We have news!

Okay, so its not really "news" to most of you, but sometimes I feel like its brand new information for me, since I have such little faith at times.

God provides! {don't worry, there's more} 

When you think no one cares
when you feel like you're carrying the world on your shoulders
when you think YOU are the reason things go well
or the reason everything falls into beautiful, perfect {better than even you could've planned it} place, remember one thing... GOD.
It really had nothing to do with you.
At all. 
Sorry if that bums you out, but isn't it better news to know that Almighty God of the universe cares and provides and cherishes YOU?! I like knowing that.

As I mentioned in my recap post, we found out a little over 3 weeks ago that we have to move from this house when our lease is up in September. The owners moved to Arizona, they love it there and want to buy a home. Which means they need to sell the home we're living in.
We had NO intention {at all} of moving from this house at the end of our lease and we had every intention of signing for another year. We're very content here and our hope has been to rent a place where we can comfortably live, long enough to save up to buy a home. Looks like these weren't God's plans... for this house, at this time.

I had a mini meltdown - all on my own, not even sure Jason knows how much I freaked out- the day after we found out. I sat on my bed and cried my eyes out. Honestly, I think it was just a culmination of all that has consumed us this year and feeling like I couldn't handle another "something big" to deal with. So I had myself a good cry and basically told God, once again, "you have so much to teach me about patience and trust - thank you for being so patient with me and teaching me in such easy ways." I mean, God could teach me about patience and trust in some pretty brutal ways. But He doesn't. Though I didn't want to move again, in the grand scheme of things, its not horrendous. Just inconvenient and annoying :)
But I needed quick attitude change, because even though I understood it was just a move, it wasn't in MY plans and wasn't what Jason and I wanted to do this year, at all.

But this is where God really blew my mind and showed me what little faith I have in what GREAT things He can do. 

Before I tell you how God completely amazed us {again} I have to give you a bit of a back story - you know me. 

Jason and I have this dream... we've had it for many years. I've felt this way since I was young, but after we got married and I told him about my dream, he agreed it was a grand dream. And here it is...

I have always wanted to live on an acre or 2 of land {nice land, not a huge slope or land we'd have to do major work to} where the home is located in an area that looks and feels like you're out in the middle of no where. Just farms, farm animals, beautiful views and nothing heard but birds chirping and cows mooing. And yet town and civilization is only minutes away. 

Weird dream? Yeah... I'm weird. I figured we would save our money up, pray over it and after many years of those two things, hopefully God would open up an opportunity for us to do just that.

And so when we found out we can't stay in our current home longer than September of this year, we decided to start looking at rentals, in the hopes we could find a place we like, secure it and be done with that whole hassle and actually enjoy the summer! I admit, I went into this search very skeptical, but I was game, since I think our family could really use a calm, enjoyable summer.

We saw a link for a home pretty close to us; maybe 10 minutes northeast. Said it was a large, well taken care of rambler {up here that means older, one story home} on 1 acre of land, in a country setting, but with town just down the road. And here's the best part... the home is larger than our current home and the rent is cheaper than we're paying now! 

I quickly emailed the owner, asking for more pictures and more details. After back-and-forth emails, finding out all the info we needed without actually seeing the home, we decided to go see it. We knew within moments of walking in the front door "this is it." 

We clicked with the owners; talked about adopting each other as family before we left :) and Jason and I couldn't believe how this home and where its located is exactly in the perfect spot for us. Only God could plan these details out this way. 

Even the fact that the owners decided to list it way ahead of the time they'd need to rent it and we happened to look way ahead of the time we needed to rent. 

The home puts Jason closer to work, us closer to church and most of our church friends, its minutes away from most of the places I go run our errands and its still only 10-15 minutes away from our current close friends and neighbors. 

The home is much older than our last 3 homes we've lived in. We're partial to the older homes though, so we're kind of excited about it. We agreed that the little creaks in the wood floor and the lower ceilings make us feel more like "home". I think its because we were raised in homes like that. Cozy, comfortable and with character.
The home has a swimming pool too {do they have those in Washington?!} and has a tree house that the owner built with his now adult boys, when they were little. The kids are most excited about that. Several horses live just down the dead end road that the home is on and we're slowly trying to get Kara adapted to at least petting the horses. Right now she's does well just talking to them the entire time we see them - "nice horse. You don't want to eat my hand. I'm just a little girl. I'm not food. You like FOOD, not children." :)

We have plans {and already got permission} to build a chicken coup so we can have our own eggs every week and next year we're going to plant a veggie garden as well. I'm still pinching myself at the size of front and back yard (not to mention the two long, flat driveways and the LONG dead end street with little to no traffic on it that the kids will be able to enjoy.

So what started off as a rough situation - us not wanting to move again and finding it hard to believe that the perfect situation could present itself - God goes and shows us, once again, He's in control and plans things out much better than we ever could. Even when the news we receive isn't the greatest or some event comes about that throws our entire lives out of whack {sometimes in a bad way} remember that God knows. Remember that He is taking care of it all. His plans are SO much more stable and better than ours. His purposes are greater than ours could ever be.
And I don't just mean all of this over a home. I mean this in every situation in life.
The first 5 months of 2011 have been marked with death {of more than one family member}, life threatening sickness with a loved one, losing our baby at 12 weeks of pregnancy {marking it the 3rd death we've gone through this year} lots of sickness in our home, feeling like we'd never step outside or enjoy life as we knew it again, finding out we have to move again, having the issues with the miscarriage carrying on and not being able to really plan more than a week ahead because of it, Jason's promotion at work was pretty much non-existent this year, and have I mentioned we're just really aching for a trip to CA to visit our families??
So I don't just mean trust in God when things seem to be working out. But remember, even in your darkest hour, He knows your darkest hour. Its not surprising news to Him. He's been preparing you for it, He's been shaping you for that moment.
Trust Him. Love Him. Praise Him, even through the storm. One thing I've learned through this year is that through these trials, God so often uses them for our good. He uses them to teach us SO much we never could've been taught without them. He uses them to point us to Him, to remind us about His glory - the reason we're here. Thank you, Lord!
 Our chief end in life is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever - so even though these bumps in the road feel way worse than "bumps in the road", my chief end isn't to live a smooth, easy going, happy life. Its not to get all settled here and relax and kick back without a care in the world. Its to glorify my Savior and enjoy Him fully, forever! To glorify Him with my life, no matter where I'm living. And to use what He's given me, to bring glory to His great Name.
These trials and tribulations along the way are teaching me how frail I am and how temporary this life is, but how strong and everlasting God is. He's my goal. Not earthly success.
Then there's the added bonus of our new landlords letting us know that they eventually want to sell the home we're moving into - farther down the road though. They eventually hope to find a family who wants to grow their family and serve God there... so who knows what God has in store. He might, He might not. One thing I'm learning is that I trust Him enough not to stress over tomorrow. He's got it covered. All I need to do is trust and obey.
Enjoy the blessings He has given and the promises He's given me for the future.

We won't be moving until end of August, early September and will be sending out new address emails and such at that time. Your address books must have a lot of erase marks by our name... thanks for bearing with us through each one :-)