A few months ago I shared on insta the brief version of this story, but God deserves the glory for every bit of this story. So today I’m sharing all the details, the back story, and how God had his hand all over this journey for our family. :)

THE BACK STORY

New seasons & answered prayers. This year has been a whirlwind in every way possible, but goodness God has showed up in BIG ways.

Last fall God started stirring in my heart and calling me into a new season of staying at home with our sweet boy and pouring into our family and our home. At first I brushed it off telling myself I was just a new momma missing my baby while heading back to work. I’ve always dreamed of staying home with our little ones someday, but was truly excited to start teaching again after maternity leave. Teaching preschool is SO much fun and the little ones I’ve had the honor of teaching will forever have a piece of my heart. I truly love it so so much. But I couldn’t ignore the feelings in my heart that kept stirring to be home, to not miss out on this sweet season of motherhood and raising our precious boy. I shared what was on my heart with my husband and just asked him to simply start praying with me about it, and that ultimately God would be glorified and I would have the courage to be obedient to whichever direction God was leading me.

We dreamed together of what this could look like, but always thought this would be a few years down the road before this dream came to fruition.

SO WE BEGAN PRAYING

Over the next few weeks and months we continued praying over whatever this next season held. We asked close family and friends to pray too. God continued to nudge my heart in ways only He could do. Every time I began to doubt myself, He’d show up in crazy ways. One morning while driving to work, overwhelmed and torn on what to do, I pulled up the podcast app on my phone and one episode automatically started playing. The podcast itself was about simplifying your home, but the specific episode that had started playing was a former teacher sharing her story… who was currently staying home with her little ones…who had taught the same number of years as me…and had wrestled similar feelings. Okay God I hear you. ;)

Through fall and winter I wrestled so many emotions. Overwhelmed with where to put my time and energy while feeling like I was falling short at every corner. Guilty for wanting to stay home with our baby, thinking…”I’m a teacher, I get summer’s “off” and work “normal hours”, I should be happy with that! I’m blessed to have that much time with our family, that should feel like “enough” but the truth is, it didn’t. I wrestled so many nervous feelings. Staying home with Ollie would mean so many changes & so many unknowns and just all around a huge leap of faith.

Throughout these months we also battled the stomach flu, Influenza, coughs, fevers, it was just a rough winter sickness wise and felt like one thing after the other. I just felt weary. Physically drained from keeping up with four and five year olds all day, pumping during lunch breaks, up feeding a sweet babe in the middle night, and waking up to do it all over again. Emotionally drained feeling pulled in so many directions and wanting to give my best. Mentally drained from trying to discern where God was calling me. I was exhausted in every sense of the word.

DURING THESE MONTHS I CLUNG TO THIS VERSE

“My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in your weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9

Holding onto the fact that God is strong and He gets the glory when I am weak, made each day a little bit easier. Grateful for scripture that meets us in ALL seasons and gives us hope!

WE BEGAN WALKING BY FAITH

After praying again and again, we decided to take one small step and see. If God opened doors, we’d follow His lead. If He didn’t, we’d take that as a sign it wasn’t our season for change yet and we’d soak up the season He had us in either way.

We met with our realtor, and decided to list our sweet farmhouse for sale. We lived on an acreage and wanted to be in town within walking distance of parks, libraries, etc. with a little one. This would also give us the opportunity to downsize a little bit and give us a little cushion in our budget to say yes to whatever God was calling us to. With it being the dead of winter in the midwest, we had heard that it may not be an ideal time to sell a home…BUT GOD! He was just getting started with all of the ways He’d show up. :)

We listed our home on a Friday, it happened to be a snowstorm here. The school had called a snow day and Ry was working from home due to the weather. That Saturday the interstate was closed down and churches were delayed on Sunday morning. Despite the snow, over the weekend we had gotten calls and messages wanting to set up showings. Monday night we had back to back showings and within a few hours of the first showing, our realtor called and we had pretty much a full price offer. I’m going to cry all over again. Riley & I looked at each other laughing and crying all at once saying, “Okay God we hear you! ;) We’re following your lead!”

We accepted the offer and looked at each other and said “are we crazy?!” We had just sold our home and had no idea where we were moving.

