Jan

31

are you still there??

do i still have readers out there??

i know its been forever. we moved. we survived (just barely). i hope i don’t ever have to move again…or at least for a long long time!

we’ve been without internet for days. its been good. but i told jake that i think i’ve probably lost lots of readers by now. you must’ve thought i’d fallen off the face of the earth!

i haven’t…

however…it feels like we are living a different life, that’s for sure. Canaan Boy put it well the other day when he said to me, “Mom…this doesn’t feel like real life, does it?”

we are IN LOVE LOVE LOVE with our new home. and we wake up in the mornings in absolute awe and wonder that we get to live here. its too perfect. it doesn’t seem real. God has been abundant! SO ABUNDANT!! we are SO grateful!! and SO undeserving!

our very first morning, we opened our eyes, looked out from our bed, and saw this:

i mean…ARE YOU SERIOUS??!!


the kiddos haven’t skipped a beat, thankfully, and are thrilled about our move:
jake and i can’t stop saying to each other how much we can’t believe how all this happened. we can’t believe we are living here. my heart feels like it is welling up with joy, over and over again. ABUNDANCE!

i’ll give you the tour as soon as i finish some more details. it might be a few days! :)

thanks for sticking with me,

Email, RSS Follow
Email
Pin It
Share
8 Comments

Jan

20

provision

just thought you all should be updated….as we continue our packing…


that we officially have a place to live!
God has been SO good to us…so sweet in His provision…going above and beyond our wildest dreams.

before i tell you the details, i must tell you something very important.

we do not deserve what we have been given. we did not work hard for it, we did not save for it, we did not pray enough for it…it is simply a gift that God has provided for us. and i want you to see His Glory in it. (fyi…we are, or course, paying for it, but even the price and the ability to do so is a part of His provision!)

i will spare you all the details of how this came together for us, how we are affording it, and how perfect the timing was. all that i would love for you to know is that it is completely, 100% God’s abundant provision for our family. it is a picture of His generosity and kindness, and we are overwhelmed with gratitude and thanksgiving.

so…with that said…we will be living, at least for the next 7 or so months, in a cute little place, smaller than where we are now (you’ll get a chuckle out of the size of the kitchen compared to my present kitchen…and the kiddos will be sharing a room)…but what it lacks in space it makes up for with the most magnificent backyard. here is a picture from our back porch steps:
after our first date, jake and i happened to write a letter to each other at the same time (we were living in different cities), that just so happened to include the same verse. it has become our life verse.

it is:
Ephesians 3:20
“now to Him who is able to do immeasureably more than all we can ask or imagine…”

i cannot get that verse out of my head over the last few days. because this next home where we are moving is more than we could’ve imagined or asked for!

once again, God is giving us an everyday reminder of the Good News. this home will remind us on a daily basis of the Gospel…of Jesus’ abundant love, poured out on us freely. that we get exactly what we don’t deserve. cause isn’t that grace anyway? that God gives us His love, His rescue and salvation, even though there is nothing in us that could ever deserve it, ever work hard enough for it, ever earn it??

in a way, there is a part of me that feels embarassed and ashamed to tell you of this gift of a beachfront home. my flesh wants to tell you that we saved months and months and worked so hard to make it happen. i want you to think that we deserve it cause we make enough money, or that we saved enough to afford it. or we waited long enough for it. or we prayed hard enough. but truth is, none of that is true.

but my flesh battles the same thing with the Gospel. i want to earn God’s love. in fact, alot of my days are spent trying to. doing enough good, staying away from bad, checking off my list of things to make God pleased with me. that’s my flesh. but the Spirit of Truth wars with my flesh, and gently reminds me that if i could earn my way, please God enough, then i wouldn’t need Jesus, and His death on the cross would’ve been for nothing.

but isn’t it true that we try so hard to please God? isn’t there something in each of us that tries to earn God’s favor? or at least tries to make sure we don’t make Him mad? or we try to work hard enough to get His blessings?

the most amazing thing about Jesus is that He cannot be more pleased with us than He is right now. there is nothing we can do to make Him love us more or bless us more. and there is nothing we can do to make Him love us less. NOTHING. absolutely, insanely crazy, isn’t it? but its absolutely, insanely true!!

