Our First HOUSE!

(We are renting it! We didn’t buy it 🙂

In May of this year, David graduated college, and we made a trip to North Carolina. David was in the final stages of accepting a job offer as a Worship Pastor, and the church wanted to introduce us to their congregation. The weekend went marvelously, and we were certain that God wanted us to move our lives from Mobile , Alabama to North Carolina.

We started to make plans and prepare for the transition. Our hearts were excited, nervous and expectant. We were ready to move everything- my business included. We would go from being twelve hours from my family, to three hours away. Which seemed like an answered prayer and a dream come true.

But then, a week before we were going to sign the job contract…. God said no.

He said it first to David, then to me. When David approached me with his new revelation, I was heartbroken. His word from the Lord was a confirmation of mine. In one conversation with my fiance, everything we had started to prepare for and plan for came tumbling down.

My heart felt like a capsized ship. Everything I had started to hope for, plan for, dream about and prepare for, seemed to have turned upside down in an instant.

We knew that God had a plan and a purpose. But we felt like the lights had been turned off, and we were left fumbling in the dark.

So… we prayed.

We took a vacation to my parent’s house in Virginia, and spent that time in solitude. Sometimes, stepping away from everything gives a fresh perspective, and a fresh perspective was exactly what we needed.

So, we turned off our cell phones, stepped away from planning a wedding, and we created space for God to fill. If we wanted to hear from him we knew we needed to quiet our lives and our hearts.

To be completely honest, I was nervous about what God would say.

Everything was on the line.

Slowly, our capsized ship, turned right-side up again, as we began to trust the Lord in our new season.

Just as an encouragement to you, when you try to quiet your life and allow rest and peace to fill your heart, the enemy will do everything in his power to make life loud.

And boy, did he try. Wedding drama kicked up like sand in a windstorm. People close to us said hurtful things. Change produces conflict. I wasn’t ready for that, but David was. David, being the patient, kind, Jesus loving man that he is, calmed the storms to the best of his ability, and reminded me that God was in control.

Then, after a few weeks, thing started falling into place. David felt like we needed to stay in Mobile, so we prayed that God would make that clear. And he did.

We talked to our Pastors in Mobile.

We confided in our close family and friends.

We sought counsel and prayed. Then we prayed some more.

Prayer often seems like the most insignificant thing we can do, but I am convinced it is the most powerful thing we can do because we are freeing OUR will in exchange for the Father’s.

A Worship Pastor position opened up within our home church in Mobile and David accepted it. A few days after he accepted it, David found a two bedroom, one bathroom house that was right within our budget. A few days later, he moved in. A few weeks later, I visited it for the very first time… and I wept.

I wept on the floors of that little home because it was the first physical answered prayer, and promise that I was able to lay my hands on. It was more than I could have hoped for, dreamed for or imagined. It seemed like it had been saved just for us, from the dusty blue wall paint, to the charming little kitchen, to the pretty hardwood floors throughout…. My soul sighed with joy and relief.

David and I are happy to say that we will be staying in Mobile for the first year of our marriage. Not only is our first house precious, but the city of Mobile is precious to us as well. Surrounded by the friends and community that have watched our story unfold. We will be staying with the Church family that has grow with us over these last few years. We are so excited!

For now, David is living in our little home. I am living with my parents, in Virginia, enjoying these last few months of singleness with them. With trips down South every few weeks, it has been so fun photographing my clients, seeing friends, and slowly transforming our little house into a home. Here are a few images of our FIRST HOUSE!

No, the doggy isn’t ours. And noooope the doggy didn’t come with the house 🙂