The Story of Tuck

As many of you know, our first dog, Pudge passed away last summer.  

Then sometime last November, I found myself perusing dogs on Craigslist hoping to find another dog to add to our family. At the time though, nothing worked out and after several closed doors, I eventually let the idea go.  Who wants to be trying to housebreak a puppy when it's snowing outside anyway? Not me!  Plus having just one small dog was nice and easy and I was enjoying that.  

Then at the beginning of this summer, we went down to Florida and stayed with my in-laws who had gotten a new puppy since the last time we'd seen them.  And their new pup, Charlie and Max had the best time playing together.  I came home from that trip pretty much convinced that we needed another dog.  Tim, however, was not so convinced. 

Every morning, I would check Craigslist for new dogs.  But each time I showed Tim a dog I found, he was just not that interested.  Until one day in early July, I saw this ad

Her name was Bailey.  She was part French Bulldog, part Pug and Beagle.  Her family loved her, but the kids were allergic to her, so they had decided that they needed to find a new home for her.   She grabbed our hearts from the beginning because she looked so much like a mini-Pudge.  She was the first pup that Tim was interested in at all, so I contacted the owners and we set up a time to go meet her the next morning.  The only problem was that the owners were asking a pretty hefty re-homing fee that was more than we wanted to pay.  But we were hoping that they'd be willing to negotiate the price once they met us and saw that we would give their puppy a loving home. 

The next morning, after meeting Bailey, Tim and I decided to make a decent offer and hope for the best.  The husband called his wife (who wasn't there with us) and she didn't want to accept our offer.  She said there were a few other people who were interested in Bailey, so she wanted to wait.  And since we didn't have a peace about offering any more money, we just asked them to let us know if things didn't work out with anyone else. I felt at peace about it; knowing that God was in control and if it was supposed to work out for us to have Bailey, then it would. 

For the next week, every time my email dinged, I hoped and prayed it was Bailey's owners contacting us. But after a few weeks of not hearing anything, I assumed she was sold and I started looking for another dog. But even as I looked, nothing grabbed my heart like Bailey did. 

Then one Monday morning in the beginning of August,  I was doing my usual morning check on Craigslist for dogs when a new ad for Bailey popped up.  My heart leaped and I immediately texted Tim (who was out of town) and asked him if we should contact them again.  He was completely on board, so I emailed the owners and just said we really loved Bailey and would like to try to reach an agreement with them on the price.  

This time, the wife emailed me back and said they would be willing to meet us in the middle on the price.  At this point, it felt like God had opened the door back up and was giving us the go-ahead, so we agreed on the price. Then I asked the wife if we could get Bailey the next day.  She emailed back late that night and said that they were going out of town the next morning and wouldn't be back until Thursday night, so we could get her on Friday morning.  

This sounded a bit odd to me, (were they taking the dog?  why would you list a dog on Craigslist right before you were going out of town?  were they going to pay to board her while they were gone?) but what could I say?  So I just agreed we would wait and get her Friday morning.  Tim was going to be coming back in town late Thursday night, so it would be nice that he could go with us to get her.  Plus Friday was the day before my birthday, so I felt like God was giving me a birthday puppy. 

All week long, the kids and I talked about Bailey.  We went to Target and got a collar for her and a dog bowl.  I ordered a name tag with our phone number on it to put on her collar.  And we counted down the days to Bailey. 

On Thursday night, when I was tucking the kids in to bed, they were so excited.  They kept saying, "This is like Christmas!  Tomorrow we're getting Bailey!".  

I went to bed feeling a tad wary because I hadn't heard anything from Bailey's owners, but figured no news from them was good news.  I had my phone on my nightstand that night because Tim hadn't made it home from his trip yet.  At midnight, my email dinged.  Thinking it was possibly Bailey's owners, I checked it.  It was the wife and basically she said they had changed their minds.  She said their kids were so upset when they broke the news to them and it seemed that their allergies hadn't been as bad lately.  They felt like Bailey was a part of their family and they just couldn't bear to part with her.

Ugh.  This was not the news we wanted to hear.

I forwarded the email to Tim, who was almost home at that point and then I laid in bed feeling like I had gotten punched in the gut. I felt awful, so sad, mad and disappointed, and I hated thinking of how we were going to break the news to the kids the next morning.  