Ephesians 2 reminds me:

1 Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. 4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) 8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done

this new home of our’s will remind me of that. and today, as you read this, i’m praying that the news of our new home will remind you also of the most amazing Good News of God’s mercy, grace, and rescue for sinners such as me!

i’ll officially give you the tour once we are all settled. i realize that i also still need to tell you more about just why we are moving. that is coming!!

until then,


Email, RSS Follow
Email
Pin It
Share
2 Comments

Jan

17

::news::

i have news…

its official…we are moving!

and now for the crazy news…we are moving in 12 days…TWELVE!
i started packing tonight:


but i have a really REALLY long way to go!


and now for the even crazier news:
as of now, we have NO idea where we are moving!

how’s that for some massive life events???!!

but…i can tell you this….God is moving us. that we know for sure.

wanna hear a cool story? we are renting out our house, because we decided that it might be wiser for us to wait just a few more years (hopefully) to sell it. the family moving in made an offer, and we came back with our final, bottom line, best we could do offer, which they accepted. it was a bit less than what we were asking for and what we needed to cover our mortgage, but we felt like it was what we were supposed to do. jake and i prayed, hoping that we had made the right decision.

that same day, just a couple hours later, we checked the mail, only to find a letter from our mortgage company. in that letter, we were told that we had a mortgage overage this year. (basically, we had overpaid!) included was a check to make up the difference, and a notification that our mortgage payment for the following year was going to be less each month, starting immediately.

how’s that for confirmation??!!!
we are praising God for what He is doing, even though parts are still very unclear. (i’m honestly hoping that i will still want to say that tomorrow!)

my heart was sad last night, and nervous, as i went to bed. i was begging God for peace and provision.

this morning at church, someone who did not know me nor knew of my situation at all prayed for me as they were led by the Spirit. her prayer was for trust in God this week as i made big decisions, for clarity, and for peace. and to know God’s deep love for me in it all. i’m pretty darn sure that God is walking right in this with us and wanted me to know that today…wanted to remind me of His faithfulness. and in fact…He’s already gone before us.

the verse on my chalkboard this week is this:

i had this thought all day today = this home, our earthly home, is SO temporary. even though i know God knows the desires of my heart, and that He has made me in such a way where i take great delight and joy in a home, and it being my domain, i feel like He’s been reminding me today that there is a much greater Home that He is preparing for me. and that i get to move…somewhere…in 12 days…with the perspective that all this is temporary, but that a perfect Home is waiting for me when this earthly dwelling is no more. i type that to remind myself, so i can come back and read it over the days to come…cause i know that i’ll forget it!!

and i’ll close with other news…we TOTALLY caved:
and bought a Wii (which the Bug is convinced is called a “Wheat”…and which we think is so darn cute, there is no way we are gonna correct her!!)

as you can imagine, the crazies are thrilled! the Boy keeps saying, “i never ever thought we’d ever have a Wii!!!”

a friend was selling their’s, we got a CRAZY deal that we just couldn’t pass up, and we figured since the kiddos toys will prob be in storage for awhile, this might be a good time to allow some video gameage in our house. i still can’t believe we actually did it…but i’m really glad!!

anyway…you’ll understand if i don’t reappear anytime in the next few days/weeks, won’t you?

i do promise, though, to update you once we know what exactly we are doing. we do have a couple things in the works, so please pray for us if you think about it!

i better go to bed. the morning is gonna come way too fast,

ps: to all my close friends and family who are finding out these details by reading this post…it has all happened so fast, that i simply haven’t had the time to call you all. please forgive me :)

pps: the lens from the last post is still available, just FYI!! :)
Email, RSS Follow
Email
Pin It
Share
2 Comments