We Moved...But Now What!?

In my last post, I shared that We Moved (read it here), but today I am going to share where we are living, and what our plans are! Yes, we moved...but now what!? This is the post where ya'll might walk away just thinking we have lost our minds and are absolutely CRAZY! And that's ok. But here is the deal, the time will pass anyway, we mine as well make an adventure out of life! And if what we are doing is easy, someone would have done it already. So...today is the day I get to share with you just how CRAZY we are!

We Moved

As I shared in my last post, a series of events, inspiration and trusting in the Lord lead us to move from our comfortable life in Indiana to Seattle, WA. We feel very confident that this is where the Lord wants us to be at this point in our lives. But it is still a little scary, weird and hard.

The biggest thing we had to figure out was housing. The cost of housing and lack of housing was a big concern for us with this move, so it was something we very carefully considered. And in the end, what we are doing is the result of a series of blessings, doors opening for us, God's hand and our hard work.

When we visited Seattle in January, we stayed in a town that we had researched and thought we might like to live in. There were many things that lead us to this town, and we wanted to see if we would really like living in it or not.

The town was great! It was only about a 30-minute commute into Seattle and the town itself had everything we needed right there, easy to access.

We loved the town...so we decided to visit church there. We decided on two different buildings/wards to visit. The first one, we both felt was not where we were meant to be.

This was a bummer because it was the area that had the most housing options for us.

So we went to the second one and it was a definite YES! Which meant that where we lived became a much narrower range of areas.

But we kept driving around, looking at neighborhoods, looking at land, trying to find an area that just seemed right to us. And we found nothing nothing nothing.

Until we found this piece of property for sale. There were no useful photos online, but we were intrigued. So we plugged it into our phone's map program and went to find it.

But we couldn't find it. Instead of property, we were met with a neighborhood and no land in site.

We called the listing agent and he was able to give us directions to the land. He also shared some invaluable information with us about the land.

At that point, it was dark outside, but we decided to explore it anyway. It was pitch black and nearly impossible to see anything, so we decided to come back the next day in the light.

The next day we went to explore this property during the day. We followed the instructions that went a little something like this, get off at this exit and go past the field and turn left, follow this round around and up the mountain until you see this road that is gravel. Follow the gravel round around past the guy with horses and then bear left, you will be in a forest at this point, you will see a small sign that looks kind of like this, follow those....I can't make this stuff up, people. Those were the directions we were given.

Apple Maps and Google Maps can't find the address of this land. It is a miracle we were able to find it!

Sure enough, we went into the forest and found the spot where this land was and oh my heavens, it was a hidden gem! This land was so wooded you couldn't really even explore it, so gorgeous, in the prettiest most peaceful setting ever! Oh my gosh, it was incredible.

It reminded me of places we had been to vacation...but I could potentially live there!!!

We fell in love with it in an instant!

It was beautiful and amazing, but also only about 15 minutes away from Target and Costco and all the places I would ever need to go! And only about 30 minutes outside of Seattle. Wow. Truly a dreamy place to live!

As soon as my husband accepted his transfer to Seattle, we started working on purchasing this land.

Now here is the part where I remind you that the right place and the right time are important and that the Lord will open the right doors when you are following Him...but it is also going to be HARD WORK.

We looked into loans for land, and construction loans, and permitting, and we started dreaming up what our dream house would look like if we were able to build it.

We started talking to a builder, and a lender and a realtor. And ALL the people it would take to make this happen.

And things started to come together.

Until they didn't...because nothing is ever truly easy.

And during those moments where we thought we had no more options, no more ways to make it work, God would open another door.

If I sat and told you all the ways the Lord prepared the way for us, this post would be a million words long.

But we saw God's hand in all the things.

What I learned though is the importance of the PAUSE.

In my experience, we would work and work and things would be panning out. And then we would come to a dead stop. Something wouldn't pan out, something wouldn't work, and we would get stuck. Sometimes so stuck we saw no way out.

