Running to keep up

The last few weeks have been those types of days where you see God working on your behalf in a way that could only be Divine intervention, reminding me that not only is our God who He says He is, He really does do everything that he promises to do and loves us deeply - down into my bones.

As I mentioned in the last blog, we were just about to put our house on the market and figuring out where to go. This week, we drove to Seattle.

We listed our house on a Monday (want to see it? check out: http://www.redfin.com/CO/Longmont/27-E-5th-Ave-80504/home/35222649) for a price that was much higher than we anticipated or paid, but our realtor convinced us was the right price for the market. On Tuesday, we had 2 people come through to look. Tuesday night we had a full-price offer. Wednesday we counter-offered on a few details. Thursday we had a signed contract. And if that wasn't enough, a few days later we had a full-price back-up contract signed from the second person who came to look at it on that Tuesday. Within one week God clearly stated - yep, you're moving and I'm going to do it quickly and in an amount that actually allows you to consider buying in your next location! Our closing date as of now is April 27th. We're praying the inspection and loan (the last 2 hurdles of the first contract) all resolve quietly, quickly and simply.

The morning after we signed the back-up contract, we took to the road with Peluche to Pullman where I visited Washington State University. After a bit of back and forth about whether or not I could visit (they scheduled their student visit days during the same days I had committed to in Seattle at the University of Washington) and whether or not funding was available (they said they wouldn't fund unless I came during student visit days they were arranging) - the right people found out and offered me a few hundred dollars to come visit! We quickly arranged meetings and drove through a few states to get there Wednesday afternoon.

The WSU meetings and class visits were great for a couple reasons. First, we learned about the area - Pullman is a small college town in southeastern Washington surrounded by hours of farm land that reminds me quite a bit of Iowa. My apologies to the rural lovers out there, but I didn't like it. It feels so isolated and cut off from what is happening in the world...not isolated like rustic, wild mountains...it's isolated like tamed, controlled land. At any rate, it was snowing huge beautiful snowflakes that day and made the campus with its red brick look very pretty. But more importantly, I found out more about the people I'd be working with from both students and staff, the upcoming shifts in the department focus, and talked with the Associate Dean of the College of Communication for almost an hour which culminated in making a really neat contact with another communication researcher who shares similar faith interests - a conversation that only could have happened by sitting IN his office and looking at his bookshelf. I got the sense before heading to WSU that I was visiting primarily to "network" and have a point of comparison for the UW campus visits. It turned out to be a gift and I'm looking forward to seeing where the relationship heads in future years.

After Pullman, we drove here to Seattle where we commenced the on the ground house search. Amazingly enough, the day we arrived we drove around and picked our top "houses from the curb and internet" and they all went pending that night! After a brief bout of "what in the world?!?" (we've been researching for weeks now so it's not like they all showed up on the market this week) - we realized that, yet again, God was guiding in a miraculous way with "no and no and no and no" to the houses we considered our best options. Now, after having spent all day Friday visiting houses with the realtor (who seems really great) we have a couple of options that seem really realistic on the table.

If there's anything we're noticing in the last few months, it's that God is clearly the one guiding this leg of our race and we're just running to keep up with Him (and sometimes feeling a bit out of breath doing it)! And that's where I'll end - because things are so much in process I hate to say something only to renig 2 hours later! God's movement has reawakened a sense that God is not tagging along...we are. When we enter each day expecting to see God work, waking to God's presence in the details, we remember that God's goodness is screamed through little and large things of life.