Listening With our Hearts and Minds

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"Your ears will hear a word behind you, "This is the way, walk in it," whenever you turn to the right or to the left." Isaiah 30:21

If you drive by our house you might notice that the "for sale" sign is missing. No, it wasn't taken, and no, our house hasn't sold. As my husband puts it, we've had a "course correction." We've come to the conclusion that our idea to move wasn't meant to be. At least not right now. No doors were opening and we just weren't getting any confirmation.

Sometimes it takes some time and a journey to realize that HOME is right where you are! We had prayed, discussed, worked hard to prepare our home to sell, and truly thought we were heading in the right direction; moving East to Spokane where three of our four children currently live. During and after our fun Thanksgiving weekend there with our kids we were feeling unsettled and second-guessing our choices.  God whispered to both of us, "stay where you are, I have more for you to do in the Harbor..."

We were terribly excited at the idea of living close to our children and spending time with them often, and selling the home to become debt-free would have been excellent. Yet, the idea of saying goodbye to our beautiful community, our church, our friends, and the life that we've built over twenty years just seemed wrong. Especially since we returned here from Illinois because we missed it so much! (Here's an old post I wrote about selling our home in Glen Ellyn, IL.)

When we called our kids to explain our change of heart they were disappointed we wouldn't be coming but VERY understanding. We have the most amazing children ever! Our friends who supported us in our move decision made us feel loved with our stay decision. We certainly have and will be a slight topic around town~those crazy Carvers!

Our future is still a bit unknown since the paychecks stop in a few weeks, but my husband is whole-heartily focused on finding his next job, and we trust God with all our tomorrows. I can enjoy ALL the fun December things without quite all the anxiety; preparing for parties instead of preparing for "showings," baking, deepening friendships, and anticipating our kids coming home and enjoying a pitcher of margaritas with them! (see link above)

We aren't the only ones who turned things around! Since our brand new washing machine was delivered, every time I took our wet clothes out I wondered why they were HOT. (Our rinse cycle is always supposed to be cold water.) In a moment of "I'm not so blonde after all," I asked Mike if there was any chance the delivery man connected the water hoses incorrectly. He had! The cold and hot water hoses were hooked up wrong and needed to be corrected. For two weeks I've been shrinking our clothes. Boo. 

Lesson Learned: Good intentions don't always mean good decisions. Sometimes things need to be corrected.

We are very thankful for the graciousness of God as we move forward, right here. We trust we will flourish HERE and can plan visits often to see our precious children in Spokane and L.A.
Thor is super happy his cat condo is back where it belongs:

 In His Grip and Choosing Joy,

xo Jane

Thanks for reading SJL!

photo source: http://americanhistory.si.edu/press/fact-sheets/ruby-slippers