The Sorting, Purging and Packing Has Begun

In August, I went to Florida again, this time with my youngest son, Alex.  At this point we hadn’t made any decision about moving. This trip had been planned back in June because Alex wanted to visit Andrew and see his new home.

Randy and I talked on the phone daily. We were trying to decide if we were to purchase or lease a new vehicle and neither one of us had any real peace about it.  Since we hadn’t decided about the move yet, it seemed premature to be considering a new vehicle even though we’d been putting the equivalent of a car payment into our 2003 van every month since March. At one point I said, “We really can’t make any more plans until we decide if we are moving or not.”

Randy was quiet for a moment and finally said, “Can we just make the decision here and now that we are moving and see where God leads after that?”  So that’s what we did.  We’d prayed for months, and it was time to just take a step in faith. We knew if we were wrong, God would close the doors and we would find no way to make it happen. We were confident that He was leading. It HAD to be God for one very good reason.

For the  past 30 years we had traveled to Florida multiple times to visit my grandfather until his death in 2013. After Grandpa died, Randy said, “You know, I never really liked Florida. I wouldn’t feel bad if we never went there again.”  Now here we were with this unexplainable nudging that wouldn’t quit.  Yes, the grandkids were there, but they were in Ohio and God had not allowed us to make that move which made much more sense in our little brains.   God’s plans were definitely NOT the same as ours!

So during the trip Alex and I took to Florida, Randy and I were planning our future over the phone. We talked at length with Andrew and Christine and were told that they would love to welcome us into their home for however long it took for Randy to either find a job or get his own company to the point where it could support us.  This was a huge blessing.

You must understand that Andrew had just moved in March. He has 6 children under the age of 10 and had already welcomed his brother David into his home in June. Now he was extending that offer to Randy, Alex and I. That would create a household of 12.    Was he crazy? Probably.

So the wheels began moving. We began looking for warehouse space for Randy’s business and began the process of figuring when to make the move. Of course, the biggest challenge would be selling our home in Iowa. When we moved here from Ohio, Randy had to come ahead and was here for 6 weeks while we waited for our home to sell. We were hoping that wouldn’t have to happen this time. Could we just wait to go until after our current home sold? It seemed that would be the hinge pin that would control everything else.

Then the unexpected happened. It would be the first of a series of very surprising developments. Our son Jared called me one evening while I was still in Florida with Alex. His question was, “how serious are you and Dad about moving to Florida?” I answered that we were pretty serious. Then he said, “I would like to rent your house.”

Things seemed to be falling together without any manipulating on our part at all. Perhaps we had heard from God after all. Perhaps the adventure was for real!

The next thing we did was go to Home Depot and buy boxes. The sorting, purging and packing has begun!