Monday morning as I walked into the dim kitchen and picked up the dented coffee pot I chuckled. It is still in the same condition it was when it came out of the POD exactly 6 years ago to the day.
We moved here on faith. Literally. When people have asked for the past 6 years why we moved to Austin I've usually said, "I don't know, God told us to." Now I know.
We moved because God told us to, but the truth is we weren't so convinced...for a very long time. We uprooted everything we'd built as a young couple trying to seek God's will for our life, build deep relationships and start a family.
We knew exactly 4 people in Austin when we moved. We didn't have jobs. We didn't have a house. But we had a church and despite the turmoil we stuck there and grew new roots. (I'll get back to that!)
When God told us to move here we'd been in our {NEW!} home outside of Nashville for exactly 2 years. We'd been married 4 years and were ready to have a baby. We put our house on the slow market and it sold by owner in 3 weeks. We found out a couple weeks later to our surprise I was pregnant. I say surprise because we'd tried and prayed for a while and then decided (WE) should wait. {Haha. As if we're in control.} We came here to visit for a weekend, picked a house (on complete faith or stupidity- one or the other) and didn't get jobs. We went back, loaded all our stuff in a POD (or I should say a SAM - I don't think they're in business anymore- and there's a reason!!!), we stayed with friends for a couple months and then it was time. We moved.
Until recently with friends I haven't admitted how hard the first couple years here were. We loved Austin, we were closer to family which we wanted, we had a sweet new baby boy soon after which was amazing, but I had all the hormones and emotions to go with that and no one near that I was close to. And things were tough. It took a long time to get jobs. I worked horrible hours at starbucks during the in between and before & after pregnancy. The so called "Live Music Capital of the World" was surprisingly hard for Daniel to find a good job. And we questioned God a lot along the way, asking where that "traction" was we were looking for to grasp onto and start thriving in.
And really I can't say exactly when things got better. There was a good period when we considered giving up. Going back or going to Dallas. But we didn't feel like God was done with us here. And he definitely wasn't. We dug into our church because we knew God had called us there despite the loneliness we felt. We dug into our community and I met the most amazing group of MOMS that helped me as I was pregnant with a second much sooner than expected.
And things didn't get easier over night. But over time God planted us. He helped us sprout roots and prepared us just in time for the storm. I recently saw the quote:
Storms make trees take deeper roots.
I did a little investigating to see if that was true. Here's what I found:
A lot of rain will saturate the ground to a greater depth, and the roots will no doubt go down deeper to get the water. One storm won't make much difference, because roots don't grow fast enough, but a series of storms will. It has been found that wind stress from repeated storms causes the trunks of trees to increase the speed of growth in the outer layers, making them thicker faster. If they get thicker, they will probably grow more and deeper roots.
So here we are, exactly 6 years later, not a lifetime, but somedays this year it kinda feels like it. But I couldn't feel more rooted & planted. I couldn't want more to be exactly where we are.
We put our house on the market 3 weeks ago because we felt like we should. We realized we could surprisingly make enough right now and be able move forward. We didn't have to move, but the thought of a fresh start right now sounded overwhelmingly comforting & appealing. Sometimes all the paint in the world can't change the walls around you.
I like to frequently remind God that we did our "Blind Faith Move" and we don't need to do that again. Well, here we are. Our house closes in less than a month. And we have no idea which house is waiting for us. (But don't worry Austin, you've won hearts, you're stuck with us now!)
So here I am, holding my dented coffee pot... reminding me of God's faithfulness.
