Where We Were, Where We Are, and Where We're Headed

It's been so long since I've written that I almost forgot my blogger password.  I'm not kidding.
That doesn't mean my mind has stopped working, someday I'll write to my heart's desire, someday.  But for now, it is for quiet moments crammed in between noise, clutter, poopy diapers, whining 3 year olds, and a marriage to my best friend.  Those moments where I sit in silence and think are sweet, but very few.

This post has been brewing for some time, in my head, but in REAL life too.  And when I say for 'some time', I mean over a year-in-the-making....at least the real life part.

In less than 2 weeks, 13 quick and hurried days, we will move out of our first 'home'.  We have made so many memories in this home.  Micah learned to walk here, we brought Jude and Eli home from the hospital.  Broken arms, sleepless nights, tears of joy and of sorrow, and a few dings in the walls.  We knew we wouldn't stay long when we moved in.  Afterall, a 3 bedroom condo can only contain so much-and 3 crazy and active boys are TOO much for it's four walls.

We are excited to move on, but that is just one emotion involved.  We will miss the quiet of our neighborhood and the phone calls from our dear neighbor Barbara.  We will miss the the awesome trails and playgrounds that are within walking distance.  In the midst of thinking about what we will miss from this place we've called home for the last 4 years are other feelings.  Feelings of excitement for what lies ahead, a tinge of fear (which arises only when I lose sight of God's truth), disbelief that our seemingly normal life will soon be in a storage unit 3 blocks away, and hope for the future.

You see, we don't know where we will be moving to long term.  We have ideas, hopes even, but nothing concrete.  I'm trying to tell myself that it's okay, but some days it's hard to buy.  We have kids now, so the thought of not having a plan feels a bit irresponsible, which goes against the core of my being...just ask my parents or my husband....most days I'm TOO responsible.

As I said above, we knew we wouldn't stay in this home long, but the timeline was a little blurry.  Late last fall it became evident that the big dot on that timeline indicating our stay here had ended was approaching quickly.  We didn't know what that meant, or what God had in store for us, but Jason and I both felt very strongly that we we needed to start taking the appropriate actions necessary to sell our home.  Right...Prepping our home to sell.  Did you know that when you sell your home you're supposed to make it look like IT HAS NEVER LOOKED BEFORE?!?! Really!?!?  Who lives like this?  In our case, we love to shove items in any nook and cranny and struggle to keep our dirty clothes off of the floor,  so this meant storing half of our lives in our garage, literally.  It took a good deal of work...and tears, but we got it done.

After scoping out the market and talking to some great friends/acquaintances we decided to try selling our home for sale by owner.  At first we thought this would involve buying a sign and listing through a FSBO website, but then an awesome couple who had just sold their home said they had wished they had bought a sign at Lowe's and put it on Craig's List for a few weeks.  Since we were in a position where we didn't HAVE to move, we decided to go that route.  I'm not gonna lie, selling your home FSBO takes a lot of work. You also save a lot of dough, and saving money is almost important to me as being responsible.  We cleaned, de-cluttered, rearranged furniture, took pictures and made flyers.  In June we distributed flyers to realtors and put a sign in our yard.  Just 10 days after putting the sign up it sold!

I wouldn't say we were caught off guard, but the reality that we would soon be homeless began to sink in.  That's right about the time the insecurities that we were being irresponsible sprouted up too.  It's one thing to bunk with friends for a week or two when it's just you and your husband, but when there are 5 of you it's a whole different ball game!

We had started to look at homes before listing our house, but every time we did we just felt like it wasn't the right timing.  We felt like we were wasting our energy and our emotions.  Chances are, the houses that were for sale when we were trying to sell our home wouldn't still be for sale when we actually sold.  Boy were we right.  Houses in our area are selling withing 24-72 hours after going on the market.  Some houses aren't even being listed and I've heard of realtors calling people whose houses aren't even for sale to tell them that they could sell it in a matter of days OR that they have someone who wants to buy their home!  Really!?!? Kinda crazy.

When talking about moving, naturally 'where to next' comes up in conversation. Jason and I have both felt like we were supposed to move to Iowa City for quite some time.  We feel like the city, itself, has a lot to offer, culturally, educationally and socially.  We love older homes, as opposed to newer construction-and Iowa City is filled with old homes...some TOO old, yet still beautiful.  On a deeper level, though. We felt like God was asking us to step out of our comfort zone and move to an area that was not what we were familiar with.  He started to grow this passion in our hearts, separately, but at the same time (marriage is cool like that).  We saw that Iowa City was a place that we were definitely not familiar with and although it was geographically close to where we are now, it would still stretch us in many ways.

There are too many details and facets to mull over in this 'little' update, but let's just say that we've felt confirmed in every step that we've taken thus far to move to Iowa City.  That being said, there have definitely been moments where we felt like God was asking us to let the door close behind us and trust that a new one would open, even if we couldn't see the next door immediately.  It has been a faith building season, for sure.

As we move forward there are two very big changes that will take place at almost precisely the same time:

1.On August 2nd we close on our home.  The week before we will move in with my so-very-generous sister, brother-in-law and nephew.  We will be living with them for an unknown period of time...that's right.  We have no idea how long we will be living there or where we will live long-term.
About 18 months ago some friends told us about a housing program through the city of Iowa City.  Their goal is to purchase rental homes in the downtown Iowa City area and rehab them.  They fix them up, and sell them back to you at a discounted price, with the stipulation that they are owner occupied for 20 years.  Their goal is to have more owner occupied homes in a rental property laden area of the city.  Like I said, too many details for one post, but between the real estate market being cracked-out and peace in both of our hearts, we have decided to pursue a home through this program.  We don't totally know what that looks like.  We could be wasting our time, but at this point we're willing to take that risk.  We hope to get more details, and hopefully even some decisions, in the next 1-2 weeks.
In the meantime, the boys and I will live an hour south of all that we know as a family, on a farm.  Jason will come down a few days a week, and live with friends while he works here in the Iowa City/North Liberty area.
We are excited for a sweet season to be so very close to my family...my parents will be 6 miles away and one of my other sisters and her family will be 8 miles away.  We're excited to put the boys to bed every night, dirty and dog-tired.  It's seasons like this that I am beyond thankful for family and their role in our lives.

2. The other big change will happen on August 3rd...just one day after selling our home.   As I eluded to above, we've felt like we were supposed to move to Iowa City for many reasons, but one of the big reasons is that our church is planting a church in downtown Iowa City and we wanted to be a part of it-in some capacity.  We didn't know for a long time what that meant.  Jason has been asked, along with his cohort, Dan Bovenmeyer, to be a pastor at this church.  The church will meet on Saturday evenings. For the next year Jason will be 50% pastor and 50% youth pastor as we have all agreed that it is not healthy to just pass the youth ministry off to someone else without a transition period.

We are excited, I feel like I've said that approximately 15 times in this post.  I'm not gonna lie, though, there are moments of mild freak-outs, short tempers, and "really God?s."  We are confident that He is doing a great work, that He is a great God, and that all things will work to bring Him glory.  Does that mean it will all be rainbows and butterflies?  That we'll never have moments of physical, emotional or financial trials as we make these huge transitions?  We will definitely experience pain and trial in this transition and in life overall, but we are confident that He will always be working all things for His good.

"You gave a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip."  Psalm 18:36