Tag Archives: Moving to Texas

Making a Home in Texas

Posted in Leaving California, Uncategorized by

When I looked at the calendar today, I realized that it’s been exactly 2 months since my husband Chris and I left California to move to Texas.

In many respects it’s been an overwhelming two months, make that four months.  Once we made the decision to move, we contacted our realtor and got the house ready to put on the market.  In an answer to prayer our home sold quickly and following a short escrow we were on our way to Texas.

Leaving California was a hard thing to do.  Hard because we left family, friends and our church, Kindred Community Church.  We left a home that we loved and the state with an abundance of blessings.  A place where the weather is nice most of the time and you can be at the beach, desert and mountains in just a short time away.  It was hard to leave, but we both felt the Lord was leading us to move.

I’m so grateful that I didn’t know just how hard this would be…if I had known, I might have stayed put.  Thankfully, the Lord has walked with us through this each and every day.

Oh my goodness…I can scarcely believe the 1,500 mile drive with cars fully loaded with 3 cats, 2 birds and enough of our belongs to help us get through our time in temporary housing.  When we arrived we got settled in temporary housing, shortly thereafter we started our search for a new home.

In less than two weeks we found a home to purchase in a city we hadn’t really previously considered.  The Lord was with us as we went through and extended escrow period and all the demands required from the mortgage company with our limited access to documents and records.

On October 31st, we moved into our new home.  Boxes are scattered hither and yon and begging to be emptied and have things put away.  As much stuff as we gave away and threw away before we moved, I wish we had gotten rid of more stuff.  I didn’t realize how much stuff we had until we moved.

In the two months since we arrived in Texas, not only did we find a home, but we found a church home where the Word of God is faithfully taught.  There are many opportunities to study God’s Word throughout the week.

Something I took for granted is being in a church were you’ve been for a long time, you know people and they know you.  Your lives are intertwined as you pray for one another and go through life together.

On my first day in a woman’s Bible study I just wanted to cry.  It was weird being in a place where no one knows me and I don’t know them.  But the Lord comforted me with the assurance that overtime, our hearts and lives will be knit together and I will make friends.  Right now I still feel rather isolated.  I want to make sure that I remember what it’s like to be the new kid on the block and I’m grateful for the kindness of the ladies in the Bible study who reached out and befriended me.

In the past two months my blogging has been very sparse, but I hope to get back in the swing of things.  I’m transcribing the Psalms that I have been writing out during my morning devotional time.  I want to write about what the Lord has been teaching me.

As hard as it’s been, there are many good things about Texas and I hope to share some of those things too.

The Providence of God

Posted in Dallas Arboretum by

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Back at the end of March, when I stopped working, I thought it was because we wanted to restore order and sanity to our lives.  Little did I know that God had a whole different plan in the works.

I thought I would be clearing out the clutter, going through closets and cupboards and getting rid of things and reorganizing.  Indeed that’s exactly what I’ve been doing since April…but suddenly it turned out to be for a bigger purpose.

At the beginning of April, Chris and I were able to slip away for a little trip over to Arizona.  It was an enjoyable time away.  When we returned, Chris had a meeting at work where they announced transfer opportunities to the Dallas, Texas area for employees who were interested.  Surprisingly enough when Chris mentioned it I was game.

This would be a HUGE move for us in many ways.  So we decided to pray and think about it and make a decision before the deadline.  I could see the benefits both for moving to Texas and staying here in southern California.  As we got closer to the deadline, we decided it would be prudent for us to make a trip to Dallas and see if we liked it.  Whether we said yes or no, we needed to make an informed decision.

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In June…we flew to Texas.  To make the trip even better my sister-in-law Carol and her husband Ron drove over from Louisiana and were able to meet us for a couple of days.  That turned out to be one of the best things about the trip.  Not only where we able to spend time with them, but in their graciousness, they drove around and that allowed us the opportunity to look at houses and neighborhoods and get the lay of the land.

Through our real estate agent, Jim Sallinger, in southern California we were able to make contact to agents Andre and Kelli Kocher in Texas.  We asked if they would be able to show us some homes, even though we didn’t know if we would be moving.  Seeing homes proved to be valuable in helping us make a decision.

We looked at new homes and some existing housing.  Coming from California we were amazed at how much house you can get for your money in Texas compared to California.  Several of the cities we liked were Flower Mound, Lewisville and North Carrollton.

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The pressure to make a decision weighed even heavier when we returned home.  We knew the deadline was coming and we kept going back and forth on what we should do.  Do you ever wrestle with God?  Well I sure was wrestling.  But in some respects I felt comfortable with whatever decision we made.  But I also felt the Holy Spirit was challenging me to not cling to things and people and even our church.  As good and precious as our family, friends and church home are, we need to be willing follow God when He says go.

Finally, the day came when we made the decision to move.  It was a relief to finally make a decision and not waver back and forth between two good options.  It seemed like in retrospect God’s leading and direction to move was clear after we made that decision.  I think if we decided to stay, to some degree, that decision would have been based on fear and not trusting God.

Since that decision was made, we’ve been getting the proverbial ball rolling.  We contacted our real estate agent and have been getting some general repairs and maintenance taken care of before we put our home on the market.  Now all that’s left is to spiffy up the yard a bit with the help of a landscaper.  Once that’s done…we will be a go for having our home up for sale.  It’s looking like it will be within the next few days.

Golly…I’m sure glad that I didn’t know all the work that was involved in getting ready to put our house on the market.  It isn’t until you are faced with moving that you realize just how much stuff you have.  Oh my goodness…it has been positively daunting some days.  We’ve been filling up our trash cans to the brim each week.  I’ve made numerous runs to drop off clothing, books and home goods to a local charity.  Add to that the runs to Fed Ex to bring bags of papers to shred.  Just this week, I finally redeemed my change I’ve been saving for the last five years.  I had to do it on two different days because it was so heavy.  I’ll tell you…you don’t realize how much money you can save painlessly just by tossing change in to a jar.

Today our realtor was here taking pictures of the interior of our home.  Within the next couple of days, the yard work should be completed.  Before long we will have an open house.  I think it’s going to be a challenge for me to keep our home “show ready” every day.  Thank goodness I don’t have to work outside the home.  Because I’m at home…I can take the time to vacuum and make sure things are shipshape.  We’ve de-cluttered and have a minimal amount of things out.  The benefit is that it’s a whole lot easier to clean now.

I’m praying that our home sell quickly so that we can move on to this new chapter in our lives.  At the same time, I want to trust God with His perfect timing and plan.

We are already praying for the people that will purchase our home.  I would love for a Christian family to purchase our home to be a bright and shining light for the Lord in this neighborhood.  I’m praying that God is going before them and helping them to sell their home and have the finances that they need.  That the Lord will give them wisdom and that they will have peace and be in unity on the decision.  We’ve enjoyed our home.  It’s an older home from 1962 and thankfully we’ve been able to invest and improve our home.  I hope that whoever buys it is able to make it their own and enjoy this quiet neighborhood.

We are very excited at the prospects of moving to a whole new area of the country.  We are praying that the Lord will lead us, not only to find a new home, but a new church home.  We are already starting to look at some churches.

We will greatly miss our precious family and friends, but hope that they may be able to come visit us in Texas.

A couple pieces of counsel we received have stuck with me.  “Just because you move, doesn’t mean you lose friends.  You make new ones and keep in touch with your old friends.” – Ron Jackson.  “Moving to Texas will be good for Chris and Susan.  It won’t be Chris’ stuff or Susan’s stuff but it will be theirs together as a couple.” – Molly Connor.