Today, July 15th, 2023, is the one year anniversary of when we closed on our house. In honor of this anniversary, I am sharing something I wrote when our offer was excepted on this house. Reading this piece is so eye opening. All the hope I had for this house is so refreshing. While there have been some frustrations with where we live in this year, these words remind me why we are here. God’s wonderful plan. So here it is:

The first time we moved, I thought it would be the hardest move. The month before the move, we both graduated from college and then got married. Two weeks after our beautiful wedding, we packed up all our things and moved to Alaska. All this in the middle of a pandemic. While we survived that move, it was tough, so all other moves would be way easier. Right? Not quite.

This is our second move now and while the pandemic has calmed down a bit, there are other factors that pose some complications. The first being that I am 14 weeks pregnant. This is such a blessing and we are so very excited for this little baby. We just didn’t really expect to be pregnant while moving to a whole new city. With the addition of a super-hot housing market, finding a place to live has been stressful and very frustrating. Finally, due to the fact that we live on an island with only one moving company the dates were hard to lock down, so we wont actually be here when they come take our stuff. Cue nervous laughter.

All this to say that I was fooled by thinking we wouldn’t have a harder move than our first. But here in this chaos is where I see God’s hand. His provision.

We put in five offers for different houses that all were out bid. Tears were shed. Many tears. It wasn’t until a week before we actually moved that we found a house. In my timing, that is cutting it a little too close, but for God it was perfect. When we are defeated, desperate, and almost all out of hope, that is when He shows that He has been with us the whole time. Through every breakdown, every rejected offer, every heated conversation about where we were going to live God was present. He held me as I cried and worried even though all I felt was scared.

We held on to hope (Colby better than myself truthfully) and the Lord provided a house. A place to raise a family, a place to cultivate community, and most importantly a place to honor God. This house will be where our faith expands and our love grows. I don’t know exactly why it took so long to find this house, but there was a purpose in the waiting. A new reliance on God.

More and more these days I am seeing how much I rely on everything other than the Lord. And more and more, He calls me from that sinful pattern and brings me back to remembering His power to work all things together for those who love Him (Romans 8:28). This verse doenst mean He is a wish granter and we get everything we ask for. But it means that His perfect plans will always work for our good even if it does not feel like it in the moment. It is not a verse to hope in what we want to happen but a verse for hope in that the right thing will happen. The thing that will honor God and give you more space to glorify His name.

So praise God on high that we found a house! May we use it to bring His name glory every day we live there.