Tuesday, April 14, 2009

We bought a house...

Which means Evan doesn't have to sleep in our bedroom closet anymore! We closed on the house at the end of March, and will be moving in at the end of April when our apartment lease is up (so if you are looking for something to do at the end of April, specifically April 25th, feel free to help us move! You know you want to...)

To answer the question that we've been asked the most since we've started to share this news - Yes, we are still going to Austria. Buying a house has not changed that at all. In fact, we are excited to see what God has been doing lately.

We've been praying for about the past 6 months or so about our living situation, since we were getting tired of playing the "leasing guessing game" - trying to figure out how long of a lease we should sign so that we would be free to go to Austria once our support comes in. Well, it was also about 6 months ago that we began to realize that we were suffering from Austria "tunnel vision". We were so focused on trying to figure out how to get to Austria that we were ignoring (unintentionally, but still)what God was doing around us right here at home. So we made a very intentional effort to begin praying and asking God what He wanted us to do on a daily basis. As we began doing that, a new opportunity to get involved with a young adult ministry at our church sprang up almost immediately. That is also when we began wondering if maybe God wanted us to buy a home instead of continuing to rent. Well, we ended up buying this home, which also happens to be in the same neighborhood that our church has been trying to establish a church plant. We didn't "plan" on buying a house in that neighborhood, but when we saw the house, we immediately began to wonder what God might have in mind for us. We still don't know exactly how God wants us to be involved in that neighborhood and the church plant, but we are continuing to pray and are excited to see what comes of it.

In the meantime, we are just excited to be able to move into our own home. Owen is going to love having a yard to run around in (Owen's mom might love it even more than Owen!). We are excited that we no longer have to run to the bank to get a roll of quarters to do laundry, and that our friends and family no longer have to hike up 2 flights of stairs to come and visit us. But most of all, we are excited to see how God is going to use our new home for His kingdom. Enjoy the pictures!