When we told the kids, there were some tears and a lot of disappointment.  What was supposed to be a very exciting and fun day turned out to be a sad and hard day for all of us.  We reminded the kids though that if Bailey wasn't the puppy for us, then God had something better and we could trust Him. 

Up until we found Bailey, I was just looking for a dog and I didn't really know what I wanted. But after Bailey, I realized how much I liked French Bulldogs (she was part French Bulldog). But Frenchies are literally thousands of dollars, which is way out of our dog budget.  Plus Tim didn't really like French Bulldogs, but during this process, he realized how much he liked English Bulldogs.  At least we could agree on the bulldog part.

As the weeks went by, my desire for a bulldog puppy got stronger and stronger and I couldn't even have told you why.  It didn't make a lot of sense even to me but I was feeling so impatient.  I was constantly searching for bulldog puppies all over the internet and everywhere I looked was a closed door.  Finally, one Saturday, Tim found a breeder of Shorty Bulls on Facebook.  We had never heard of Shorty Bulls, but after looking into them, we felt like one might be a good fit for us.  The breeder was just a few hours from us and he had one puppy left.  Tim contacted him and it worked out that he was available to meet with us the next day. 

Well, we fell in love with that puppy from the moment we met him and we brought him home that night.   

His grandmother is a French Bulldog (what I wanted) and his dad is an English Bulldog (what Tim wanted).  So I feel like we got the perfect mix for us.  He also reminds us so much of Pudge in both his looks and personality.  It took us a while, but we finally settled on the name Tuck.

I can't help but see the way God worked through everything to bring us to Tuck.  He put desires in our hearts and lead us step by step. He opened doors to move us along the path and then closed doors to keep us from making wrong decisions.  I see it so clearly in this.  Also Tuck has a tiny brown spot on the back of his ear and because of this spot, someone that was going to buy him decided not to buy him because she wanted an ALL white dog.  So we got him instead.

Don't let his sweet face fool you though, he's quite the handful and I constantly feel like I have a toddler again.  I can't let him out of my sight for even a minute or he gets into things he shouldn't.  He's stubborn, cuddly, sweet and clumsy.  He snorts like a pig and charges like a bull. 

  

And that wrinkly face is so irresistible!  We're head over heels in love with him and we know he's the pup for us.  

And the funny thing is that Bailey's owner called a week after we got Tuck and said they were ready to sell Bailey to us (apparently the wife had just been having a hard time letting go).  Of course we told them we already had a puppy and weren't interested in Bailey anymore.

Anniversary in Paris Part 2

I’m back with Part 2 of my Paris trip. 

(This is a painting that we bought together one evening when we were walking along the Seine River.  I’m not super big on a lot of little souvenirs or trinkets, but I wanted something meaningful to bring home and I loved this painting the moment I saw it. I also liked that it was not just a mass produced photocopy, but was painted by a local artist.)
So, my last blog left off on day 3.  My body hit a wall that day from the jetlag and also from the previous evening’s long walk along the Seine River. I was worn out, stiff, tired and everything hurt.  Tim had to work that day and I felt like I “should” get out and do something since I was in Paris. But a short painful walk down the street to grab breakfast convinced me that I really just wanted to go back to our room and rest all day. So I spent my day blogging, reading, resting, and recuperating.  It was exactly what I needed and I ended up doing a lot of that on this trip.  Whenever Tim was in meetings or working, I read in our room or sat out on our balcony, enjoying the view and people-watching.  I let myself do nothing and be lazy and it felt so good. In my every day life, reading for hours or just laying around is not an option and I knew my body/mind/spirit really needed the break. It was wonderful.
The following day (day 4) was our actual anniversary.  Although we didn’t really do anything super exciting, this was one of my most favorite days. We enjoyed walking around together, eating at the little street cafes, and seeing the sights of Paris. And really, that was the best thing about this trip… just hanging out and being together without kids.  We held hands, we laughed, we talked (without interruptions!), we reminisced, we ate when we wanted to eat, where we wanted to eat, we took pictures of ourselves… it was so much fun just being together.

Tim and I have always had fun together. We get along easy. He’s always made me laugh.  He really is my best friend, my most favorite person, the love of my life, my dream come true.  He is. But you throw a few (three) kids into the mix and all of a sudden, life gets a little bit stressful. Tension levels can rise at the drop of a hat. There are parenting decisions to be made, schedules to keep, discipline problems to handle, fights to break up, interruptions, distractions, meltdowns and tantrums, dinner times and bathtimes and storytimes and bedtimes to coordinate and make happen every day, and little people that seem to constantly need our time and attention.  And things are coming at us and between us all the time.  And so for these few days, we had NONE of that.  And it was heaven.  It was bliss.  It was just us and it was amazingly wonderful. 
At one point, we stumbled upon this little grassy spot away from the crowds, so we stopped and took some pictures.  If you’re curious, I used an app on my iphone called Timercam to take these.


