God is on the move and so are we!

I've sat down multiple times in the last few months trying to type out an update.  The best I've done is keep our funds thermometer updated. Life just keeps happening!

God has been moving in big ways these last few months.  I've prayed many prayers in many different ways seeking out God's will, praying for Him to prepare us for our time in Poland, and asking for him to reveal obstacles in us getting there.  In November, I felt God telling me that our biggest obstacle is our home.  Our original plan was to keep the home and have someone house sit for our time away.  We found someone willing to live in our home.  It required no moving, no packing, no weeding out.  It felt great!  We've even received lots of wonderful advice from families that have done missions and one of those pieces of advice was give our children a place to come home to.  Very excellent advice!  It's hard asking our five kids to move away from everything they know to a place that seems very mythical right now.  Having our home was a way to give them a piece of security to hold onto.  However, God no doubt told me that the house was becoming more of an idol, a material possession that I (we) was putting in front of His plan.  I love our house!  This house has blessed us in so many ways.  We've added to our family here.  We've fostered here.  We've housed family in need here.  We've hosted friends and family here.  We've dreamed here.  We've grown here.  But I've always told God that the moment the house was no longer useful for His purpose, that I wanted Him to reveal that and we would sell.  That time is now.  But I wasn't ready for that answer to my prayers.  I was immediately terrified, like heart palpitations and lying awake at night wondering how do I talk to Dustin about this.  What are the kids going to think?

Just a house!

The other answer God gave me one quiet night while I was driving home from work was that our friends/mentors were going to offer their home to us for our return to the U.S.  It was the kind of answer that came out of no where but immediately I felt at peace.  Our children would have a place to come home to post Poland.  So, I waited.  I didn't say anything to Dustin because I knew it was crazy but not even two weeks later, in the presence of Dustin, our friend did that very thing.  Immediately, I started to cry.  Hard to deny God's will when he so clearly answers.  Took both our friend and Dustin by surprise as I shared with them my prayers and God's answers.

Dustin and I talked it over and we both agreed that if the kids were on board, at least mostly, we would consider selling our house.  Then there was the task of finding a way to talk it over with our kids.  We enlisted the prayers of many asking for them to pray specifically for our children.  We knew that this was going to be a hard conversation and we knew we needed God's preparation in their hearts.  We had it planned out ever so perfectly.  We'd have dinner with our friends at the home they were offering to us.  This would soften the idea.  Right?!  Well, those plans fell through due to some technical difficulties brought on by the cold weather.  So, we decided to just go for it.  We sat down the kids this Saturday knowing that we needed to have the conversation sooner rather than later.  AND . . . it went way better than we could have ever expected.  Tell me prayer doesn't work and I will give you five kiddos that are willing to let us sell our house so we can move to Poland.  That's not to say that a few tears weren't shed.  For two of our children, this is the only home they've ever known.  For all of us, the memories are good and plenty.  But for now, we are moving forward with plans to sell our home.  One of our kids asked, "What if our house doesn't sell?"  Well, if it doesn't sell then we weren't meant to move and that's alright, too.

Will you pray with us as we weed out, spruce up, repair, and decide how we want to go about selling our home?  We are blessed with a community of people that can help us navigate through this process and we are thankful for the various gifts that we can use as resources at this time.