...the healing house and secret prayers....

Our 'healing house' with several cars in the driveway -- blessings!

Time to move again - 3rd time in 20 months!!  

It has been a LONG weekend/week.  I want to blog and catch my thoughts  and put this in my 'history' so I can come back to this entry and marvel at my Lord.

We sold  the home we built  from scratch back in 1993 in August of  2011.  God provided the perfect buyer and we had a home rented even before we packed up 18 years worth of STUFF.  Then we moved to Lazy 7...and enjoyed the beginning of 'rental life'.  Brendan was positive we would build and he began meeting with an  architect  and he would bring home plans that we would look at and he would go back to the gentlemen and tell him, "make it smaller and change this".
After a month of this, we finally had some plans and had to pay for them, but to be very honest - I just said 'yes' cause I knew that God had impressed upon me that Brendan would 'rebuild the home' and I just believed that quite literally.
 I really couldn't see HOW we could afford it and we really were not ready as a couple to make decisions about flooring and carpet, etc.   Many people will  caution  you that building a home can 'cause a divorce'...well, we did not need any thing that could steer us in THAT direction.!!
 And, besides, we were in the  'awkward phase'  of our healing.  THat is how we have described that time period in our lives.  We were in therapy weekly and just being. We had been living apart and then living in the same house but still apart and just existing....so there was just a LOT Of awkwardness.  { Funny now, how the kids will comment here and there about that time period and how AWKWARD it really was.  }
 I look back now and  I spent any extra moment quietly reading or praying and watching a man that had taken a leap of faith and he was very skeptical about what God could really do.
 So, therefore, we were NOT ready to really build!  Almost 6 months passed, and God opened a door, and gave us this wonderful blessing.  We moved again.  Into a special home.   Brendan just  nick named it the HEALING HOUSE as we moved out last weekend and I will explain that in a bit.

But first, I want to add this....

God DOES grant you the secret desires of your heart.  As I drove to the 'healing house' one last time on Sunday to pick up the cleaning supplies I had used, I turned the corner and turned down 5th Drive when the Holy Spirit reminded me with a vision of me...some three years earlier.   It was  Sunday morning, and he had made the decision that we would sell our home and move into town.  That was the BEST decision we  could of made.  However, I  knew WHAT was available in Okeechobee and I knew our finances and I did not want to move into just any old house.  Of course, I thought of a house on the market, my favorite dream home and so that Sunday morning, before I went to church, I pulled down 5th Drive and the owners just happened to be in their driveway.  (Of course - THAT was God.) Anyway, I rolled down my window and this couple had been our Small Group leaders and we knew them and loved them, and I explained that we would be looking for a home and...."Al, could you call Brendan with out him knowing I stopped by and let him know the PRICE you need for this house, cause we are going to be looking?"...  Sure, he would do that.  You see that was an indicator of how 'fragmented we were, it was just the beginning of the HARD rebuilding phase'.   But anyway....

Al did call Brendan, and they spoke and of course what Al needed for a sale price was WELL over our budget!  So, ok...I just put that thought of ever living there in the back of my brain.

Well, God, did that awesome thing and opened doors  so that we got that UHaul and moved into that  home on 5th Drive.  It was our dream home.  I knew that it was GOD that moved a mountain so that we could rent ...with the option to buy this home.   THAT was the plan.

BAck to Sunday, As I turned the corner onto 5th Drive, I thought of that prayer I prayed that Sunday morning as I sheepishly asked Al.."could you call Brendan".

As the Holy Spirit reminded me, tears washed my face and I was reminded of HOW much HE loves me.  To give me that blessing...and that memory.  HE loves me ....just as much as HE loved David, Job, and others....THAT is pretty cool.

With that knowledge, I am so humbled.

Anyway, we rented and prayed for God's direction and HE moved another mountain.  God blessed Al with a buyer that could give him the funds needed for his home and  'our' home was sold.  We moved on Saturday!

The house was nick named the HEALING HOUSE cause, for the past 16 months, my family has entertained there, had many family meals there, had speakers from church over to dinner afterwards...and it was a time of just restoration.  I have blogged before - there were poker nights, gamer nights and I can't tell you how many times, I came home to find  multiple people ( usually boys ) watching a HEAT game.     The past 16 months have not been AWKWARD...they have been HEALING!

What a mighty and glorious God we serve - HOW HE blesses us so.

Astonishing things happened.  I need to blog and just list all of them...but tonight, I wanted to really express how that SECRET prayer said to God only 3 years ago...came into fruition and now, it is a memory.

God provided another rental.  This one we won't buy.  We are ready now to pull those plans out and really take a look at them.  In fact,  Brendan and I went to Home Depot just yesterday and began our wish list.  While in Oklahoma we went to an Open House, and while on vacation in Orlando we went to another Open House.  All the silly little things one will do when they begin to plan out ...a home.

This rental spot is very nice.  It may not have the crown molding and wainscoting   that we loved.  It may not have  granite countertops and a seperate cabinet for recyclables ...but it does have one thing - a very happy, healthy, and restored family.  AND...we all agree we have a beautiful view - about as good as the one we had when we lived North of town...or even better.  We laugh, cause we are now back on a golf course.  This new rental  home is VERY similar to the one North of town, it has almost the same layout and features.  It sort of seems God has brought us to a place where we have done a complete 360...tremendous!

Astonishing!!  

This is the new home.  Some notoriety, it was the home that Jimmy Jones build for his mother.  He was a professional football player.  Big deal?  Maybe, I laughed cause I seem to have something for 'green' houses!

I guess my purpose for blogging this eve was two-fold.
I wanted to capture the memory of this.
I wanted to express the reasons why and so forth as to WHY we have moved 3x in 18 months...

but mostly I wanted to share that incredible experience when I turned onto 5th Drive on Sunday and how the Holy Spirit reminded me of my original secret prayer to God....HE does that....some 3 years later and BOOM....God you are awesome.

So, hang in there....BE encouraged...GOD wants to do the same for you!  Oh, just seek HIM totally and allow HIM to move you ....or move the mountain.

The Healing House  allowed our family to heal.
The Healing House was a blessing from God.
The Healing House will never be forgotten....thank you Lord, for being THAT sweet.

I am humbled.

Lord, protect this new home, it is our home until You lead otherwise.  Lord, you know the finances and how much we want our OWN spot...it is no secret Lord, we ask this in YOUR name - amen!

- your humbled daughter