With no ‘right’ place to begin, I begin. As I sit here I understand the only sameness I have is the music streaming into my ears. Time has passed (67 days to be exact) and much has been. These next few days I’ll share some of that ‘much,’ not to live in the past but rather to appreciate my being here, now able to fully accept and embrace this, our new now.
Thank you to the few who knew and came to our flocks side, serving us in what was our insurmountable mountain of to-do’s in a time-frame which seemed like a blink.
Now let’s go back, back to ‘our before.’ On July 27th, 2020 we communicated to our landlords and friends of our family's intent to leave our house made home on or before August 31, 2020. Having arrived to the days beyond the set 40 we were just in (when we honored God’s offer to us to... mentally and physically stay put) we are here now and we know and need to take a step forward. The decision to leave simply seemed the wisest step to take. After all God had provided for us a place to go, albeit a place we had no idea would be the space we would call home permanently.
#onlyGodispermanent I use the word permanently ever so loosely, for if I have learned anything in and through my days of treading soil, I know… I don’t know! Friends may we all remember, and even celebrate the freedom we can have as we live knowing -- we have this moment and beyond that, we just don’t know that which our days will hold.
I have mentioned previously, we, as a family have looked forward to One Day being able to retreat to a space of our own (again #oursnotours #allHis) by a lake. Every opportunity we have had as a couple or as a family to steal-away for a day, maybe two or longer <3 we search for an Airbnb (or something of the like) by a lake to stay. We’ve become friends with some of those we have been able to repeat visit and if adding friends to our lives isn’t enough after each and every steal-away we were refreshed and renewed in ways I think only being lakeside can bring. Are you one who has been by a lake and can join me in celebrating the gifts, both the small and significant, which came from your time there?
As our days and years in Mount Joy have passed we enjoyed where we were living so much, and God brought us there so… as a family we would not have chosen to leave this lovely property and home just to ‘buy a house.’ As time has passed and real estate in the northern regions of Pennsylvania became feasible we began to casually look. This past January we decided to be more intentional and partnered with a realtor in the Pocono region to look at a few homes in the area around Lake Wallenpaupack. Our search indeed brought us to a property we hoped to call our “home away from home,” and by the end of the month we had put an offer in.
Our time traversing through those never-ending checklists so we could follow through with purchasing this home was an interesting experience. Our realtors said they had never worked with a seller “like this” before (referring to their v e r y slow response to different requests asked of them). Other buyers would have been in a complete tizzy, losing sleep, always being frustrated, feeling they were living in a swirl of crazy because it’s not supposed to be this way. For us though, we were in complete peace the entire time. We never felt the need to check in with our realtors, they were doing their part and we simply waited to be called upon and when so, we just did the next thing. Our realtor was pleasantly surprised and sincerely shocked by our patience and kindness through it all. We were stepping out in faith, continuing to do our part and trusting the outcome will be as it is meant to be.
I highly recommend (wink wink, hug hug ) living your days remembering God is God. As He is God and God is Love, His perfect love calls us into letting Him be God. Let’s be honest there really is no such thing as “letting” because again He is our omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient Maker and Sustainer. He offers us unending gifts as we live in our surrender to Him and His perfect and higher ways, the land of letting is what I call it. When we live in this Land of Letting peace exudes from us opening our arms to then be able to receive gifts into our day and also bring gifts to others.
Our journey was interesting to say the least and as we came closer to our settlement date which was set in January for March 20, 2020 only God knew by that time all of mankind would be in the swirl of wanting to know “what’s going on” and forward we step… able to close on the new home the v e r y last day business was allowed to operate in Pennsylvania. With that, we considered (and still consider) this opportunity a gift. Gotta love (or do you?) Jesus and His mysteriously perfect ways! We celebrate knowing He is always working for those who wait on and in Him and certainly at that time we did not know the extent of our soon need…