available and present for my kids going forward. Leading a ministry was time consuming. I wanted to be able to pour more of myself into the girls in their high school years and goodness knows, Zach requires much of my energy. So, as soon as we returned, I obeyed the Lord and scheduled a meeting with my pastor. After 3 years of leading the Orphan Care ministry I had founded, I told him I needed to step down. I didn't know it yet but God was using this act of obedience to prepare us for the move. He was asking us to trust Him (even when we didn't find the perfect house or location in Texas 😱). And so, after much prayer, much delay, and much wrestling, we surrendered and decided to walk by faith, even though we could not see. After all, that's what faith is, right? I'll be honest, the task was OVERWHELMING at times but we took one step at a time and watched in AWE as God matched our step for step. He kept revealing Himself to us in ways that only He can. We started selling much of our possessions and wanted to downsize as much as possible before the move. We put our home on the market and after only 5 showings, we ended up selling our home in just 10 days. God brought us the right buyer and we just stood in amazement of what the Lord did during those crazy months of October and November.
He just kept confirming everything we did! Isn't that just like Him?
I don't know about you but for me, it seems like He always waits for me to take the first step.
I kept telling people that this move reminded me a lot about the time we decided to go half way around the world to adopt 2 babies from Korea and bring them home to make them our daughters. It required an enormous amount of trust and faith but the Lord was so gracious to us then, too! We knew without a doubt that that was what we were supposed to do and even though it was difficult, terrifying, and something we couldn't have done on our own, God was with us every step of the way and blessed us beyond anything we could ever imagine for our willingness to trust in Him.
He is so faithful, y'all!
So, that's it, in a nutshell. Sure, there are countless other reasons why we moved and I'm sure I'll be sharing them from time to time, but for now, we're just so happy the move is behind us. As I write this today, we've been in Texas for the last 11 days. We're getting settled more each day. We celebrated Christmas here, met up with some friends, and explored a little bit. We couldn't be more thankful to the Lord for getting us here--for His protection, His provision, and His providence.
Before we left, I tried to get together with some of my sweetest girlfriends. Although it didn't work out for us to meet all together, I'm so glad I got to see most of them for one last hug and prayer.
They brought over some great gifts.
This book was not only hilarious, it was also super informational.
The girls got these cute t-shirts from Lyndi before we left. So stinkin' sweet!
Next up... our actual move!
