It seems like so long ago. Last Thanksgiving seems like such a distant memory. Now we’re almost upon another one. So much has happened since then. I feel that I am a different person and have learned beyond what I ever thought possible.

The words we heard on that day from my brother-in-law, were a balm for the soul. http://wp.me/p2OkTs-7s    One of my biggest concerns were for my dog. I knew I couldn’t keep Ebony where we were staying for the short-term, and I had no idea if I could keep her where we would end up in the long-term. He said, “We’ll take care of Ebony for the time you are at mom’s house, and more decisions can be made after that.” It felt like a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders. I didn’t have to put that dreaded sign out at the veterinarian’s office to give her away to strangers. There was one more worry out of my mind for now.

My mother-in-law, and sister-in-law, had made the generous offer for us to stay at their large townhouse with them until we found a home. We had the sale sealed on our Hamilton home, but hadn’t had our next home picked out yet. We kept looking but didn’t find the one that seemed right for us. We felt homeless and a little anxious.

Snow began to fall before Thanksgiving, and didn’t ever seem to stop. My husband searched and searched on line for homes, while I packed and sorted every chance I had. I sat in the middle of three boxes or bags most of each day…one for throw away, one give away, and a packing box. The packing tape dispenser was always at my side, but it never became a good friend of mine-I continued to cut my fingers, get the tape stuck on my clothes, curl it inside the dispenser, and it stuck to the floor. The ends of my fingers felt like sandpaper, and my hands were cracked, dry and bleeding. The labels, colored duct tape rolls, black sharpie marker, and my “moving bible,” which I was so diligent about were always within arms length. The routine was monotonous. My jeans got holes in the knees. I fell into bed each night with a backache. 

Last November, at our old place.

The house echoed with Christmas music to keep me company as the snow fell silently outside. Any other year, I would have reveled in the beautiful sight and sounds. But no time for that this year. Every time I filled a moving box, it seemed like a small victory as I carried it down to our basement in front of the sliders, which would be our “loading area.” The white stuff kept rising with the piles of boxes. How does one keep throwing and giving away so much, and still the stuff seemed to grow?

Twelve days before Christmas, I received an email from my husband-it said, “I think we SHOULD look at this house!” We looked, we loved, and made an immediate offer with complete peace. It was one of those times when God made it so clear we couldn’t miss it. The wait to move there seemed long with some setbacks. So we did move in with our family, and stored most of our belongings for a couple months.

The area I kept avoiding, was my sunroom. That room had been my sanctuary. It had been a prayer room, a craft room, a place to adore nature, where I spent time with my dog, have private phone conversations, talk with my husband at night, space for cooperate prayer and laughter with friends, a place to get on my knees in desperate prayer and travail. If I didn’t pack that room up, maybe the whole moving thing would go away.

Sunroom at our old home.

But finally, on the last day before we had to be out of the house, I asked Cliff to help me finish the last room. I could not get myself to do it without his organization and drive. So he helped me pack up my bibles, books, scrapbook materials, trinkets from my teaching days, cards to send out, and notes from writing and bible conferences I’ve attended.

Tonight, I sit in my new “quiet room.”  It is almost exactly a year from the day that the buyers made the offer on the house in Hamilton. I would never in my wildest dreams, imagine what God has done in this past year. He has been faithful, and continues to be true. Never did I think I would like a place as much as our old home. I didn’t think it would be possible to be happy anywhere else.

The new home from the outside-the glorious colors this fall.

Our living room with a beautiful fireplace.

God was faithful. It’s much more than I could have imagined. God loves me so much, that he brought me to a place that I am coming to love just as much, if not more, than my old home. It is cozy. We are healthy. We are in still in love after 30 years. He is with us. The blessings keep flowing. We can’t thank Him enough. 

Hindsight is 20/20….and one year ago today, we were about to take the house off the market and wait. But God had plans. As in Jer. 29:11-14, He says, “I know the plans I have for you says the LORD. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD…”

What have you seen happen in the last year? Are you in a “place” that you would have never imagined one year ago?