Once again, I am remiss in my blogging duties. It may seem that I’ve grown tired of blogging. Rest assured, I have not. I think the combination of moving, unpacking/sorting/organizing, entertaining, and Siena going to one nap a day has contributed to my lack of consistency. I’ll try to be better in the future. More for myself than anyone else, quite honestly. I enjoy going back and reading older posts - seeing what our Siena was up to or how God was moving and working in our lives.
I’ll try to touch on the highlights for you and not belabor you with an extensive novel of our ongoings. I will post more later - and pictures too! We changed servers and don’t have the photo-posting part working yet. Hopefully soon!
May was the month of moving. Enough said. Siena and I went to Colorado for 2 weeks and packed up our home there with my parents help. Ryan joined us for another week and we just kept packing and took a little time out to see family. We packed up a 26 foot moving truck, a small U-Haul, and my parents Expedition and drove back to Kansas. We arrived in Kansas and unloaded everything into a duplex we are now renting, then drove over to our old one-bedroom apartment, and loaded it all into cars and the UHaul and moved it in the duplex too. Then we all stood in the middle of the chaos and wailed. No, not really. I think we thought about it - but there was no time for that. In two days, my grandparents from Utah were coming for a visit. They had planned an extensive trip around the U.S. to see all of their great-grandkids and we were the last stop on their voyage. We had to get the duplex in living condition in two days and arrange all furniture and find/organize all of our dishes, cookware, clothes, and extra bedding. It was a zoo and we worked ’til we about dropped. My parents were a priceless help during this time and I really can’t thank you enough, Mom and Dad, for all of your sacrificial support, work, sweat, loss of sleep, and love! Bo and Paw (my grandparents) arrived and we all ended up relaxing (finally!) and truly enjoyed their visit. Siena enjoyed it too! My parents and my grandparents went back home and that left just Siena and I working on the house while Ryan was at work. Let’s just say, the work went slower than I had hoped, but it’s not easy when you’re chasing down a toddler either!
Something else happened in May that has tested our faith to the far reaches. While in Colorado, we went and signed our final paperwork for selling our home. We signed it earlier than our closing day because we would already be back in Kansas by that time. Meanwhile, Siena had started running 104 fevers (which ultimately cleared up), but we took her to the pediatrician that afternoon to be on the safe side. We were driving home when we received a call from our realtor. They had found a tax lien on our buyer and we would not be able to go to closing until this lien was resolved. Talk about a gut bomb. We sat in our car in devastated silence. What were we going to do? We felt like we were headed to financial ruin. We had just signed a lease agreement on a duplex, still had one month left to pay on our one-bedroom apartment we had rented, and would now also be responsible for a continued mortgage payment? I cried. I yelled. We panicked. Then, we stopped and prayed. I can’t say I felt 100% better. We were both extremely stressed at the circumstances, but God saw this coming all the way along. He knew what we would face. And 24 hours later, after a fitful night of sleep, HE provided. Our realtor called us back and said our buyers wanted to lease our home from us in the meantime, until they could resolve the lien and go to closing. We BREATHED. Thank you, Faithful Father. We PRAISE you!
On June 16th, our darling girl turned 18 mos. old! Wow - where did THAT time go?! She is busy, busy, busy these days - running all around! The potty-training thing has been delayed a bit, but she has now learned her colors and so many other new words! It’s fun having little “conversations” with her now! We took this video of her early in July: (click)
Siena knows her colors!Let me tell you about something truly exciting we are embarking on in our lives! We are NEW people, financially. God has worked on our hearts and faith in such a way that we never want to be the same again. In July, we rolled out Operation G.O.D.! (Get Outta Debt!) Silly acronym, maybe, but we see it as a worthy reminder of Who provides each dollar we earn and Who we desire to honor with how we spend this money. When we were laid off last summer, we didn’t know if we would still be able to make our mortgage and how we would afford groceries and day-to-day living. It was a very scary time in our lives, yet we had so much peace during that time too. God gave us that supernatural peace, as He provided all of our provisions and needs for us. It was a wonderful time of re-learning how to define a NEED versus a WANT, and seeing how MUCH we already HAD! We made the decision last summer, that as soon as we were able, we wanted to start making strides towards eliminating our debt. We have accumulated quite a bit of debt between one car loan, school loans, credit cards, and Ryan’s neck surgery this past January. We are saying a permanent GOOD-BYE to debt and have had it in our minds to get out of debt in under a year by living wisely, frugally, and God-honoring. In July, we planned out a tight budget and are ready to begin Operation G.O.D. starting today, August 1st.
Two weeks ago, our realtor called and said the lien had been removed and we could go to closing - FINALLY! Since we are still losing money while renting our home, we were excited that we could now put additional money towards our debt. We waited in anticipation and then we got another dreaded call this past Friday. They found another snag in our buyers taxes. And until this is resolved, we can’t go to closing…again. My first reaction was discouragement and even anger. Siena was napping, and I sat in our bedroom alone and felt sorry for us and for our situation. Ten minutes later, Siena woke up from her nap, and I began to feel shameful for my initial reaction. I am blessed. WE are blessed. I can’t lose sight of that and won’t. God still sees us, is FOR us, and is providing in amazing ways for us. As I scooped my tiny girl up out of her crib in her very own sweet nursery, I couldn’t help but feel so deeply how blessed I truly am. I planted kisses on her sweet face and thought how perfect she was as she smiled back at me. Then I went and found a sweet note from Ry and I knew in my spirit that it is these things that MATTER. We have food, water, shelter, each other, our baby, our families, and to top it off, our mortgage is still being paid for. Focus, Terra. Focus. God sees you…God hears you…God is FOR you. BREATHE. And Praise HIM. I prayed and praised Him outloud in our house!! I PRAISE YOU, FATHER! In ALL things, I will forever PRAISE YOU!
Thank you for your prayers. We still need them. Whatever it is in your life that is dragging you down or consuming your thoughts and worries, I would encourage you to seek His Face and PRAISE Him for all that He is doing in your life! The Bible tells us He inhabits our praises and this is so true! I dare you to PRAISE Him and feel true JOY flow through you!
Psalm 22:3-5 - “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.”
