Under Contract

Finally, something to "write home about!"  We are under contract on our home in Oklahoma!  Yay!
I did not make this information public until we made it past the inspection and the agreements on repairs.  Well, as of TODAY....We are looking good to close on our house on January 8th.  What a long journey this has been.

To keep you updated here in CO, we are still living in my sister's basement and will continue to even after our closing.  Our belongings in OK will get packed up and moved into storage until we finally find our home.  Once we find a home and close a deal, I'll be sure to give those updates.  Until then, a big sigh of relief to have our house set to close in just a few weeks!

Now, Come let us worship our KING!  

"The Dwelling Heart Waltz"

"Home is Where the Heart Is".......or so the saying goes.  I say: "Home is where your stuff is and it's the structure you pay your mortgage on."  It's currently the place that I am sick of not being sold.  How's that for an update?  It's been over a month since I posted so I thought I'd jot down a quick update.

We had an offer on our home.  We booked the packers and movers and a flight for Nick to be there for all the final stuff.  Then, they walked.


It is an amazing thing to trust God in the midst of everything!

I know He is conducting the symphony of our transition.  I trust His rhythm.  Although I wouldn't choose an hour and a half of my wailing-snot-sobbing to take up a few measures, He did.  Being on the market for over 100 days and putting a family of five in a basement of a home with a family of six is trying....BUT... there is always a "but"...

But, as trying as it is, God has given me His Peace. We haven't slid off His radar.  In fact, He is pursuing me each day.  I am eager to hear the debut of the final song.  This Composer is using instruments of pain, longing, stillness, patience, hope, desire, trust and peace.

I believe I'll hear the final arrangement when my home and heart are in the same place in His perfect timing!

I lift my eyes up

The dust has settled!  No Really.  It has settled in the basement.  It is time for me to clean.  It's a good indicator of how long we've been dwelling there.  We are finally into a routine.  With school in session and adults working each day our rhythm is forming the melody of our lives.  In the midst of it, God is always pursuing me.

I'd like to show you.......

Spending my days at the school, I am continually hearing teachers call out, "1-2-3" as the class responds with, "Eyes on me!" And then, it continues with a "1-2" and "eyes on you!"
The teachers do this to keep the students attentive to what they are teaching. 

It makes me wonder how often the Holy Spirit is calling out the "1-2-3" to me.  When I hear his call like a military sound off....I "Turn my eyes upon Jesus and look full in His wonderful face."

So, when I stop and think about our home sitting vacant in Oklahoma and the five of us Meyer's living in a basement, I hear the call of "1-2-3" and I smile because that's all it takes for me to put my eyes on Him.  I see His provision for me.  This place- a home with all it's busy sounds.  This patience that's carried me through 70 days on the market.  This Peace that truly is beyond my understanding.  All of these provisions allow for me to testify of HIS Goodness.  Never once have I ever felt alone.  He is carrying me through it all.


When I hear "1-2-3" from my Lord, I know He cares about where I'm looking. 

Psalm 121:1-2 (ESV)

My Help Comes from the Lord

A Song of Ascents.

121 I lift up my eyes to the hills.
    From where does my help come?
² My help comes from the Lord,
    who made heaven and earth.

What's Your Present Circumstance?

I was answering a question in my Bible Study yesterday.  It asked this:
"How would you describe your present circumstances (in the margin)?"

If you read my previous post, you know I was hesitant to write about how our transitional living situation, while good and a blessing, is still hard!  So, this was the first thing that came to my mind.  The next thought that I had as I was assessing my present circumstance was that I'm living AND  working in basements.  Temptation quickly came for me to become negative about this "present circumstance".   As I penned (in the margin and grateful that I had so much space to vent such frustrations that can come with living life in dungeons below the earth!) thoughts about living AND working in basements...........BAM........... and I mean, BAM!!!!!  Thunder outside began!  In that moment, the Holy Spirit put the most beautiful revelation in my mind!!!  Being a girl from Oklahoma, I know that safety is found under ground during storms.

Are you crying yet?  I am.

The safest place during thunderstorms is below ground.  (aka: basements...ya know, where I live AND work!!!)

I realized as the thunder continued and the rains came down that God in HIS sovereignty timed the Boom of the thunder to sound exactly when the temptation to view my "present circumstances" in a negative light. 

Psalm 27:5English Standard Version (ESV)

⁵ For he will hide me in his shelter
    in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
    he will lift me high upon a rock.

