Next weekend will be Jeremy's and my 11th Anniversary. Last year, we'd hoped we'd be able to celebrate the milestone 10-year anniversary with a splurgy trip somewhere - like Hawaii. Of, course, with the birth of our son that year it just didn't seem feasible. So, we thought we would just postpone it a year when the kids would be a bit older and could be away from us for more than just a day. However, those plans got scaled back this year as the reality of tight finances and a busy summer work schedule for Jeremy set in. Instead, we decided we'd just take a short weekend trip somewhere nearby. We'd talked to my parents and they had agreed to come watch the kids while we went away. So, we were all set to get away for 2 whole days of uninterrupted grown-up time.
Then, a few weeks ago, we were informed that our house had sold. We rent a basement apartment in a house. The house had been on the market for quite some time, so this was not a surprise. We have spent the past 3-4 months looking for a house to buy anticipating that a move would be in our near future. Now, though, we have a set deadline. The sale of this house will close mid-September. So now the pressure is on! If we are going to buy a house, we have to find one - very important, obtain financing - also important, pack and move all of our belongings within the next 6 weeks. Needless to say Jeremy and I have suddenly felt our stress level increase.
Just a few days ago, we decided that with the expenses of a home purchase and move just around the corner, this might not be the most prudent time to take our getaway weekend. This was a very tough decision to come to, but it was one of those things that God just laid on my heart one morning as I was driving to work. I was mulling over in my head all that needed to get done in the next 6 weeks and running all the "what-if" scenarios over in my head. Then just all of a sudden the thought came to me, "maybe we need to wait on the trip." When I talked with Jeremy about it that night, he also had been thinking the same thing which just confirmed that this was the right thing to do.
The very next night, I sat down to the computer and was checking email. I saw a message from ParentMap, a local publication for families, telling me that I'd won a contest I had entered a while back. The prize - one night at the Salish Lodge in Snoqualmie Falls. I was in complete shock. I'd totally forgotten about this contest, and I never win these kinds of things anyway, so I just figured someone else must have won. The timing of this, coming right after we'd decided to postpone our anniversary trip, and the fact that my name was chosen randomly out of hundreds of other entries, can only be attributed to God. It also has brought me great comfort in the fact that I know that if God cares enough to bless Jeremy and I with such a little thing, then how much more will he provide for the really big things - like a place to live.
So, even though the thought of finding a new place to live and moving still is stressful and I will probably have many more anxious moments over the next 6 weeks, this will serve as a great reminder to me to lean on God and not on my own understanding.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding: in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths.
