Finally!

This post is SO overdue, but let's be honest...when you spend a week or so unpacking your whole life, who feels like blogging? Not I. "Unpacking?" you may say. Yes, if you have not heard, we moved to the lovely little town of Roxboro (Casey's hometown, and now, our hometown). As we said before, this has been a somewhat hoped for, but also unexpectedly quick, transition. As in, we found out about a month before we moved that we were moving. Here's Casey the day he got the job. All smiles. That's 'cause he wasn't thinking about all that packing/unpacking we were gonna have to do...

That was Monday, June 19th. From then on, we were bombarded with kindness from just about everyone we knew. A couple weeks after the big day, mom and dad W. came up to help pack some of our stuff. That was the first time I thought "Why ON EARTH do we have so much stuff?"

On Friday, July 15th we both worked our last day at work. Casey's work friends---The B Team---went out for Mexican to commemorate the last day. My P.W. work friends showered me with chocolate and balloons and cake and a flower (that I'm trying desperately not to kill). They were so sweet to me, and tried hard to make me cry, and I'm so thankful for the relationships I built there. Praise the Lord!

Also, on that Friday, before joining Casey and the rest of the B Team for lunch, I stopped by the hut (our affectionate name for the apt), only to find the power was out. Four phone calls, five customer service reps, six explanations, and a couple hours later, I found out the power was not coming back on until Monday---yes, the day we were moving out---due to a miscommunication. *Note to all here: when you are changing anything about your power, MAKE SURE you find out exactly when and where and how and who will be cutting your power off. And then double-check.* Standing outside in the 95-degree heat, sobbing, I called Casey to explain the situation. I've never been more thankful for his phone-call-oriented job, because he proceeded to handle all the rest of it with ease. "Now...what to do with all that meat in the freezer??" Enter, Leah. Leah and Silas came to my rescue and salvaged everything in the fridge and freezer! Amazing! Thank you so much Groff's. Not only that, but they let us live at their house that night, since it was 90 degrees and no AC in the hut.

Saturday we packed up a TON of stuff (note: the second time I thought "Why on EARTH do we have so much stuff?") thanks to Melissa, Tyler, and Erika. Erika is Tyler's girlfriend, who Casey and I had just met Thursday night, and she offered to come Saturday. Thank the Lord for the Body! After we finally got back to Raleigh from our Roxboro trip some friends from our Summit Small Group, the Chaney's, let us crash at their house for two nights! Again, the Body rocks! We got to watch "To Kill a Mockingbird", hear Casey sing to Rock Band, eat pizza, and just generally enjoy each other's company.

Monday was the BIG rent-the-U-haul-get-everything-out-of-the-house-day. That the was my third "Why on EARTH do we have so much stuff???" thought. Again, we were so blessed by Clayton, David, Carl, & Elizabeth helping us load it all up. Melissa loved on us again and bought lunch for the moving company. Sweet, generous friend. We headed to Roxboro, where once again, the Body provided for our needs. We were met at our new apartment by John, Austin, Tim, Willie, Destiny, Allie, and Stephanie, who unloaded ALL of our stuff. Alright, say it all together with me now: "WHY ON EARTH DO WE HAVE SO MUCH STUFF???"

Wednesday (The day I will just call, you guessed it, "WHY ON EARTH DO WE HAVE SO MUCH STUFF??? Day"), Mama Adams and Krysi came over and pretty much single-handedly (double-handedly?) unpacked our house. I keep saying they should start a business. I can't believe our house is already in order. It is such a relief to be really living in our apartment already. (A side note: you may now find a good portion of the 'why-on-earth-do-we-have-so-much-stuff?' stuff in the Durham Goodwill.)

I know, I know, this is the most ridiculously long post ever, and maybe boring, but I have to record the ways that God has provided for us. I have only shared like half of it. Because all along the way, countless people prayed for us and over us, offered to help pack and move, provided meals for us, listened to our worries, and just fellowshipped with us as we left Raleigh, or arrived in Roxboro. This is one of those times, I think, that we are supposed to look back on when we start to doubt God's good and faithful love and provision for us. And when we see it, there's no way we can say that He is not for us. Thank you Daddy!

Hope

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." (Romans 15:13)

"I Will Follow"

As I write this, I am appropriately listening to Chris Tomlin singing "Where You go, I'll go/Where You stay, I'll stay/When You move, I'll move/I will follow You/Who You love, I'll love/How You serve, I'll serve/If this life I lose, I will follow You". And so it is---He has moved, so we are moving.

For about a year and a half, we have been praying (some times more faithfully than others) for Casey (and me) to have a new position with a change of pace and more "normal" hours. We have learned much along the way about serving God faithfully where we are, even when it is the last thing we want to do. Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! Would we have learned as much if our prayers had been answered immediately? I'd venture a "no" on that one. We've poured into relationships for over a year with our co-workers. We've learned how to serve the Lord, and not just our earthly masters. We've learned how to apologize when we screw up at work. We've learned we have to depend on God for everything, including answering phones and sweeping floors. We've learned how to budget, and how to streeeeeeeetch a dollar each month. And we've also learned that our Father faithfully provides for His children, when we don't see a way. We've learned to make the most of the days that we both have off, and that we must be intentional about spending time together. We have learned how important a day of rest is, even if it doesn't come until Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday, instead of Sunday. There is so much more that I can't think of now, and even more that I probably won't ever know we learned here. And now comes another a season.

For some time we had talked amongst ourselves about someday being a part of Roxboro life. We'd make pros and cons lists, we'd pray, we'd get caught up in everyday life, and then we'd cycle back through those. Mid-May, Roxboro was heavy on our hearts and minds. We were talking a lot about it. On a whim, Casey applied for a position in Raleigh, got an immediate callback and interview, and confused the junk out of our Roxboro-thoughts. We both freaked out and prayed a lot more---'What does this mean God? We thought you were leading us to the 'Boro?' Casey interviewed, it went really well, and we were pretty sure he was gonna get it. 'Okay God...whatever You want...' He was called for a second interview with another manager, and that interview didn't go as well as the first. Looked like nothing was gonna come of this after all. More confusion...That afternoon he got called into Big Boss' office. Big Boss broke the news---Raleigh job: no-go. But, he also inquired about Casey's life goals and, in passing, Case mentioned the desire to one day be in Roxboro. Long story short, as my mom would say (love you Mom!), Big Boss called Roxboro, where someone had "just happened" to put in retirement notice the day before, Casey got an interview, he "just happened" to be the perfect fit for the job, and we "just happen" to be moving in approximately 2 weeks.

My favorite part of this so far is the affirmation we've had from several people who don't really care much for God, or how He would work things out. The general consensus is that "there sure are a lot of coincidences." Yes, if I believed in coincidence, there sure a lot of them in this story. But then, I don't believe in coincidence. I believe in God's sovereign and loving hand working out all things for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. So we are off to Roxboro, currently without a place to live or a job for me, yet trusting that our Father who has provided thus far, most certainly has provided those things too. So we wait patiently for what we do not yet see. Updates to follow.