A few weeks later, while at small group, I asked for our friends to pray we’d find a home soon and have a place to stay in the in between. One of our friends in small group said they had a cozy little air bnb that would be ready mid-late march (right when we had to be out of our home) and offered to let us rent it for a few months in between. Yet again God was blowing us away and providing in such tangible ways. He is SO good friends. In between Riley & I both coming down with Influenza, getting my wisdom teeth removed, and parent teacher conferences at school, we began packing. We packed nearly all of our belongings and moved them into storage and moved into the cutest coziest barn for a few months. :)

& THEN THINGS GOT EVEN CRAZIER

Never did we imagine we’d sell our house with no idea where to go, come down with the flu, a few weeks later have surgery to get my wisdom teeth removed, pack up our house, move into a barn…and thennnnn have a global pandemic hit. I mean y’all I can’t make this up. ;)

The weekend we moved into the barn was when things got crazy and the pandemic began. They had just issued the “no gatherings of more than ten” as we had rounded up family and friends to help us move. I had just found out school was closed for the next thirty days and in a matter of one week we scrambled and collaborated and changed our whole platform for learning to connect with our kiddos virtually. It was just craziness.

A few weeks after moving into the barn, we closed on our new home, but wouldn’t move in yet for a couple months as we renovated. So now Ry & I were both working from home in the barn, taking turns keeping up with Ollie in between zoom calls and google hangout meetings, and spending every night working on renovations at the new house. ;)

A crazy season, FULL of so many blessings, but God wasn’t done showing up yet.

Finances were just one more area God showed up in the midst of this. It felt like the enemy was trying to get us down, trying to creep in with fear or doubt as we made this transition, BUT GOD, yet again, blew us away. I almost didn’t share this part because it always feels a little taboo to talk about anything financial, but I felt like I wasn’t doing this whole story justice if I left out how God showed up in this way too.

We prayed God would provide financially as we transitioned to mainly one income. I love blogging and teaching friends all about oils (@oilybabeschool) as creative outlets and it’s always a bonus blessing when those creative outlets bring in a little extra income. We just prayed God would provide in whatever ways that looked like and that we would be wise stewards of whatever He blessed us with.

In the midst of everything with the pandemic, the company my husband works for implemented a ten percent pay cut to everyone across the board. We truly are SO grateful and know that a small pay cut for a few months was NOTHING compared to those who lost jobs amidst this. We also are so thankful for God’s provision in that we had already started to saving, cutting back, just trying to be wise with our finances as we prepared to go from two incomes to one to set us up for success instead of stress in our finances.

Shortly after the pay cut, we got an envelope in the mail from the oral surgeon (I had just had wisdom teeth out the month prior, but we had asked if we could pay in full the day of the surgery and thought we had.) Ry jokingly said “so help me if this is another bill. ;) “

When we opened it up, it was a refund of a couple hundred dollars that we had somehow overpaid…ONLY GOD!

A couple days after that, we got an envelope from our mortgage company with another refund…only this one was three times as much as the last check.

Friends, I only share this to say that God is SO faithful and blows us away with His goodness when we put our trust in Him and ALLOW Him to show up instead of trying to do it all on our own.

God is SO faithful and blows us away with His goodness when we put our trust in Him and allow Him to show up instead of trying to do it all on our own.

Although it was the craziest season, I will always look back on this season and smile at the way God’s goodness was all over it. Waking up and making coffee together. All plans cancelled. Being together in the cozy barn all day, every day. Family walks together during work breaks. Bonfires at night right outside our front door. Celebrating our sweet little dude turning ONE in this little barn with cinnamon rolls and balloons and new books to read. :) Getting to see our new home become what we had envisioned and worked so hard for. It was a lot of long days and nights, but man it was a sweet sweet season.

It was a taste of what this new season could look like with so much more family time. It cleared the calendar of nights and weekends giving us time to work on all the house projects at the new house. It allowed us to slow down with the whole world and just breathe for a moment. We made time for rest in the midst of all the hard work. We did puzzles. We binge watched a show together late at night for the first time ever. ;) We cozied up by the fireplace each night reading books to Ollie. Gosh there was so much sweetness in this crazy full season!

We began to move things into our new home. I packed up my classroom and wrapped up the school year with my sweet kiddos. So many changes, and such a bittersweet feeling, but God’s goodness was over every bit of it.

So here’s to new seasons and continually trusting God’s plans over our own. We’re figuring out new rhythms over here, grateful for every minute of it and can’t wait to take you all along into this next season.

I pray this story encourages you to keep leaning in, to keep trusting God, and to take the leaps of faith He’s calling you too, whatever that may look like in your season.

This blog began when my season of life looked like balancing college classes and part time jobs and spending every single night with great friends as roommates. There’s been seasons of transitions, starting new jobs, marriage, walking through infertility, our miracle baby, motherhood, and now this sweet new season of being home. I’m so grateful you’re here sweet friends. Whether you’ve followed along since the humble beginnings or you’re a new follower here, I’m truly so honored you’re here for all the seasons life brings.

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