A Knock at the Door

When the dust settled and we had completely come to terms with the idea that life was about change, we began to compose a list of tasks.  There was so much to do to get from where we were... to where we needed to be.  Todd had to be in Lewisburg and settled by the beginning of August, which meant we had a lot to figure out in a short amount of time!!

How would we afford to live?
Believe it or not we were never concerned about our finances.  Most people may not understand this, but we always knew that if God was going to get us into medical school... then He would find the means to provide for us financially.  Now, I am a worrier by nature and to be honest with you I can always find something to provide me with the opportunity (unfortunately).   Even now when I type these words I can't believe how much peace we have always had about our financial state.  Our situation has never made sense on paper but we never doubted that God would provide for us.  I distinctly remember my first phone conversation with the financial aid department at the school.  The very sweet voice on the other end said, "The money you receive is only calculated for the student, there is not an allotment given for families."  She asked me how many children we had (at the time it was 2 and one on the way).  She hesitated for a moment and then said, "Well, I don't know of any family making it on this money with more than one child."  Amazingly enough her words still didn't shake the peace that we felt.  Todd and I still laugh about that conversation, apparently someone forgot to tell God that we wouldn't be able to survive on that money.

Where would we live?
There was the matter of our home to deal with.  We had spent years trying to renovate it, however there was still work to be done before it would be ready to put on the market.  We began to wonder if there was enough time to get it sold before Todd needed to be in Lewisburg.  So once again we decided that this matter was much to big for us to handle and we prayerfully turned it over to God.  To be honest I was relieved that it would be His concern and not ours anymore.

On a beautiful Saturday in February there was a knock at our door.  Todd answered it and was greeted by our neighbor that lived two house down from us.   Much to Todd's surprise our neighbor asked him if he had time to talk.  The two of them spent about an hour in front of our house talking.....I know this because my curiosity was just about to kill me!  When Todd finally came in the house I was anxiously waiting to hear what the conversation was about (this was not a neighbor that we had a close relationship with).  I will never forget what Todd said next, "Honey, you are never going to believe this....he wanted to know if we would like to sell our house."   Now, what makes this story even more of a miracle is that we hadn't even put our house on the market yet (nor did we have a sign in our yard).  Todd gave him a price that would not only cover what we had put into our home, but it would also allow us to be completely debt free!  Our neighbor excepted without hesitation or even coming into our home.  It turns out God is a really, really good Realtor...not to mention He's free!

Not only did God sell our very old home but he built us a brand new one on a large one acer lot.  This was a desire of mine that I thought I was giving up by agreeing to follow His plan (you only have to a renovate a house once to realize you never want to do it again).   Yet once again God had faithfully answered another prayer.  I had pleaded with Him to protect our children from having to make significant sacrifices on this journey.  I feared that we would be spending a large chunk of their childhood cramped up in a two bedroom apartment with no room for them to run and play.  But God answered our prayers in His amazing fashion, surpassing any desire that we could have had for ourselves!

A short time ago I read these words, "God not only gives you what you need..... but sometimes He also gives you what you want."  It turns out that we had enough money from the sale of our home to take our children on a much deserved trip to Disney World during the first year of school.

God has provided for us in ways that I couldn't even have imagined and I am so grateful.  We live a very blessed and comfortable life and it is all because we believe in a power that is far greater than our own.