How in the World Did We Get Here: Part 1

Our little, ole farm house is all tucked snuggly under a blanket of snow this morning as fresh flakes are starting to fall again.  Let it be known that I don’t mind that one bit.  In my book, if it’s gonna be cold it might as well snow.

We’ve lived here two and a half years although it doesn’t feel near that long.  Earlier this morning, I was reflecting on how exactly we got here.  It was all Him, friends.

Wrex worked for a family company in Denver that had their fingers (successfully) in quite a few niches; ear tags, farming, purebred cattle, show goats, horses.  He had an active role in each of those endeavors and thus worked A LOT.   The situation wasn’t ideal and became less so after Sawyer was born.  A lot of mornings, Wrexy left before she was awake and came home after she was in bed and that was definitely not how we wanted to raise our family.  It would’ve been different if it was our land or our cattle or our company and we were investing this time and energy into something for our future generations, but that wasn’t the case.

So after lots of intense prayer and discussion, we knew that the Lord was calling us away from there.   On his 29th birthday, he gave his one month notice and we stepped out in faith…no job lined up, no place to live (as we were living in company supplied housing), no idea where to go…we just knew that working there was no longer obedience, but that stepping away was. 

We spent our evenings together praying and job hunting and packing.  Our house was nothing fancy but we had made a lot of special memories there.  It was the place we celebrated our first five anniversaries…the place we brought our first baby home to…the place where we hosted friends who became our roommates for a season…the place where we threw card parties and goat dehorning work days and family get togethers.  Even though we knew that our leaving was the right thing to do and that it was what the Lord was asking of us, it still stung a little.  Obedience isn’t always easy…

W spent his days tying up as many loose ends as possible.  By the end of the month, the contents of our home were moved into a storage container and we?  We were jobless and homeless…but not hopeless. 

The job part never really concerned me for several reasons.  One, I knew that we were walking in obedience so I had no doubt that the Lord had something lined up for us; He wouldn’t call us away and then hang us out to dry.  Two, Wrexy has more skills in more different areas than any person I’ve ever met.  I often tell him that he’s handicapped me as a do-er.  If something breaks or isn’t quite right or needs a little finesse, I don’t even try anymore – I just wait for him to get home because he’ll fix it in a jiffy and in a way better manner than I ever could.  Plus, he’s the most loyal, hardest working, social genius on the planet.  And three, I knew that if he had to, he would work two jobs slopping hogs or serving french fries before we ever went hungry.  Before we ever left, he was offered two different jobs, but neither of them had the stamp of the Lord and as hard as it was to say ‘no’ to them, knowing that if we said yes we could stay in the same area, ‘no’ was what we said.

During that first week of our new found homelessness, some of our favorite friends were on vacation and they allowed us to stay in their home.  This was such a huge blessing to us as we finished taking care of last minute business things and fully getting a plan in place for what was next.

We spent a lot of time in the quiet together that week.  It’s a weird feeling, especially for a type A planner to not have a plan…but to know that THE plan was to be obedient to the Lord. There is blessing in obedience – I’ve experienced that richly! I’ve also experienced the consequences of disobedience and I didn’t want to venture there again.

We prayed continually that the Lord would make our schedule for us and that He would provide us with the job that Wrex needed to say ‘yes’ to…wherever that may be.  We knew that He knew our hearts in wanting more family time and He knew our hearts in wanting Wrex to have a job that was rooted in agriculture; a job that wouldn’t find him stuck behind a desk and a job that he enjoyed.  This whole process had happened so fast and was so outside of ourselves that we had no other option but to have hope; confident expectancy in the goodness of God.

As the week was coming to a close, we made plans to visit my family in several parts of Texas and then Wrex’s sister and grandma in Oklahoma and Kansas before heading back to Colorado to finish out a ministry event we were a part of.  We had cleaned up behind ourselves and packed what we needed for a few weeks on the road with a 10 month old, when Wrex got a call that we needed to stop at the tip-top of Texas before we ventured further south; a meat packing plant wanted to meet him and see if he was a fit for their company.  Maybe, just maybe, this was it?