His Will

Something amazing happened last week. And when something amazing happens, I need to write about it.
 

To start out, my husband and I bought a house! We close on our old home next week and then we close on the new house within the next 2-3 weeks. It's a rambler in a beautiful city, charming neighborhood and friendly cul-de-sac. There is a large fenced-in backyard for our pup and 3 bedrooms/ 2 baths on the main level. The lower level is unfinished which is like a large, blank canvas for us to run with our imagination and do whatever we'd like with it someday. There are beautiful cherry blossom trees in the front yard that bloom in the spring and there is a cozy, three season porch off the back of the house. Overjoyed is not a big enough word to describe how we feel about finally finding our perfect home.

With all exciting steps in life come responsibilities. The home is under our budget, so we will be making some improvements to better fit our style. In our new home we'd like to complete the following projects:

1. Take down a wall that separates the living room from the rest of the house. This will create an extremely open floor plan, completely changing the feel of the main level.
2. Pull up the carpet and other flooring and refinish/stain the wood floors underneath.
3. Replace the kitchen cabinets/counter tops and put in a new island.
4. Eventually re-do both bathrooms on upper level with new showers, vanities, tile, light fixtures, etc.
5. Eventually finish the basement.
6. Flatten backyard and do some landscaping.

So that sounds fun, right? We are very excited but thinking about these projects (and the money it costs to do them) has been a bit overwhelming. We visited the house again last week with our contractor/kitchen & bathroom designer (which happen to be our parents, how lucky are we?) and the list of projects got longer and longer. The amount of time it will take to do the floors is also longer than expected which means we will be living with my husband's parents for longer than expected as well. We are so lucky that they are welcoming us into their home during this transition, but we are excited to get into our new home and it can't come soon enough!

Anyone who knows me knows I get very excited about things, very fast. I like things to move along quickly and smoothly and I like instant gratification. I am working on being patient but I just love the end result of a project so much that I race to the finish line as often as possible. Renovating a home is not one of those things that you can race through. It takes time, money and lots of decisions.

On our way home from the house last week, my husband and I were chatting about all of these projects; how we were going to get a home construction loan, how long the projects would take, when we would start moving our stuff into the house, etc. I became overwhelmed and weepy. My husband, as usual, reassured me that this is the right thing to do. We're getting all of these amazing projects done so that it will be exactly how we want it when we move in. It's going to be awesome, we just have to be patient throughout the process while living with his parents. I am just really excited to live in our new home and want to get in there as soon as possible.

As I was starting to calm down a bit, a car in the right lane passed us and pulled right in front of us and continued on down the highway. They didn't cut us off or anything, they just got over into the left lane in front of us and I immediately noticed their license plate. It said "HIS WILL"

If that wasn't a sign pointed directly at me in that moment, I don't know what is. I was in this moment feeling overwhelmed and anxious about the moving process and then THIS car pulls in front of us so I can read HIS WILL on the back of their car. I felt instantly relieved and thought wow, I really needed that right now.

The fact that what happens in our lives is HIS WILL and not ours, is such a relief. What a great reminder for me to drop control of the process and let Him take over. What will be is His will and He only does what is best for us. So I changed the subject and accepted that this is how it is meant to be right now. He has never let me down before, and I don't expect he will be steering me in the wrong direction any time soon.

I also instantly felt the need to blog about this experience, so I'm hoping that there is someone out there reading this who needed the reminder today that what happens in our lives is His Will, and it is good.

I leave you with these inspirational quotes about seeking and loving His Will. 

Seek his will in all you do,
    and he will show you which path to take.
-Proverbs 3:6 

Your friend,

Meg