When we got stuck, I felt like there was a PAUSE.

And I realized that it was in these moments of PAUSE where God was waiting to see if we would really trust Him.

As we chose time and time again to TRUST HIM, another door would be opened.

This happened over and over, and I learned that the PAUSE is where it really counts.

The PAUSE is where God is seeing if you are really with Him or not. Trusting in the PAUSE, is so important and it allows Him to open more doors for you.

So we worked, and we trusted in the pauses. And eventually after more trials and challenges then I can recount, we decided to really go for it!

We put an offer in on the land, which only meant more challenges including needing to change lots halfway through the process, and as of today, we are just waiting on a few final pieces to come together for us to close on the land! It is all very exciting.

And I will admit, from the outside, it looks dreamy and amazing! And it is dreamy, and amazing! But it has not come without its challenges too.

The most incredible personal growth and spiritual growth has come through this entire process. From learning to pray for the right door to open, to trusting it when it does, to learning to lean on the Lord in ALL things and learning how to trust in the PAUSE, this has been a truly difficult but also incredibly blessed time for our family.

And now to answer the question I know you are all wondering....where am I living NOW?

Yes, we are working to purchase land and then we will be building our own home on it. But we are currently living in Washington and everyone wants to know where we are living!

Washington is expensive. Rent alone would have cost us over $3,000 for a small apartment or townhome. To pay for that AND pay to build a home is just not feasible.

So we decided to do something crazy!

But here is the deal, if this was easy, someone would have done it already!

But someone didn't do it yet, because this land was still available. We feel like it has just been hidden away for us!

YES, there will be difficulties, no the challenges are not over. Yes we know building can be hard, and it can be hard on a family and on a marriage, but we have been through HARD THINGS. We can handle this. And remember, my background is Interior Design, I have project managed lots of projects before. We are prepared for this mentally and emotionally. We are excited about the decisions to be made and we can see that the end result will be SO WORTH IT!

Our eyes are on the prize!

At the end of the day, the next year will pass, time will keep moving on.

So I could have sat comfortably, in a home already built in a neighborhood somewhere outside of Seattle.

Or we could choose to go on the grandest adventure we have ever been on!

We choose ADVENTURE!

We are choosing to NOT BE COMFORTABLE, and CHOOSING ADVENTURE for an end result that will be AMAZING!

Is it scary, yes. Do we have all the answer, no. Are we even 100% sure that this will all work out, heck no!

But we are dreaming like we have never before dreamed. And it is equal parts scary and exciting. And one of our mottos is:

If a dream doesn't scare you, you aren't dreaming big enough!

If we count how big the dream is based on how scared it makes you, this one is an absolute 10! Eek!

But it will all be worth it!

And all that to say, we are nuts, feel free to think we are crazy.

Because dreams take sacrifice. The bigger the dream, the bigger the sacrifice.

We just couldn't both rent a home/apartment AND build. So we decided to NOT sacrifice our dream of building, and instead sacrifice the comfort of renting a home/apartment.

So we bought a travel trailer.

Yup. We did.

And we are living in our travel trailer.

(insert gasps here)

I know, I know. We are crazy! And I'm 1000% ok if you think that.

But the end goal will be worth it.

And even the Lord's hand was in this. We struggled for months to find the right trailer within our budget.

We hit a wall. Many walls. Then there was a PAUSE, a great big giant PAUSE, where we thought all was lost and we had no more options.

And then the Lord opened up the right door for us.

We ended up buying a travel trailer with enough bunks for our kids in a separate bunk room, and a separate room for my husband and I from the nicest family not too far from where we lived. It was only gently used and in great condition, and it fit perfectly within our budget. It was also one that we could tow with our car. It was everything we needed.

This sweet family will probably never know what a BLESSING they were to our family, but I am so thankful for them.

And now I am sure you have so many questions about what living in a trailer is like with our family of 5, and how we are making it all work! Don't worry, I will share all those details with you soon too!

But for now, you may want to check out a few of these other posts: