As of today ALL our boxes from Guatemala are UNPACKED!!!
Yes, you are reading right! Unpacked…and the majority of it is PUT AWAY!!
WE HAVE A HOME!!!!
7 sleeps later, I think we are finally starting to believe that we actually have a place to live and not just “stay” for a while! And, it feels so wonderful!
God has taught me some serious lessons in the past months about not trying to make things just happen myself if He’s asked me to wait.
We had been in Salida since the 19th of December staying at our friends, the Richardson’s house while they were on vacation. We had spent the week before Christmas calling places from the newspaper, looking into a couple of leads from church and beginning some pretty serious talks about how much we were going to need to increase our housing budget just so we could find something remotely suitable.
I felt uneasy though. As Matt and I were talking one day, we were discussing how we needed to be careful we weren’t taking over the process just trying to squeeze ourselves into a house, and not being patient enough to allow God to provide.
Boxing day (the day after Christmas for all my non-Canadian friends…), we were getting packed up to leave for WinterPark again. I had gone through all our boxes and bags to pull out the things we needed for school, a few different books and toys and some other clothes for everyone. We planned to stay in WinterPark until the 25th of January (in the spectacular house of another amazing family we’ve just met!). Matt had all the bags we were leaving in Salida stacked up in the room to store, and all the bags that were going with us down were by the front door ready to pack up the car. I was cleaning the kitchen and he was coming down the stairs with another load when he heard the Richardson’s answering machine going in their office.
“Hey Messicks…it’s Buss…I sure hope you haven’t left yet for WinterPark…if you are there still, can you give me a call…I think we might have found a house for you…I hope you haven’t left yet.”
Seems that Taylah had been playing with our phone earlier in the morning and it was disconnected. As a last ditch, my sweet friend decided to try the Richardson’s number to see if we’d pick up.
We called her back and she told us about a house that seemed way too incredible to be true…3 to 4 bedrooms, about 30 minutes from town, fully furnished….did we want to wait to try and go see it that afternoon??
Are you kidding me?????????
We went to see the house…and just stayed!
There is an incredibly gracious and kind family from Texas who are letting us live in their house while they are not using it! And, what a gift from God! It is bright, sunny, and BIG! The kids have space to play inside and outside! There is everything we could need here to have a “normal life”. I am three miles from a dear dear friend, and only a short drive in to town! And best of all, we can stay here a while!!!!!!!
Praise God for his provision!!
All Christmas week, I had been working on reminding myself to SURRENDER the housing situation to the Lord. That by SURRENDERING it, I didn’t need to worry about it, it wasn’t my issue to work out, that I could trust that He would provide a home for us and we would know when it was right.
Monday as we were packing up for what we thought was going to be a trip to WinterPark, I wasn’t feeling the normal “I never ever ever EVER want to have to do this again” grumpiness that has been part of each of the last oh 8 or 9 moves we’ve made. I felt strangely at peace, and resigned to the fact that if God has more moves for us, it is ok, I will survive. I had finally surrendered to the Lord and was just moving.
And that my friends, was the morning the Lord gave us a more incredible home than we could have possibly imagined. Was He possibly waiting for me to get my attitude in order to give us our hearts desires?
This verse keeps coming up, but wow has it impacted us this last while! I don’t know if I had quite gotten to delighting in Him over packing everything again, but I sure was trusting and finally (read finally) willing to truly surrender to His plan….
Psalm 37:4
Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart
To all of you who have been praying for a house….Thank you thank you thank you for your prayers!!!
Wooo Hoooo!!!!
Great story!! Yea, God!!! So thrilled with you guys!