Nevertheless, Paul and I are thrilled and relieved to have the question answered..."Where will we live come summer?" God has answered it for us and we are overjoyed!
We have decided to relocate our family to the little town of Haslet, Texas, right outside of Fort Worth. This will put us less than 15 minutes from Paul's work and much closer to Paul's family.
The flip side and ultimately the down side is that we are leaving Dallas!!! This also means that we're leaving Trinity, the school which we have loved and has been a huge part of our lives for the past three years. We will all be sad to go!
The story of how it all came about, God's story, is a neat one. We were looking exclusively in the Dallas area for months, making offers on multiple houses, none of which we got. We were starting to wonder why "they" wouldn't LET us buy a house!! In retrospect it was God closing doors, in His kindness, to narrow our options and show us more clearly the path He had for us.
God did a work in my heart as well. I thought it best to stay on this side of town where it was familiar and near friends and dentist and doctor and friends and church and friends!! But, God showed me through the words of my brother-in-law that maybe I wasn't putting my husband first. Maybe I was putting my kids (or even me) first. That struck me to the core. What about my hubby's hour long commute everyday to and from work? He never complains, but I know how hard it is on him. What about being over one hour from his family? Shouldn't this be on the top of the list of considerations? God first, then my sweet husband, then my children and last me. So easy to get that order distorted.
By keeping with this order, I am in obedience to God and He will always bless all those involved and make it what IS best for them, including the kids (and me).
I thank the Lord that He so kindly closed those doors along the way, eventhough it felt like such a loss at the time. Now, I can't imagine it any other way. When I compare the house we now own with the houses we were TRYING to buy, it is night and day different. God was trying to give us something awesome and we were trying to push for something less in our limited knowledge. When will we learn, right? Beautiful home, close to work, close to family...love it!
Just in case any of you were wondering, I will be staying home next year and we'll homeschool Benjamin and Cait. Should be fun!
The post wouldn't be complete without showing you pictures of our new house. I can't wait for you to come visit and stay with us. We will have a guest room now, so come and stay awhile!!
entry way with formal living and dining to the right
study looking out to formals
family room
my favorite...the staiway
breakfast room
master bath
glorious closet!!!
gameroom upstairs looking out to hallway with bedrooms
view from the top of the stairs
backyard with covered patio
nothing behind us and never will be! Hooray for that!
We feel so blessed! Now we have a ton of painting to do and moving bit by bit before we get to love there in May!
