I know God works in our lives everyday-carrying out his will and purpose. I know that if we could see with spiritual eyes that we would be in even more awe of our creator as we considered: if the truck was going a little faster it could of hit us in that intersection, if i had not of spilled that cup of coffee I wouldn't have been late and might have been involved in the pile up, if i had not been in the traffic jam i would have missed the opportunity to worship God to a song, if I didn't have a screaming baby I wouldn't have met the woman in the foyer who needed to talk. But it is true, that this side of eternity we don't get to see as often as we would like, God's providence being played out.
However, this week we were blessed beyond measure to see God providentially caring for his children. Let me catch those of you who are a little removed from our life up to speed..
1. Aaron and I moved to Owensboro 3 yrs ago May-mainly to be apart of Pleasant Valley Community church (where Aaron's bf Jamus is the head Pastor) and find jobs here in Owensboro.
2. In May 2009 Miss Riley Kate arrived and soon after Aaron got a job offer with the Owensboro Police Department. We bought and fixed up our first home -1927 Sunset Dr.
3. Aaron left in October of 2009 for Academy training which lasted through Feb.
4. He came home in February and well 9 months later-Miss Hadley Grace arrived
5. All in all Aaron has loved the Police Department-but recently the hours and shift have become a little draining for our family. He works second shift (3-11) -which I need to tell you is his favored shift to work-but that leaves evenings and weekends without him. It isn't too horrible now, but considering when the girls get older and our in school (if we choose not to homeschool) they would go days without seeing their daddy was just something that bothered us deeply.
6. Sometime early May-after a vacation from the police department- Aaron asked me if I recalled my brother (who works for Dell) mentioning that they were hiring back in March. Neither one of us really even remembered because we did not give it a second thought only two months prior. So to make a long story a little shorter :) Aaron made a phone call to my brother who informed us that he thought they had everyone hired but to send in his resume and they would go from there. That was on a Sunday night-Wednesday he had an interview in Nashville (one guy said, oh a Murray State grad. we will have to introduce you to Brandon Powell-Aaron nodded and later said that it was so hard not to say "yea that would be great since I've been married to his sister for nearly five years") and Thursday was offered the job.
7. We met with a realtor on Monday and the following Wednesday ( May 25th) placed our home that we love so dearly on the market. We showed our house 8-10 times in the following 2 weeks.
THEN at 2 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS (now the real reason im blogging tonight) ...
I had gotten my house spiffy for what seemed like the thousandth time and was lugging the kids out the door because we had another showing. I felt good about this showing. I couldn't have told you why but I had an excitement that something good was going to come of today involving the house. My excitement was not contagious to my husband. He was a little discouraged in the house selling arena of life. At one week and one day of the house being on the market we had an offer. However, the buyer was wanting us to come off so much that it would mean we would be paying $3600 and they would have the house-oh and they wanted my patio furniture and my curtains. We said no-at first-but then after rethinking it over a weekend decided that it we would figure it out and it would be good just to know the process was over and we could move on. Our relator contacted them but they were "unsure" they were still interested.
When we are showing the house I always try and get out at least 10-15 minutes before I know the house is to be showed so we don't have any last minute potty breaks, juice spills, etc.. I am walking out of the door and I see that a car has pulled up beside our house.. and in all honesty this was my thought -"Are ya kidding me?" I thought I had allotted plenty of time and here the eager beavers were here 20 minutes before the showing. So I quickly dart towards our car avoiding eye contact with the driver and passenger of the car. I am shoving (literally :)) the kids into the car when I hear some one very energetically say "Excuse me" I was so startled I jumped and scared the sweet girl, myself, and Hadley. The girl began to ask me questions about the house-the layout, the floors, etc.. so i tell her all the while thinking, "aren't you about to see it?" Anyway after a few more questions I begin to realize this is not the people who the realtor (not ours) is bringing over. I explained why I was confused and quickly suggested that we call George -my realtor- to see if he would come show the house after the scheduled showing was finished. We call and George is not available and so i ask-in true Ashley Grant fashion-if I can just show these sweet people the house. He agrees and Jessica (sweet wife) and Heath (sweet Husband) come over to the car where I am unloading the girls to go back inside. Heath notices a book in the floor board of our car "What is the Gospel?" I explain that Aaron is teaching through this to the middle schoolers during sunday school at church. Immediately at that point (which I already had my suspicions) we knew as Heath says we were "blood kind"-we were brother and sisters through Christ (our big brother).
We continue to talk and instantly have a connection. Heath is finishing up his degree from Southern and Jessica is a teacher. I can tell Jessica and I would be the best of friends and they truly seem to love our home. They leave and I felt so encouraged just through meeting them. We exchange cell phone numbers and later they call and want to come pray with us and were hoping to meet Aaron (but were unable to do so because of work). They return the next day to have breakfast with us -They explain that they desire to do overseas missions in Morocco as soon as Heath finishes Southern. (Currently he has a job in town and is taking online classes) They explain that they are trying to figure out if renting or buying is the better option for them. They recognize the investment of buying but also do not want to be tied down to having to sell before they can go oversees. Each time (the evening and the morning) we met it felt as if we had known each other longer and longer. We were thrilled to tell Heath and Jessica about Pleasant Valley and they were excited about there being churches in this community that taught the full counsel of God's word and were cross-centered. Aaron and I were excited because we know that Pleasant Valley's leadership has been praying over certain countries to adopt an un-reached people group from and send teams of people too-one of those countries is Morocco, the country that Heath and Jessica want to go and live. Heath and Jessica explain to us that they love our home and want to buy it if they decided to buy as opposed to rent. Then, they tell us that they are not only interested in buying it but they want to give us our ASKING PRICE. They explain that the Lord has blessed them so much with good jobs and they want to bless us. Because of the work we put into our home and the type of loan we got -we knew that we would most likely be taking a loss on selling our home this quick from the beginning (not even counting the 8,000 from the stimulus pkg we have to pay back for not living in our home 3 yrs). We knew that if we just covered someone closing costs we were going to be out almost 2,000. So to hear that these new friends were willing to buy our home at asking price was incredible. Please remember that only a few days earlier we had tried to get in touch with the people who made us the previous offer which would have resulted in us being out $3,600. Jessica and Heath leave that morning committed to continuing to pray to see what God would have them do. Aaron and I do the same.. For as much as we needed our home to sell-we knew Heath and Jessica were going to expand the Gospel in Morocco and we did not want them to have anything hindering them. Later, they call and inform us that they are making us an offer. Instead of meeting individually with our realtor we did it all together. George (the relator) was blown away. He said in all his years of doing real estate he has never seen anything like this.
After we sign the contracts and are leaving the real estate office we learn that Jessica and Heath are driving almost daily back and forth to Elizabeth town (where they are moving from) to Owensboro. Of course, we think of Brad and Marilyn Rhoads who have a basement that they are always so willing to open up to anyone needing a place to stay. We call and Brad-without hesitation-thinks it is a perfect idea. So last night we ate a yummy meal at Olive Garden together and they followed us to the Rhoad's home-where they are welcomed to stay until the end of the month. I think Sunday they will be visiting PVCC. In summary: God is a good and gracious father who takes care of his children and we give him all the glory for doing so.
"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"
Matthew 6:25-30
