All day yesterday, I felt almost overwhelmed with gratitude and thanksgiving to God for my new home and that I wouldn’t have to endure another hurricane, especially one like Hurricane Michael! God really has blessed me, and on days like yesterday, I appreciate His goodness to me more than words can say! Since my new home, neighbors and neighborhood have turned out to be blessings beyond anything I ever expected, it’s way past time to share the “rest of the story” about my move and new home with regular visitors to our public website.

The moving process ended up being a lot more challenging than I thought it would be because this was the first time I moved without the benefit of vision, which I just hadn’t thought of. So all of my carefully labelled boxes didn’t do a bit of good since I couldn’t read them…LOL! Therefore, I found myself in the midst of organized chaos and really felt like a fish out of water. Then on top of that, even though my family and friends who checked out the house for me knew I wouldn’t knowingly buy a house with trees near the house, there were six oak trees around eighty-five feet tall in the backyard right behind my bedroom window! And the Pecan tree I was so excited about was old and no longer bearing fruit, so I ultimately had them all removed and was excited about starting with a clean slate as far as the yard goes, other than one Live Oak tree that can’t be removed according to a local ordinance. However, I had it cut back to the main trunk and down to twenty feet high. Then I had all of those trees chipped up and spread throughout the backyard, which ended up being another challenge since it’s MUCH easier to put wood chips in AFTER trees are planted than it is to put trees in after the wood chips. However, I did get a few fruit trees and at least started the process of transforming my new yard the way I did in Tallahassee. I also discovered that I have a lot of clay soil here, which is very different than dealing with sandy soil since that’s a lot easier to amend. My final yard frustration has been dealing with the litter from my neighbor’s two HUGE Sycamore trees! I don’t know why anyone would ever want a Sycamore tree, and she has two of them! That makes it virtually impossible to mow my own front yard because it’s not just ankle deep in leaves, there are small limbs and long strips of thick, papery curled bark, which I can’t clean and which are not good for my little battery operated mowers. They’re a MESS plain and simple! While they drop a few leaves here and there throughout the year (usually with rain storms and windy conditions), the worst of it started in late August, and I’m told they’ll keep falling this way through the end of the month. So I finally put in a call to the man who removed my other trees to see how much he’ll charge to take down the Sycamore trees, which my neighbor doesn’t like any more than I do but can’t afford to remove.

With all that said, God couldn’t have put me in a better place to live! My house was totally renovated on the inside, including gutting and remodeling the kitchen, replacing and upgrading everything in the main bathroom but the bathtub, installing the same new flooring I put down in Tallahassee throughout the house, refinishing the walls and ceilings and painting the interior, new interior doors, baseboards, outlets and switches, new ceiling fans and light fixtures throughout the house, installing a sliding glass door out to the backyard (which is now privacy fenced) and many other updates and upgrades too numerous to mention. So I LOVE my new house and I’m truly blessed to have wonderful neighbors who keep an eye on me; one even mows my front yard for me! But the most amazing thing of all is how close I am to everything, which was the only reason I bought the house sight unseen! And right before retiring after thirty years, my former mobility instructor from Tallahassee was able to come over to give me a few mobility lessons, so I can walk to Publix, Subway, Little Caesars Pizza, Burger King, Dairy Queen, a local barbecue place, Dollar General, Save-A-Lot and a few other places! That’s a very significant life change for me, especially since they’re all so close and EASY to get to! There’s even a credit union caddy corner across the street from my house! So I have no doubt God intended to put me right where I am because had I known about those trees in my back yard and the mess those Sycamore trees would create, I never would have bought this house and would have most likely still been living in Tallahassee when Hurricane Michael hit yesterday. So I thank God that HE had a much better plan for me and kept me from thwarting it had I known about all those trees…LOL!!!

I haven’t been able to reach any of my former neighbors to find out how they are and how the neighborhood fared, but I hope to be able to do that soon. It might be days before they have power and cell phone service again, but from what I hear, Tallahassee was spared the worst of what they were expecting because Michael went more North than East after making landfall. My thoughts and prayers are with all of them as they wait for their lives to get back to normal, and those who lost loved ones, their homes and businesses in the hardest hit areas will remain in my thoughts and prayers as I count my blessings. Their lives will never be the same again, and I pray for God to use this time to draw all of them into a close walk and relationship with Him, which often happens in such devastating circumstances. So let’s keep them all in our prayers.

Even though several people have expressed an interest in buying my house in Tallahassee, they haven’t come through in the end, so I’m going to list it with a realtor next week. Thankfully, I’ve been able to transfer my zero interest credit card balances as needed, and can manage the debt and ultimately get it paid off as long as the credit card companies keep offering the same terms. In any case, God knew all of this was going to happen and has it all covered, and He did exactly what it took to get me moved, for which I’m exceedingly grateful! He has provided for every need and then some, and made a way where there seemed to be no way in my natural! So I see God’s hand in orchestrating the changes in my life over the past couple of years, and while I would have preferred not to experience some of the things I did, I couldn’t be happier with the outcome! But that’s exactly how God works; He creates circumstances that push us into the ultimate direction and plan HE has for our lives, and even though we don’t enjoy getting there, we’re all very thankful when we do! We’re blessed to see how He does that in the lives and marriages of our members all the time, so the best thing any of us can do is to learn the character and nature of God and who we are in Jesus Christ by reading His written Word! That’s the ONLY way to have the faith needed to stand through the difficult times and experience the ultimate blessing God has in store for those who trust and obey Him!

Posted Thursday, October 11th, 2018 at 1:46 pm in Seeds Of Faith.