God's Love Notes to Us

It's so exciting to see God - signs of God - Love Notes from Him. Of course it's easy to see Him in the BIG things in life. The birth of your children. The healing of a very sick body. That's certainly exciting, full of joy, and AMAZING! But, I get the biggest kick out of seeing God in the little things. When He weaves little Love Notes into everyday things...into seemingly mundane tasks, it just makes me giddy...it makes me smile on the inside and out. I get SO EXCITED!

God has been leading us in this whole process. We have sought out His wisdom and I believe we've heard Him and followed His lead in the sale of our house and in the search of our new home. There's an amazing PEACE that you can have when you allow the Lord to lead and have FAITH that He'll carry you to where He wants you to go. If you let Him. And I believe we're letting Him do that. Of course I can have some waxing and waning emotions (like really really not wanting to live in an apartment for too long), but ultimately, I am at peace with the process and super DUPER stoked to see what happens next!!

Here are some of the Love Notes I've swooped up and filed in my heart during this moving process so far:

As I mentioned before, we found our buyers within a week of putting the house on the market. I only had about 10 days of working my fanny off to keep the house "show ready" - which is super stressful with 3 kids. I didn't have to do it long. Many have to do it for months or years. I am SO grateful I didn't have to keep that up! Thanks, God! I'm thankful for the quick sale for that reason, and the very important reason of the confirmation that it was the right time to sell.

In March we rented a storage unit in order to "declutter" the house and "stage" the house better for the market. It was HUGE. We weren't sure we were going to need it that big, but just kind of had a feeling it might be wise to get it. For a couple of months it looked like it was definitely an overkill! We took things little by little. We got a lot in there. But you know what? When it came to moving day (the BIG moving day, with the bulk of the furniture going to the apartment, which meant we would live there now), the unit was proven to be the exact right size. We filled it up - with a walkway down the middle, our washer, dryer, and refrigerator the last things in...right at the edge of the unit. It was perfect. Just the right size.

Although I was very grateful to snag the last ideal apartment for us, I was a little bummed that we would have to pay a few weeks extra rent since it was available before our scheduled close of escrow. However, as time went on and we got ready to move, it was actually quite a blessing to have it that early. As I mentioned before, we slowly moved in things that weren't essential to us at the house. It allowed the kids to get acclimated - I believe it helped me with that process as well. And it alleviated much of the work load on actual moving day - we didn't have to fuss with the little things. The timing was perfect after all. Imagine that. (And the apartment complex held the apartment for us for 2.5 weeks without rent...who does that??? We would have had to pay more rent otherwise - thankful!)

For moving day the truck size we wanted to rent wasn't available - so we had to rent a gigantic one that we thought was just going to be way too big and a hassle. I had given our dads the disclaimer that it wasn't the one we wanted, but here it is and blahblahblah. But, you guessed it. It turned out to be the exact right size. The first load (to the apartment) covered all the square-footage the truck had to offer. Perfect. The second load (stuff to storage) did as well! And my hubby drove it very well, too.

My son collects toy turtles. The moving truck had the painting of a sea turtle on it. Awesome.

As the dining room table was being moved, my dad discovered a fortune from a fortune cookie that one of the kids had stuck under the table. It read: Your lost treasure will be found within the month. Let's hope so! Come on new house! Funny timing.

The moving truck was due to be back at the rental place by 5:00pm. As it got later on moving day, it became very apparent that we were going to be cutting it close. The load still needed to be taken to the storage unit, unloaded, gas put in the truck, and then driven to the rental place. It didn't seem possible we had enough time for that. I sat in the parking lot at Vons in the van waiting for Hubby to gas the truck. I kept looking at the clock, tapping my fingers on the steering wheel...we had just a few minutes to get there. I followed him to the rental place, eyes darting between the road and the clock. He pulls the truck into the lot at exactly 5:00. It. Was. Amazing. AWESOME!

Our escrow was scheduled to close on June 20th. BUT, the buyers didn't get their paperwork signed in time (as we understand it, it was their lender's fault). It was starting to look like their lender was trying to stretch it out until the end of the month. I was fuming at his blatant disregard for not only our time (we wanted to be able to schedule a walk-through with the buyers to show them a few things), but hello - we had a contract. After much back and forth, it was finally arranged for escrow to close on the 23rd. And the buyers agreed to let us wait to hand them the keys until the morning of the 24th so that I could be there (I had Cub Scout camp every afternoon that week...which is another story of a stressful week!). I didn't want to miss out on handing over the keys...it was important to me. So, the really nice thing about escrow being delayed is that we were able to keep the dogs at the house for that week and not at the apartment. I was gone literally all day every day that week, so I couldn't have walked them. Hubby's parents agreed to watch them for that week for me to ease my stress, which was wonderful. But, this way, they only had to watch them one night. And our dogs got to enjoy their yard for a few more days. It really did work out for the better. Of course it did!

A couple of weeks before we moved out of the house, I told Hubby I wish we had thought to keep one of the "Baby Maples" that had rooted underneath our Japanese Maple in the backyard so we could plant it at the next house - and have a part of our first house with us (it would drop seeds and some would actually grow a bit - we had already taken one and planted it in another spot and it is getting quite big). I looked under the tree to see if there were any - no dice. The morning we handed over the keys I went over to gather the dogs and their things (and take them to the groomer). In the backyard something caught my eye - a Baby Maple! A tree had started to grow. So, I pulled it up and wrapped it in a wet paper towel to transport to the apartment. Then I put it in a pot with another plant until I could get it its own pot. I was so amazed! I got my Baby Maple! (I may have since lost/killed it...but...I still rejoice over that and hold out hope it'll make a comeback!).

Hubby lost his van key/remote on moving day (6/17). On 6/27 it hit me that he should look in my dad's car since he took him to get the moving truck. Hubby and dad went to search the car...and TADA! 10 days later. Key/remote found. Those things are expensive to replace...whew!

*Updated/forgotten love note:
The entire time we lived in our house, the city never resealed the road.  My parents have had it done in front of their house at least twice, and they've lived there about as long as we did at our house.  We always wondered when the time would come.  Just a few days before moving we got notice that the roads were going to be sealed...the Tuesday after we moved!  That messy, stinky stuff...can't drive on it, so you can't leave, or if you do, can't drive home stuff...we didn't have to deal with it!  So funny!

And last one...for now. Our neighbors upstairs...SO LOUD. And it didn't seem to stop. They would still be walking around (loudly) upstairs at 2:00am. I could hear the washing machine running at midnight, too. And just about every morning at 5:00am I would be awakened by stomping up there. It was so frustrating. But you know what? It didn't last long...they moved out on 7/7. Now we are hopeful it doesn't get rented out for awhile...

Our God is an awesome God. He truly is. And I am so blessed that He speaks to me. In things BIG and small. Thank you, Father God, for the little Love Notes you leave in my path...