This is one of my favorite pictures ever…


That evening, Tim’s work buddy went with us to take some fancier pictures of us in front of the Eiffel Tower with my real camera.  I’m so thankful for these (below).  I’m sure you know by now that I am a picture person. 
This one will most likely be blown up and hung on the wall.




And that night, we went out to eat at our favorite little French café.  It was delicious.  The French don’t know how to drink their coffee (can someone introduce them to half and half?!), but they do know how to cook.


The next day (my last day), Tim arranged for a driver to take us out to Giverny to see Monet’s house and gardens.  Of all the things I wanted to do, this was on the top of my list.


His gardens are beautiful and I don’t really feel that my iphone pictures do them justice.




This is his famous lily pad pond.  This was the part I most wanted to see. You can see his house in the upper right hand corner of the picture and the bridge in upper left corner. 


That night, we decided to do what the French do and get a baguette and cheese and eat it along the Seine River.  Earlier that day, our driver had highly recommended goat cheese, so we decided to give that a shot.  Never again. It was disgusting. 


Leaving was sad and hard. I didn’t want it to be over.


But I am so thankful for this trip.  It meant so much to me that God arranged all of this for Tim and me.  I am overwhelmed at times for His deep love and care for me, for us.  His ways are so intimate and personal for each of us. He knows our hearts, our desires, and our needs and goes to great lengths to provide exceedingly more than we can imagine. Paris for me will always be a reminder of His great love to us.

Anniversary in Paris

Hello from Paris!

 

So… I made it! The trip here was not exactly smooth sailing though. Just as we were pulling out of the driveway to drive to the airport, the skies opened and began pouring down lightning, thunder, and rain  So if I wasn’t already anxious enough about leaving my kids and flying to Paris, the rainstorm and the resulting slower and heavier traffic on the interstate didn’t exactly help. But we made it to the airport safely and on time. After Tim’s dad dropped me off, I was on my own. If I wasn’t absolutely convinced that God had ordained this trip for me, then I would not have gone, but I’m learning to trust, to risk, to take adventures with Him. Still, I was nervous and stressed. I am not much of a traveler, so airports can feel like a maze to me, but I asked questions and followed the crowds and the signs and eventually made it to my gate. Then we found out that our plane (that we were supposed to fly out on) had to land at a nearby airport because of the nasty weather. So their little detour ended up delaying our flight by 3 hours as we waited for them to refuel, take off, and get to our airport. My flight didn’t leave until about 12:30 a.m, instead of 9:25 p.m. After that it was an almost 8 hour flight to Paris. It was a long, uncomfortable, mostly sleepless night on the plane.

 Once I got to Paris, I made my way through the airport, through customs and then to baggage, hoping to see Tim on the other side. But because of his work obligations, he ended up not being able to meet me there. If you’re used to flying and airports and foreign countries, then maybe this isn’t such a big deal, but I was pretty overwhelmed by all of it. A foreign country, unfamiliar territory, and me no hablo Frencho…. not a fun combination for me. So then I had to figure out how to exchange my money for Euros, get to the RER (metro/train), buy tickets, get on the correct RER, change RER trains mid-way, and then find Tim’s hotel. I don’t do these things, much less in a foreign country. Tim bought me a GPS when we moved to D.C. and I can still get myself lost. I have no sense of direction and I’m not a map person. My brain doesn’t work like that. Sorrynotsorry, it just doesn’t and I can’t help it. So I will just say, it was all Jesus that I actually made it.

 When I finally found the hotel and Tim, I was on the brink of an emotional breakdown… tired, hungry, cranky, overwhelmed, emotional, missing my kids, and exhausted from the traveling. I had all the feelings. So he took me to Starbucks. A little taste of home, something familiar, and that made things so. much. better. I was new again.

That night, we walked through the beautiful streets of Paris and ate dinner at a local café. The food was rich and delicious.

 

 It was drizzly, but we walked down to get a better view of the Eiffel Tower.

