The hand of God

Yes, we sold our house!!! And we didn't even really think it was still for sale! Praise to God!

Here's our story of how God has been working in the life of our family.

Back up about 4 years ago:
In Spring of '04 I was working part-time at Calvin College, had a kindergartner, a 1st grader, and an infant. My daycare provider at the time told me she was no longer going to do childcare come Summer, so I was left to either find a new sitter and keep working or find a way to work from home and not use childcare. In exploring these options, we also considered if we wanted to homeschool our kids - something we had thought about when Noah was to start kindergarten. Combine this with Josh really feeling God calling him to finish his seminary degree (MDiv). All these factors: no child care, wanting to stay home and homeschool the kids, Josh going to seminary - God was at work in everyone in our house. So three or so years ago, I started working from home and homeschooling the kids while Josh worked part-time and went to school full-time. And, by the way, I became pregnant with Levi shortly after we started all this. Crazy! We completely saw God's hand in all of it, however. School and family was easier for Josh to balance than it had been on previous attempts. The kids and I enjoyed homeschooling, and we enjoyed the flexibility it offered - when Josh had off, we took time off too. So though it was crazy and there were plenty of tough times, we knew it was the best situation for us at that time. By the end of those three years, though, we were 'spent.'

So now we're to Summer of '09. Josh was slated to graduate in August following the last summer internship. We began interviewing with the CRC Home Missions group to start a church plant somewhere - anywhere but Iowa (no offense Iowans!) About mid-way through summer we made the decision that it would be best to try to get the kids back in school so that it would free me up to get the household ready for a move. God lead us to a 'perfect' community of people in Lethbridge, Alberta Canada (I forgot to include Canada when I prayed to be sent anywhere except Iowa). We resonated with the folks and the community, the weather, and the funding was in place so we were ready to go. I kept bugging Josh to 'just accept the position and let's go!' but he wanted to wait out his decision-making time until August 21. So knowing we'd be moving to Canada and not sure about the health care there, I scheduled what I thought would be a routine check of a lump on my breast. This, of course, lead to the breast cancer diagnosis (on August 19), surgery, chemo, radiation, reconstruction, etc., etc. The call to Lethbridge on August 21 was not a job offer acceptance, but rather sad news that we needed to wait for several months before we could really feel comfortable moving up there.

In hind-sight, God had his hand in all this! We needed to step out in faith and seriously consider moving our family to Canada. We learned later that had we moved at that time, things may not have worked out as smoothly as we were planning b/c some funding fell through for the church plant. Had we not been considering moving, I may not have worked to get the kids back at school (which now has proved ideal for me to rest and heal rather than try to immigrate like I thought I'd be doing.) Had we not been considering moving to Canada I may have waited longer to have the lump checked out. Had we moved to Canada, I would've been going through all the treatments under the (slower) Canadian health care system. I really feel God knew just what needed to happen at just the right time.

So now we're in a state of what feels like limbo. Josh cannot start his new job putting his new credentials to work. I'm out of commission trying to get healed up. What in the world is God doing? How is this working?

The For Sale sign in the front yard fell over and eventually got moved to the back of the garage. Our focus shifted from moving our family to how to deal with my new medical issue and what may be in store for Josh in all this 'waiting.' Low and behold, someone found our house on zillow.com and was super-excited about it. They looked at it Tuesday, brought the parents on Wednesday, made an offer on Thursday, accepted the counter-offer today. We sold the house!! We didn't even really think it was still on the market! What in the world is God up to??

How is this showing God at work? The way we see it, God calls us to be in relationship with Him, in real relationship with our family and community, and to stop trying to orchestrate how he's going to work. With no house to tie us down, we are poised for the ultimate opportunity to follow His calling! My excitement is renewed!! God IS working in our family! He's teaching us and working through our community! He's got a plan! I have no idea what or where it may take us, but what a relief to know that it's not my job to try to make it happen. I am - no, we are - free to follow God's calling.

Lead on!! (That's not to say I don't have my stressors about it too, but you know what I'm sayin'!)