The Unknown is a Gift: Our First Home

We've been talking a lot lately about our future.  I guess I thought that by the time I hit my 30's, life would be figured out and the course would be set.

I'm glad I was wrong.

This life of not knowing has been a gift.  Living in different places, making new friends, dreaming about where me might end up next--I have learned to treasure these steps on our journey.

This summer will mark six years of Bradley being in the Navy, the last three of which have been in our home in Georgia.  And as I anticipate moving again this summer, I can't help but think back and reflect.  For some reason, much of my reflecting has been on our first home.

As we approached our first year of marriage Bradley began to seriously pursue his career in the Navy.  In prayer and boldness, we asked if both of us could keep our jobs and work from home, allowing us to move away from Pennsylvania, to Greenville, SC.  Our company said yes, and within one month we had found a home, signed a contract, and moved in.

We only lived in that home for 11 months before the Navy became a reality, but it was wonderful.  Our marriage grew, we learned things like how to tile floors, pay a mortgage, paint walls, resolve conflict with both of us working from home, and we found out we were expecting our first child that year.

I look back and think how seemingly crazy it was, or how crazy we were, and yet God used that little unknown twist to grow us in Him.

We still own this home, and by God's grace, we've been able to rent it for the past six years.  Maybe we'll move back one day, we'll stack up some bunk beds to fit all the kids, and I'll change up the colors a bit.  But if we don't, I'll always look back and remember with thankfulness the ways that God used that home to make me a different person.

And, I pray that whatever unknowns we are given, even this summer, I will receive with an open heart and open arms, knowing that they are a gift from God.