Moved! (Part 1)

(The story is long, but the adventure is worth the read if you can hang with me awhile.  I will do this particular post in parts.  Welcome to Part 1.)

Did I mention that we moved this past year?

Yes, we did, and it was a fantastic struggle in the spiritual world.  Apparently the enemy did not want us to move from our old location to our new location.

Any person in their right physical mind would have given up and found another home.  Well, we are different.  We clung to the hopes God had given us.

Let me back up and start from the beginning.

My hubby and I have lived in our very first starter home since our 1st wedding anniversary; the past 15 years.  It was a cute home in a good location that started off in a suburban area.  Over the years that area turned into a very busy concrete jungle of a city.  This 'city' had been my country haven as a little girl growing up, but now very little of that good country feel remained.

We worked and lived in that starter house with a tiny backyard and neighbors directly next door.  We had wonderful neighbors for the first several years, and although many of them where still there when we moved, many of them had moved themselves and we lost that wonderful family feel in the neighborhood.  The new families that moved in around us kept to themselves and did not want to get to know the rest of us.

While we lived there we had friends over, Bible studies, a dog, fish and turtles, a vegetable garden and then finally 3 children of our own.  As our family grew from the inside and the city around us grew from the outside our tiny yard and beginner house began to feel more like a closet for this country girl at heart.

I had begun longing for a move to a more country location with the minimum of a large backyard in which the kids and I could escape the confines of walls and artificial lighting.  Not only that, but I connect with the Lord through nature.  I feel most at peace, and hear Him more loudly when I am surrounded by His creation.  This deep longing to move drew straight from my soul.

My husband and I began looking at houses with more land, but several years past where we were unable to find what we liked and what fell in our price range; not to mention our location parameters.  After years of looking we stopped browsing for awhile, and my heart grew more restless.

One day my husband was looking at houses online, and he found one that he thought might work.  It was a blue country home that had not been lived in for a while.  The first time I looked at it through the lens of the computer screen I wasn't so sure about it and couldn't tell if it would be a good fit for us or not.  (Spoiler Alert: this 'blue house' would be the one we move into.)  So the two of us picked a handful of homes to go look at in person to see what we thought and felt.  We decided to take the kids with us too!

That first drive we took to see these country homes felt very long, and made us unsure about the location we had chosen.  The kids were squirmy and restless in the van, and I wasn't sure if I could ever lean the back road route to get there. 

But, one thing that did happen on that drive was an overwhelming sense of peace.  The further we drove from our starter house and the closer we drew to the blue house seemed to lift all the cares and heaviness off my shoulders.  I was surrounded by peace and calm. 

We finally reached the property and the very moment it came into view I KNEW this was our home.  It felt like home. 

All three kids said, "Can we move into the blue house?  We love it!  It's going to be our new home."  This was a HUGE deal to me.  My kids are not proponents of change.  Ever since we had begun talking about moving and visiting a few prospective houses over the years before they would cry and declare that they would never move.  After years of struggle, we pull into the driveway of this blue house and all three kids immediately wanted to live here.  They hadn't even gone inside yet!

Let me give you a picture of what we saw so you can understand that this was NOT the dream picture every family wants to see.

The house had not been lived in for some months.  The grass was overgrown.  There were lawnmower tracks of mud in a low spot of the front yard.  All the flower beds were tall weed beds, and many of the the bushes were dead.  Tree branches and pine cones littered the yard, but the feeling of peace and home were overwhelming.

The swing-set in the backyard needed a lot of work to get it usable.  Broken boards, broken swings and rusted metal.  The vegetable garden was nothing but 6 foot tall briers and thistles surrounded by an old and sagging fence.  It would have to be completely ripped out and started over.  Yet I had visions of God touching and healing people on this land.  I saw a ministry where roots of bitterness were ripped out of those that stepped foot here, and hope restored.  I saw more than weeds and work...I saw a vision of life.

The realtor led us inside the house and it was covered in dust and dead bugs.  Not a pretty picture when showing a home to potential buyers.  But those dead bugs didn't stop our kids.  They ran right in, claimed their rooms and started chanting that they would be moving to the blue house.

The more I saw the more I was convinced that after years of searching I was finally home.

Over the next few weeks we looked at several more houses, but kept coming back to this blue house.  Every time I came back to visit and see if it truly was what we were looking for the more solidified it was in my mind that this is where we should be. 

I began dreaming about the blue house.  I began having visions of ministry and family there.  It became home in my heart before it became our home. 

But...my husband was not so sure. 

He crunched numbers, thought manly thoughts and simply could not decide if this actually was the home for us or if we were just being 'emotional' about the house.

'Operation Blue House' began.  The kids and I began praying daily that if we were suppose to have the blue house that God would save it for us until hubby was on board.

Then my husband announced that he would NOT be making a decision to move until his 'busy season' at work was over.  That was four months away!  That house would most definitely sell before his busy season ended.  We begged and pleaded, but he explained that trying to buy a house, sell and house and move during his busy season at work was a heart attack waiting to happen.  Too much stress.  He had to be past that time for us to have a move, and if the house was still there we would make an offer; if it was sold, well, then there were other houses out there.  (Yeah, well it took us YEARS to find this one... I was NOT ready to wait more YEARS!) 

So I simply doubled 'Operation Blue House'.  Talking to God about this alone and with the kids.  Asking Him what His will was.  Asking Him for dreams and visions about what our next step should be.  We asked him to hold that house through the busy season so it would be ready for us in the new year.

We asked...what would God do?