This was the bedtime story I told to our children tonight  –

Once upon a time there was a mommy and a daddy and they had a beautiful little girl who was three years old and a handsome little boy who was almost one.  They worked at a church and they poured out their hearts and lives their serving Jesus.  They lived in a tiny condo on a very busy road, it wasn’t a great place to have small children.  But they didn’t make much money and they weren’t sure what to do about that so they prayed.  They asked God to make a way for them to be in a house in a neighborhood with room to play outside.

Trusting that He would provide somehow, they sold their little condo and had no home for a while.  They stored their belongings at their parents house and spent several weeks at one friends house and then several weeks at another friends house, waiting.  Then without even looking for a home yet, someone told them about one that wasn’t for sale yet but would be soon.  It was the perfect house for their family.

They moved in and praised God for answered prayer.  They relished having a backyard to play in and a cul-de-sac to ride bikes in and some really neat neighbors.  Pretty soon the mommy found out she was going to have another baby.  Just weeks before he was born the oldest girl had surgery to take her sick kidney out.  Their were lots of things that needing fixing on the house but the mommy and daddy didn’t have to money to do those things.  So a big group of people from church came over one day and fixed all the broken things and cleaned and worked all day.  The mommy cried as she left with the kids, watching the people hover and swarm all over her home knowing they were pouring out love in their actions that day.

Time passed and the oldest daughter, who now had two brothers, was praying daily for a sister.  She was not at all surprised when she learned her mommy was expecting another baby and confidently remarked, “it’s a sister for me!”.  The mommy labored all day at their home, watching her kids ride bikes up and down the street, enjoying the warm sunshine and that night just before midnight the daddy woke up the big sister to come to the birth center to see her sister be born.  The daddy thought he would have to deliver the baby on the side of the freeway, but he narrowly missed that adventure.

Shortly after that little girl joined their family, the daddy was asked to find a new job.  Do you know what that felt like for the mommy and daddy?  Really, really hard.  The church where they worked and served was home to them.  It had been for many years.  God whispered to them in their heartache and loss, “I am giving you a gift of freedom, one you don’t have the courage to ask for”.  This hardly seemed possible, it only seemed terrible.  But they stepped forward and God provided an amazing job that was a blessing in many, many ways.

The cozy home was beginning to feel crowded some days but the family was very thankful for how God had provided for them, his faithfulness had never failed.  The mommy did begin to pray almost two years ago that God would give them “a house that was bigger than their hearts”, a place they could pour out hospitality and friendship.  They LOVED to have people over and host parties and provide a place of fellowship.  But with their growing family it proved a challenge sometimes.

Last year do you know what happened? (by now they’ve caught on and they say “the mommy was pregnant again!!!).  Yes!  God gave them another baby and this baby was born at the house at the foot of the mommy and daddy’s bed with big brother and sisters there and Dee Dee and Nana too.  It was one of the most precious memories that mommy has from the seven years in that home.

In the middle of last year the mommy saw a house online that she bookmarked and wrote “our dream house”.  It seemed to truly be but she was sure it was an impossibility for many reasons.  Months passed and she continued to pray and as time passed they were finally ready to look at houses in real life.  If the mommy was honest, the yellow house she’d bookmarked months ago was the only one that she could actually picture herself living in.  When they did finally look, the minute they walked in the door of that yellow dream house, it felt like home to them.  They looked at the other places on their list but they didn’t really want to.

It took some time and lots of details had to be worked out.  The people selling the house (who now lived far away) had actually been praying for almost a year for a “young family with kids who love Jesus” to buy their home.  After what seemed like forever, the mommy and daddy got the keys to their new house and today they drove out there in the beautiful sunshine and marveled at the way God worked out the whole thing in just the right way and time.  The mommy cried as she watched her kids run across the lawn.

A new chapter and new adventures and new opportunities await – we can’t wait!

– Home Sweet Home –