Now, I am thankful to be in HIS shelter (these basements, His provision for me) during this present circumstance of transitional living and as a new working mom.  I am grateful that He is with me in these blessed dwellings!  

Wow, our God is good and (as the next sentence in my bible study said....) "Your circumstances are not coincidental in your journey.  God's timing is impeccable."

Transition

I'm so very grateful that my sister and her family have allowed us to live in their home until our house in Oklahoma sells.  So grateful.  Seriously.  Like, once we got all settled, I was shocked at how nice these accommodations actually are! We have TAKEN OVER their basement and made their lives pretty hectic, as can be imagined with 11 people (4 adults and 7 children) under one roof. 

I've been so hesitant to post anything about this transition due to the fact that I only want gratefulness to be heard from my heart.  Truth is.... it's really hard.  But it's hard in unexpected ways.  Paying the electric bill for a house in Oklahoma where it's really hot and we pay for our air conditioner to run and keep an empty house cool.  We are keeping it cool for showings.  Ah, here's where it really starts to get hard.....showings that are only happening like once in ten days.  I know.  I know....it only takes ONE!  Then, we find out the air conditioning was broken.  Another check to mail for an unoccupied home.  All the while, we are navigating this transitional living.  Without an offer, we just don't see our end to this particular transition. 

Next....  Ashlyn started a new school last week.  There is a LOT of homework and it's just plain difficult watching her struggle with little personal space to work and feel frustrations and sadness without her close friends to journey with her. 

Next.... the small school that Megan and Kenna will be attending had to post-pone their start date by a week.  (which means my work start date as well, since I'll be at the "front desk" M-W.)  That all starts tomorrow.  We've just been feeling the increasing stress of not having all the kiddos into a routine of school, but having some in that routine proved difficult. 

The thing of it is..... Our God is flooring me with His Presence, His faithfulness and His kindness.  How kind of Him to faithfully show up each morning and meet me with EXACTLY what I need to face the next day in such a transition.  He is good!  No matter what our circumstance is.... I am so glad to know and experience the GOODNESS of God!

My heart is grateful for a place like my sister's basement to live while living in such a transition.  HE sees me down in the basement.  He hears me always.  I trust HIM and HIS timing.

One last funny thing about all living together.... I think there have been at least two times that I recall feeling like that house in HOME ALONE the morning they are all getting ready for their flight.  That's truly how it feels sometimes.  Which does mean that we are truly doing life together in ways that other people crave.  You see, it forces us to talk and tell stories and laugh AND to make allowances for each others faults because we love each other! 

Learning Gratefulness in EVERYTHING!!!  R <><

Answer

Since we found out that our family is moving to Colorado, many people have asked many questions to which I have been responding with a perpetual and exasperated "I don't know!"  We have not had a lot of clarity in this year long process.  Needless to say, I have been playing hypothetical living for far too long! I'm not complaining at all....it just is what it is. 

BUT today, I have ONE answer and that is ONE answer closer to many more.  We are leaving Oklahoma the last week in July.  Nick will be starting his position on August 1st.

So, what that means is that we will be living with my ever-generous sister, Kaylyn and her family until our house sells and we get settled into one of our own.  Out of all the hypothetical scenarios that I've played out, it feels so strange to declare it and make it official. 

This feels like the third domino to fall.  We got a "YES" on moving to CO.  We put our house on the market.  We have made the plans to move there before the house sells and live with my sister.  Do you see the line of dominoes falling?  I'm starting to.  Even now, as I'm typing, my heart's desire is to be under contract BEFORE we go.  I wake up each morning begging for God to bring the right people to buy our house.  But, as I beg, I trust.  I trust HIS timing more than my desired time table. 

All of the sudden, there is a shift for me in passing these days on the market....Now, I get to think of eating everything in our pantry and freezer and fridge!!!  So, if you're invited over last minute, it's because I need more friends' mouths to help us eat our food and give hugs good-bye to.  I'm tasting the bitter part of this bittersweet time for us. 

Much love and many (((hugs)))

Market Ready!

Our house has been on the market for two weeks today!  On the day that we heard we were moving to  Colorado, I rearranged our family room so the couch was no longer hiding the fire place and I cleaned up some of the kids' junk in our 3rd car garage area.  Those two things were really the ONLY two things I had to do to be ready to show my house.  I thought I was ready to be on the market.  I was mentally patting myself on the back because I thought I had lived "market ready!"  Until....

I started to notice the dirt streaks on Megan's yellow walls and a saggy curtain rod and an outlet cover that needed to be replaced and...well, the small list went on and my "Market Ready Pride" popped.  The spiritual parallel began to form quickly in my mind.

