The Dixon House Update

It has been such a long time and I must admit that I have been avoiding all contact with anyone besides my close nit co-hermits. So I apologize for the delay. Since my last post Jon and I have viewed maybe 12-15 other houses. All duds! It is just so amazing how God still provides even though we fail him almost every single day. Just looking back over this last month I have seen His hand guiding our steps to finding "The Dixon House". Let me just break it down real quick. First we run into our Realtor during a time of great remorse even before we knew we were looking for a house. Second, our Realtor shows us a house that is just mediocre on a "whim" the house was not on our viewing list for that day. Third, our Realtor has known the guy who is selling the house since kindergarten. Fourth, the seller of the house decides to like us due to our relationship with our Realtor, Fifth we get a phone call today stating that the seller has decided to do all of the remodeling/ repairs we wanted even though the seller didn't want to do any repairs in the beginning! The house that was just mediocre is now going to be our dream house! All three bedrooms and one and a half bathrooms! The Dixon House is currently in the remodeling stage. Jon and I are so excited! God has really blessed us with this quick process. We move either in the beginning or end of May! Here are some pictures before the remodel.

From Apartment Renters to Home Buyers

It is absolutely amazing how quickly things can change. The last 17 hours have turned my comfortable world upside down. After an extra long day at work Thursday, I come home to a yellow piece of paper hanging from the notice clip by the front door. While it was blowing in the wind, I caught glimpses of black stars bordering a message from the apartment complex. I take the note inside and dont even take a moment to unhook the leashes off my dogs. I sit down on the couch to read. The notice said, in a lump sum, our lease was up in May. I was ecstatic! I dont know how many of you already know this but upstairs, every night, around the same time frame, a constant tick tick ticking noise comes from above our bedroom. Now let me clarify, its not the kind of noise most people can sleep through. It is one that wakes even Jon up! He is such a hard sleeper and if the noise wakes him up that means its too loud! Ok so back to the note. I sat there stunned from excitement and nervousness. Excited because I can finally escape the annoying noises from upstairs, but very nervous because we now have a little less than three months to find a home and move out. So my plans for an after work nap soon faded and I began setting up a game plan. I sent Jon a text message to let him know the news. He then told me to set up a time with our Realtor friend Mike Robbins.  The only reason we even thought of him was because when I went to go see Laurens grandmother last Sunday night, Mike was there and gave us his card. This was way before we even thought of actually purchasing a house. So long story short we are meeting March 20th to discuss options for home buying! Since 7:45pm Thursday night, I  been looking at houses that I would like to purchase. We have found 4 houses/ condos so far that are in our area. Below are a couple of pictures of my favorite house. It is centrally located between our church, Jon's work, and my friend Jenise's house. 

I'm going PINK!

This week has been very encouraging. I was able to meet with my friend Lauren Robbins, who I've known since we were in diapers, about planning a PINK party. The purpose behind a PINK party is to get a group of young women together to share what Gods word says about tough subjects. Ex: Boys, How to be Godly Women. We will be spending the night with a hopefully large group of girls sharing Gods word and just having fun. The word PINK stands for P-Purity, I- Innocence, N-Newness, K-Knowledge. Ideally through the lessons we prepare we will be able to convey the message of all of the PINK qualities. I have had such a yearning to teach again and of course God has placed a great mission field in front of me, young women. It feels so comforting to be able to see God hand working in my life. Let me begin from the beginning of my week. Sunday night Lauren comes to visit at church. We had our normal lesson and when prayer requests are asked for I sought to pray for Laurens grandmother who had a stroke only about a week or so ago. Laurens grandmother Nedra was a good friend to my mother before she passed away. To keep it short because I'm quite upset about the whole ordeal, I see God working through a rough patch in both Laurens and my life to bring us together for his glory. I am confident and comforted in the fact that Nedra is a Christian and I will see her again in Heaven, but I really do hope it is Gods will to have Nedra be healed miraculously. So for those reading, please keep her in your prayers. Philippians 4:13 says "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength". God can do anything we just need faith! I am also excited about this Sundays lesson. Jon has allowed me to teach the girls for the next few Sundays. I am preparing my lesson this week and I really hope that the spirit moves and we will become closer through God. I have a few girls in my youth who are going though some really hard times. I hope that these "girl talks" will help ease their troubled hearts.

This is a picture of Mrs. Nedra, her husband Ron, and my friend Lauren.

If The Truth Be Told...

Life is never perfect. It is full of pain,sadness, and even doubt. We can try and plan our lives as best we can on our own,but somehow we always wind up doing something that we never intended. (Like me and my college procrastination) Sometimes, even if it is disappointing, we have to realize that Gods will is supreme. He knows what is best for us even when we think we've got it all covered. Some people accept Christ and think that from that moment forward that their lives will be picture perfect with no blemishes. Well to tell the truth it is quite the opposite. God never promises a life of luxury. What he does promise is a life of trials and persecution. People of the world do not like what makes them uncomfortable and thus they make fun of us or even kill us. When they/we compare their/our lives to the perfect God they/we cannot compete. The cool thing is, through Jesus Christ we are still able to hold on to the hope of someday joining God in heaven, where life will be perfect. He promises that there will be no more suffering or pain in heaven. That is something I am so eagerly yearning for! A life without pain (emotional or physical), a life without worry,and most importantly a life living face to face with the One who made me and loved me enough to send Jesus to die on the cross to cover my sins.

Funny side story. So yesterday I spent the day babysitting my friends baby Hannah. I put her down for a nap and I decided to take one as well. We were on opposite couches when I heard sirens going off. At first I thought that there was a tornado! I jumped out of my blanket and rushed to check on Hannah. She was sound asleep. Then I could have sworn I heard trumpets in the mixture. Then it hit me. I thought back to a passage in the bible when paraphrased says: he will come like a thief in the night/ on a white cloud with trumpets. It made sense, a thief is sneaky he will come when no one expects him. I definitely wasn't expecting Him on a Wednesday afternoon. I immediately ran to the window with my heart pounding to look for Jesus in the clouds. I was so excited! I looked over at Hannah and thought "Why is she still here?" I thought that God would have taken her first. Then the sirens wore down and I realized it was just the testing of the emergency tornado warning system. My heart sank. But the truth of the fact is that when Jesus does come, nothing else will matter just God in his glory. When I jumped out of the blankets I left my phone,wasn't even thinking of Jon, and definitely wasn't thinking of work. This is how our attitudes should be: like children. Running to him in our times of need and excited when he returns because we have kept up the faith and done His will to the best of our ability.