Problem is, however, that through this whole thing, we've been asking ourselves what exactly was the beginning of this journey. How far back does our branch of His story go? We could start at our grandparents' marriages, our parents' births, their wedding, my birth, Emma's birth, our move to Wheeling, Willa's birth, and the list goes on! Or I could start with the Sunday Daddy got up from his seat on the edge of his bed five or six times before he finally got into our single bathroom before one of us girls, making it clear that we needed to move. I think I'll start, however with stating the fact that, for a very complicated reason, we needed to buy a house within 90 days of another house selling. Because of this rushed time-frame, we knew we really needed to find a place to buy/build. But that was a conundrum.
You see, we have been members of a PCA church 45 minutes away, in Pennsylvania, for the last 5 years. We loved attending there- but the drive was an issue. In order to really be part of the church body, one should really be semi-close to the other members. What use is an arm if it's only able to be there part of the time? We explored the possibility of moving half-way between Wheeling (where Daddy's job is) and Eighty-Four (where church is), but we couldn't find the land we wanted for the price we needed, nor a house that would work for us. We had been looking for 2 or 3 years, and nothing had come up.
Since that wasn't working out, we explored moving closer to our friends the Clarkes, who own land 20 minutes into Ohio. We talked to the owners of an adjoining property who were willing to sell and even won, through what we thought was God's "okaying" of our plan, a free custom green home plan designed by a local man. We went ahead with having him draw up the plans, and visited and walked around the land by the Clarke's over and over and over. But this all came to a halt during our week-long stay at the Clarke's home while they were on vacation. We were sitting around the campfire enjoying the summer night and praying for guidance and a definite answer from Him about the choice between church, because it wasn't fully ruled out yet, and the Clarke's, where there was no church anywhere close we would consider attending. Somehow we all knew that neither option was what God was calling us to. Somehow during the course of that campfire, us stubborn girls who wouldn't dream of leaving our friends, had our hearts melted and we were content, yes, even willing to go wherever the Lord would have us. Somehow in that 40 minutes, following Him became more important than a comfortable house, amazing friends, and pretty land. Somehow? His reforming power and saving grace.
Okay, then, God, where do You want us? During this whole process, in the back of Mommy's mind had been Tennessee as a third option. We had watched the DVD by Franklin Springs Media called "Inherit the Land" in which a family called the Vaughns was featured. She had found their blog and had been reading and occasionally chatting with them, mostly because their city to country transplant story had interested her. Somehow, she found some other blogs of families in their town and read those. Mommy started emailing Mrs. Vaughn about living in Centerville. Somehow, er, providentially, she found out that not only was there a reformed Baptist church in the town, but a reformed Presbyterian church as well. After our week at the Clarke's, we knew we needed to explore this third option- moving to Tennessee. Amazingly, Daddy was able to schedule a last-minute business trip to Dickson, TN, about 40 minutes north of Centerville so that most of the cost of the trip would be covered. We emailed the pastor of Heritage Presbyterian Church and said we would be visiting for the weekend and was there a realtor he could recommend? Pastor Lovett wrote back with the warmest of greetings, invited us to stay at his house (even not knowing a snitch about us), and gave us the number of his friend, neighbor, and fellow church member, Mr. Stouffer, who is a realtor.
Needless to say, Mr. Stouffer is a great story teller and we thoroughly enjoyed driving around with him for two days checking out the area and seeing houses as well as having great fellowship with the church family.
In the car on the way home, we gave our opinion of the move youngest to oldest. Seth and Elsia being asleep, Willa went first. ;) In summary, she stated that she really loved it there, but she would really miss her friends. Emma likewise had some doubts, but generally was a major thumbs up. I felt like a different person. Leaving home for the trip, I felt like I could never in a million years leave Wheeling- I love it too much. The people, the places, everything! But, unexplainably and joyfully, the Lord changed my heart to start to love Centerville. To want to live there- spend my life there. It was a major shock to me that I felt that way. Mommy also had a heart change to consider moving 11 hours away from her own mother, but knew this was what God had for us. Daddy said only one other time in his Christian life had he experienced such pure joy. In short, somehow, God was calling, moving us to, of all places, Centerville, TN.
The journey since the middle of July has been exhausting and life-changing, not only in the physical sense, but also in the spiritual sense. In these few months of buying a smaller house on 63 acres right in the location we desired, I bet we have prayed more as a family than we have in every other year combined. Sometimes 3 or 4 times a day something would come up that could jeopardize the purchase of the house and every time we would stop and pray as a family. If for no other reason, God has taught us and trained us to come before Him frequently with every little request. No joke, seemingly every day for the 5 or 6 weeks the house sale was pending, something would come up. Everything from other buyer offers to possible extraneous fees. Praise God for bringing us through that time!
Explaining all this and saying goodbye to friends in Wheeling has not been easy. Some just don't understand why we would pack up and move to a smaller house when we were already bursting out of our last one. Others are fully behind us and wish they could do the same. It hasn't been easy, but all things are for our good, right? I am growing from this and I hope you are too.
Somehow in the last 5 months the Howard family has been changed forever. Somehow we have grown closer and love each other more. Somehow a boy from Texas/ Colorado and a girl from Maryland have ended up with 6 kids and a fish on 63 acres in a town of, get this, 3000 people. Somehow He is refining us and shaping us to His image and drawing us closer to Himself. Somehow through His miraculous abounding grace, I am able to follow His lead and face this season of uncertainty, physical labor, emotional drain, and spiritual exercise with joy, hope, and inexpressible peace. Somehow.