We, as believers, know that we should live like the bride of Christ waiting for HIS return.  We are to be ready at any moment to be taken up with HIM.  And maybe we do have our lives "looking" pretty good, but in reality, there's a lot of clean up and our to do list is a bit longer than we'd care to admit.

So, since that mental spiritual parallel, I have just been living in that place of being on the market.  Ready to turn on the lights on and pop out of our house at any given time until we get an offer.  As soon as we know anything more on timing for our transition, I'll be sure to post about it.

Black Flowers

Because of the title of my post, I'll go ahead and tell the story before I make any connections or applications.

I was on a run when I spotted what looked like a black flower.  No kidding!  Very similar to a Gerber daisy.  Petals straight out, horizontal with the ground!  But then it even looked like a black stem.  That's when I quickly realized that it must be a mushroom or something.  I kept my pace and continued on thinking about what I just saw.  I've landed with the conclusion that I'm sure it was a mushroom, but I could not get away from the idea of a "black flower."  I thought it was beautiful.... but "it" didn't really exist.  How can something that doesn't exist be beautiful?

James 1:2
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,"

That verse equals black flowers to me.  You've heard 'beauty from ashes?"  Well, something along those lines....I see that in my hard, God is there.  I feel His very presence in the midst of it all.  So, maybe that's why I'm so drawn to the idea of black flowers.

Since then...
Well, I found and bought some fake "black flowers" at Hobby Lobby.  I LOVE them!  I love that they make me think of James 1:2.  I see God EVEN when I'm smack dab in the middle of difficulties.  

The "Ghost" is clear!!!!

I didn't used to be a reader.  In fact, at some point in college, I realized I had only ever read "Charlotte's Web."  I wrote a paper on "Pilgrim's Progress", but I know I didn't read the whole book.  I probably just skimmed for sentences that I could expand on.  This is a really sad fact to me.  ESPECIALLY now that I have kids of my own that I would love to see reading all the time, like me!

That's right, in 2008, I finally became "A Reader."  My definition of being a reader:
A reader- always having a book that you are currently reading.
My pace has picked up to about 1 or 2 books per month.  I keep an on-going list of the books I've read (that dates all the way back to when I started in 2008.)  That list reminds me of a silly little list I kept in a billfold of boys that I kissed.  Sad but true.

There is something terrific about books.  They can be used for, an escape, education, entertainment, enrichment, pleasure, teaching, understanding and so much more. 

Anyway, I can get overwhelmed by the list of books that people recommend. Especially if you don't know what they use their reading material for.  I've found that one of my favorite things about reading happens when I come across the correct usage of idioms and such.  So, for now... the coast is clear!

POSITIVE

Often times I can get cynical.  You too?  Phew….. it's not fun to realize that is where I land.  At the end of the day, that's where and when it creeps in.

Cynicism- An attitude of scornful or jaded negativity, especially a general distrust of the integrity or professed motives of others

Because of this inclination that I have, I'm excited to post about what God is doing about this in my life…… How cool is it that our God is so personal, that HE knows this about me, so that when our pastor challenges us to come up with one word for our year, God puts within me the word: POSITIVE!  I'm not kidding….could there be an absolute better opposite word than Positive for the cynicism that I struggle with?

I do believe that our thoughts drive the boat of our lives.  We will do and believe what we think.  I would be shipwrecked if I continued on with the negative thoughts driving the boat of my life for our family.

Did you notice at the beginning of this post, I wrote "at the end of the day?"  Well, I know that's because I begin each day in the word and reading the materials needed to equip myself for each day's battle.  But, my goodness, there must be an expiration hour on those readings that hit around 4:00 each day!!!  When my kiddos were little, I called it the sundown syndrome time of day…aka ,…. the witching hour.  But now, they are the intrusions to the victorious day I've had (while they've been at school!)

Seriously, I do feel like I live in victory during the daylight, but then the sun sets and I begin to feel the downward pull of negativity.  I'm not going to pretend that I understand the science nor the psychology of it.  I will  tell you that I'm in need of our savior at the end of the day JUST AS MUCH as I am at the beginning of the day.

Oh, how in the world does anyone make it in this world without HIM???  I may not do it well, but I will proclaim that I can't do any of it without HIM at all.  Without HIM, I truly am NOTHING.  It is my greatest joy just to be a vessel for others to see HIM in me.  To God be the glory for the great things HE does!!!