Big Changes 2020 Part 1

 It always cracks me up how badly I am at blogging. I'm not trying to cultivate a following so I'm not going to feel badly about my inconsistency. Life is busy and blogging as it is now known has become such a vapid and shallow thing the last few years. I truly don't have the skills or the desire to invest in what it requires, it's all about social media engagement and 99% of the interactions take place on Instagram. I enjoy scrolling through pretty pictures as much as the next person but at this point, I don't have the time or the energy. I just want to write.

Which brings me to now..Sort of...

This year has been insane for pretty much everyone, it's held true for us too: 2020 has meant some wild changes. But let me back up, Spring of 2019 we began seriously talking about a potential 1,000+ mile move. I felt so torn, I didn't want to leave my Mom (who lived next door), we had really close friends and I hated the thought of leaving them. But we were feeling stuck and also nudged and all sorts of unsettled so we began to seriously pray about our next step. 

If we go even further back to a few years ago we had a seed of an idea for a church plant laid on our hearts. We felt clearly that God wasn't calling us to plan it where we were. We began to ask where we were supposed to go and God kept nudging us to Florida. Florida was our "Never Will I Ever" state, years ago we joked about how much that was not happening. Face Palm. At the time I didn't like heat, I would miss Autumn and Winter too much and FLORIDA??? Blegh! It is a swampy, shrubby, flat place full of alligators, fire ants, giant spiders, flying roaches, poisonous snakes...And hot and muggy all the time, why would we go there??

And yet every door and window pointed to Florida. The Summer of 2019 brought the realization that we were moving there eventually, we knew that is where we were headed. The Autumn of 2019 brought the realization that a move that big was just impossible. How could we do it? How could we possible get the house ready to sell? How could we afford moving 7 people that far? We made a list for the house and started checking things off (it  was a long list). We took the move off the table though, it wasn't happening for at least 2 years.

January of 2020 we still felt a very direct and pressing direction from God to not get comfortable, to start moving towards this change. We told the kids that we were planning to move to Florida sometime in the next year. In February we went down to Florida for a work trip. We took 3 or 4 days at the end of the trip to scout out potential areas to live. The kids were excited, we've spent a lot of time down here over the years and they've always loved visiting. They love the big skies, the beautiful lakes, beaches and family time. That is a draw to being down here, we have just as much family (even more if you're doing math) down here than anywhere else.

February 2020 a Florida Beach Day

Then March 2020 

The day before our state locked down my Mom and I ran out to a little country store to stock up on baking supplies. I was looking at the lovely array of spices when my Mom said "Why Hello!"     

       It was the realtor friend she had recommended to us a few months before. She introduced us and I was able to talk to him about our hope to sell our house "If and when this all settles down."

The next day our world locked down, "Shelter in Place" was declared in our state. We questioned everything through those weeks, would we still be able to move? Would life ever be the same? The oppressive nature of the lockdowns in our area had us feeling very unsettled and extremely stuck. Every thing was closed and when would it open again? I couldn't really clean things out and take things to donation centers but I felt clearly to start organizing and packing, "Start here and keep moving forward!" 

So I started packing and packing....and packing.

Over the 2 months of lockdown we packed and cleaned, patched, painted, repaired and filled up the garage with junk. In early June I called a junk hauler to come take all the crap away. He happened to be a realtor and walked through our home and gave us an estimate. He also said that real estate was opening the next day and we could have this place on the market in a week if we wanted. The next day? It was opening? YES! But we didn't feel a peace about using this guy, I felt clearly we should call my Mom's friend. I contacted the realtor I met in March and asked him to come see the house ASAP. We had the house on the market within 2 weeks. Within 3 days we had had 26 showings and 15 offers, by the end of the 4th day we were under contract. BOOM. We were doing it, we were really moving to Florida!
`Part 2 Coming Soon...Florida!