A great thing about our hotel is that it’s very close to the Eiffel Tower. I took this picture from the top balcony of our hotel.

 At night, it lights up. And every hour on the hour, it sparkles.

 

 And it is completely massive.

Our room doesn’t face the Eiffel Tower though. At first, I thought I would be disappointed about this, but I actually love the view from our balcony. The buildings we face are beautiful to me. The old architecture, the flowers on the balconies, the brick chimneys, and dark shingles…I just love it all.

 And there is a quieter, tree lined street below. I’ve been enjoying just sitting out on our balcony, watching the cars, the buses and the people go by. Even as I type, I’m sitting out here on our balcony and a horse drawn carriage is clip-clomping past, along the street below me. It’s perfect and peaceful.

 On my first morning here, Tim had to work, so I walked down to a small bakery, bought a croissant and an Americano coffee. (We’re learning that the French like their coffee much, much darker and stronger than we do. They drink little tiny Espressos. So when you order an Americano, you’re basically just ordering a watered down Espresso… not exactly my favorite. I’ll take a little bit of flavored coffee with a lot of half and half and fake sugar please. Since that’s not really an option here, we mostly just go to Starbucks.) Then I walked over to the Champ de Mars and sat at the park and people-watched and thought and prayed and journaled and enjoyed doing nothing and not being in a hurry.

 That afternoon, Tim and I decided to walk along the Seine River and see the sights.

We walked for miles upon miles, from the Eiffel Tower all the way to the Notre Dame Cathedral. I believe this is the Louvre.

We stopped at the Love Lock Bridge and added our own Lock of Love.

 We bought a lock from a street vendor, then wrote our names and wedding date on it, and locked it on the bridge. Tim had a sneaking suspicion that the street vendors go back out and remove their locks , clean them up, and re-sell them (because the keys were the same for all the locks and the locks looked a little bit beat up/used), so Tim broke our key off in the lock (#weshowedthem), then, following the tradition, we threw all the keys to our lock into the river. And now our lock is locked on the bridge for-ever and we’re locked in love!!

Also, while we were out walking, we bought a painting of the Eiffel Tower in the Spring from a local painter.  I love it.  It's the perfect souvenir.

 Our walk ended about 2 1/2 hours later at the Notre Dame Cathedral

 After that we ate dinner at a street café and then started the long walk back to our hotel.

Along the way, I saw this cute little street and that couple kissing makes this picture even better. So Paris!

 Which brings me to today. My feet have blisters and my legs ache from walking miles and miles (almost 8 miles) in my boots yesterday. I’m also tired (probably from the time change and not being able to sleep last night), so today I’m taking it easy. As much as I enjoy walking along the streets and sight-seeing, I also am enjoying resting and quiet and reading and doing nothing. At some point while I’m here, I hope to make it to Monet’s Gardens.

 Have you been to Paris? Do you have suggestions? Favorite cafes? Favorite things to do? Favorite things to eat?

House Hunt Update

As I’m sure most of you know by now, we’re moving up to the D.C. area in just a few weeks.  Back in October, Tim and I went on a house hunting trip, put an offer on a house, got outbid and then ended up coming back home without a house.  Feeling a tad desperate and knowing we would need somewhere to live, we started looking into temporary housing options.  But God just kept closing doors on us.  It seemed that every which way we turned, a door closed.  Day after day ticked by with nothing.  At this point, it was already mid-November and the movers were already scheduled to pack us up on the first of December.  Talk about stressful!  We prayed, we questioned, we waited anxiously for God to open a door. 

Then during the week before Thanksgiving week, a few new listings in Virginia and Maryland came available that we were interested in.  Almost on a whim, Tim called his parents to see if there was any chance they could come up at the last minute and take care of the kids for a few days while we made a quick house hunting trip up to DC.  They immediately agreed to help us out; even changing a doctor appointment so they could come up a day sooner than originally planned.  Tim also checked with our realtors (we have one in VA and one in MD) and both were available that weekend.  So since all of a sudden, God seemed to be opening doors for us instead of closing them, we decided to take a step of faith (in the form of a loooong car drive) and see what He had in store for us.

Tim’s parents drove up that Wednesday afternoon and then Tim and I drove all day Thursday to Virginia.  

 

The plan was to spend Friday looking at houses in Virginia and then there were a few houses we wanted to look at in Maryland on Saturday morning. 

 

Well, it turned out that we both fell in love with the third house we saw in VA that first morning.  We decided to quickly see the last few houses on our VA list, just to be doubly sure though.  And each time we walked into another house, we just felt more strongly about that third house. So after a quick lunch to pray and talk it through, we were ready to make an offer.  From our previous experience, we knew we needed to act fast.  We wrote our offer, prayed over it (again), and then submitted it to the sellers.

It was a long night of waiting and praying.  And, for whatever reason (most likely from our previous experience of falling in love with a house and then being outbid and losing the house), I lost all hope that night that we were going to get this house.  I cried and I doubted God’s faithfulness and goodness to us. Throughout most of this house hunting journey, even through all the questions and confusion we were facing, I felt God’s nearness.  I heard His whispers.  I knew that His hand was upon us and He was walking with us through all of it, that He had a plan and He was leading us.  But that night all I felt was fear and doubt and discouragement.   I couldn’t hear Him and I couldn’t feel Him near.  I felt completely lost. 

 

The next morning, since we didn’t know if our offer would be accepted and we had no time to waste, we went ahead and met with our Maryland realtor to see a few houses over there.  And afterwards, we were even more confident about our feelings for the house in VA.  We really loved it, and for us, nothing even compared.  So with nothing else to do but wait (with giant knots in our stomachs), we decided to go to Ikea and dream about all the things we would do to our house, if we got it.  We had just arrived there and were walking through Ikea when Tim’s phone rang. It was our realtor. I’m sure ya’ll have had those moments when time just seems to stand still, your heart freezes, and three seconds seems like a lifetime.  This was one of those times.  So when our realtor told us that the seller accepted our offer (and there were actually multiple offers!), I almost fell on the floor right there and cried from sheer joy and sweet relief.

Right here is where it all went down.

 

We had a house! We wouldn’t be homeless for Christmas after all!  I would not have to live in a tiny apartment on the 7th floor with three small children and an overgrown Boxer!  God had totally come through for us, seemingly at the last minute. I honestly felt like He had parted the Red Sea for our family. We were ecstatic, overjoyed, triumphant, victorious!  Our mouths probably hung open from complete awe and amazement of God and what He did for us that day and through this entire experience.

As things worked out, we were even able to get the home inspection scheduled for early the next morning before our drive back to Alabama.  It was a whirlwind trip, completely planned and destined by God.  One we will not likely ever forget.  (And if we do, I now have a blog entry to remind us.)

 

It amazes me to see how God used so many people, experiences, and situations to weave our path over these last few months to get us where we needed to be when we needed to be there.  He had a perfect way and perfect timing and a perfect home for us.  I told Tim that I feel like we’ve been through a maze.  At times, we tried to go the wrong way, but God always pulled us back on the right path each time.  He has faithfully led us through every step of the way. 

 

I can look back and see that now.  Although in the middle of everything, I felt like we were walking in complete darkness with no idea where we were going or how we would ever get there.  Sometimes, like when we were outbid during our first house hunting trip and lost the house, I felt defeated and hopeless.  But it’s clear to me now that that first house was a step on our path, not the final destination. God used that house to pull us away from putting an offer on the Annapolis house (which would have been a mistake) and then also to lead us to Fairfax.  During that first house hunting trip, after making that offer on the house, we spent days staying in Fairfax eating, shopping, and driving around looking at houses and getting to know the area.  We fell in love with the city, but then ended up leaving without a house.  At the time, that was devastating and scary.  But then in His timing and when the right house for us was on the market, God brought us back (very unexpectedly) and gave us the house He had for us. God works mysteriously like that and sometimes His ways totally blow my mind.

We also realized later, that if Tim’s dad wouldn’t have thought to change his doctor’s appointment and come up a day early (they came up Wednesday instead of Thursday), we wouldn’t have been able to drive up to VA on Thursday, see this house on Friday morning and gotten our offer in by that afternoon.  And considering that there were multiple offers on this house, it most likely would have been off the market by Saturday when we had originally planned to see it.  Crazy, huh?!!

 

Here’s a peek of our soon-to-be-home.

 

I can’t wait to get in there and start making it a home for us.

House Hunting

I guess it’s time for a little update on the move.  So much has happened over the last few weeks that it’s hard for me to figure out how to put it all into words that make any sort of sense.  It has really been a roller coaster ride and I’m still a little bit dazed and confused by all of it.

But anyway…

Back in the middle of October, Tim and I took the kids down to Florida to stay with the grandparents and then we hopped on a plane to D.C. for ten days of house hunting.  Originally, I thought it was going to be kinda like a fun little getaway for me and Tim, a second honeymoon so to speak.  No kids, ten full nights of beautiful uninterrupted sleep, coffee shop mornings, dinners out, some shopping, and of course the house hunting.  Which I am totally into the HGTV show, House Hunters, so I was completely excited about that part of the trip.  I mean, who doesn’t love getting to pick out a new-to-them house?   I had made my list of all my things that I wanted in our next house…  older with lots of character, fireplace, lots of natural light, hardwood floors, white kitchen, front porch, and on and on.  I was ready and I was excited.  (Except for the part about leaving my kids for that long, which was so completely heart-wrenching.) 

 

We spent the first few days with our realtor in VA.  We looked at probably at least 20 houses and didn’t like a single one.  I fully expected to just “know” when we walked in and I never got that feeling that “this was the one”.  Many times, we walked in and then turned around and walked straight out.  Sometimes, we pulled up to a house and then told our realtor, “um… no.” and we just went to the next.  It was exhausting and a little bit discouraging.  I didn’t like Virginia.

 

After exhausting all the Virginia possibilities (and probably our realtor too!), we headed over to Maryland for a few days with our other realtor over there.  She handed us a stack of listings and we set off hopeful to find our house.  To make a really long story a little bit shorter, we found two houses in Annapolis that we liked.  They both had their pros and cons and we were stuck on making a decision. There wasn’t a clear “this is the one” feeling, but that night, I talked myself into a decision and then attempted to convince Tim it was the right decision. We had a few more houses on our MD list to look at the next day (just to be sure) and afterwards we thought we would probably go ahead and make an offer on the house.     

 

But that next day, after finishing looking at all the MD houses, Tim had a very strong inclination to go back to VA and look again before making the offer.  A few more houses had come on the market in VA and he wanted to be sure.  I was not thrilled to be going back to VA, but I obliged him anyway.  We walked through a few houses and I was pretty closed minded about them.  My mind was still set on the house back in Annapolis.  And then, we walked into the third house on our list and Tim and I both completely flipped for it.  We knew.  We loved it immediately and the more we walked around in it, the more we loved it. We honestly felt like the Lord had led us to this house and that this was the house He had for our family.  We decided to put an offer on it that night.  But as we were sitting down with our realtor to write up the contract, we found out that someone else was also putting an offer on it.  It was seriously one of the most stressful ordeals ever.  Of course we prayed and we were trusting that the Lord was guiding us, but the entire time my stomach was in knots.  During the process, we took a short break and when we walked outside, we saw this rainbow.

Can you see it?

  

It was such a sweet reminder that the Lord was in control.  We put in an offer above asking price (which seems completely ridiculous in this market, right?!!).  And then for over 24 hours we waited and prayed.  It was hard to eat, hard to sleep, hard to think about anything but that house.

But then, to our complete and utter dismay, the other offer was accepted.  “It was much higher.”  What?!!

And then we hit rock bottom.

 

We were completely discouraged and confused.  There were no more houses to look at.  I didn’t want the house in Annapolis anymore.  I knew the difference then between thinking a house was the right house and walking in and knowing a house was the right house.  And then there was the fact that we really believed that God had led us to that particular house.  No other house seemed right anymore.  Our hearts were set on the that house.  It was supposed to be our house.

And so we kinda stumbled around in a daze for a few days, not knowing what to do next.  We prayed.  I cried.  A lot. Eventually we started looking at short term rentals and apartments.  We needed something.  But God just seemed to be shutting all doors.  The best thing we found was an apartment on the fourth floor.  Which seems pretty impossible to me… three small kids, a dog… I just can’t imagine that working out well.  Lugging groceries up four flights of stairs, taking the dog out at night, up and down with kids, etc…

In the end we came home with nothing.  Nothing. 

This past week, our house here in Birmingham went under contract.  The movers are scheduled to come in a month to move us out.  And the absolutely crazy thing is that we have no idea where we are going to go.  We believe God is faithful, that He has a plan and that He will make a way for us, but right now, that way is very unclear.  Our faith and our trust are being stretched daily. 

Today, in Jesus Calling, I read

“When you don’t know what to do, wait while I open the way before you.  Trust that I know what I’m doing, and be ready to follow my lead.  I will give strength to you, and I will bless you with peace.”

And so we wait…