Good morning! 😁
I have tried my best to get this published sooner than later. I've had it written since June and have been so hopeful to have had it include an ending of sorts so I could leave it at a second and final part. And while we (almost) know what the conclusion looks like now, this part 2 was getting way too long. So now I'll be leaving you all for a second time, on left on way less of a cliff hanger with this post, but still waiting for the remainder of the story. Stay tuned for Part 3 which I plan to post next week!
...And we knew it was time to move to Coaldale....
So we discussed what a move to Coaldale would look like. Will reached out to his uncle about that job posting and was told he'd have a job if we did indeed move.
I hated it. But somehow it also felt like the right thing to do? Us having seriously been discussing it, the job ad, the eviction notice. It all made sense to have added up to this.
Will wanted to tell someone, anyone. I wanted us to sit with the idea for a little longer.
I went on a walk with a friend, Will had a brake job to do, and once we were back together decided that we needed to bring this up with our wise counsel folks. The most readily available was our minister and so Will went over there after lunch to explain our housing scenario, how we were feeling stuck, and as though Coaldale was the answer.
Our pastor shared how badly the church needed us here to continue spreading the gospel. How much our being here has been a blessing to the community and that we wouldn't be able to understand what church life was like before we came, and how changed it would be if we left. And if it was this eviction that was pushing us to Coaldale, then we could move our trailer to his property and live there until we found a house to buy if that's what it would take.
Then Will came home and shared this all with me.
So we were needed in Prince George.
The local church needed us badly, and praise the Lord we sought out our pastor as he had a possible solution for us.
We ended Tuesday thinking we were less likely having to move to Coaldale, but still sitting with the idea.
What a rollercoster!
Over the next few days we discussed this with many people in our circle of influence. Older people, peers, and even some folks younger than us (it's a little scary to me that there are adults younger than me now, I'm getting older and older...!). Everyone was praying for us. Everyone said that the church in Prince George needed our time, our energy, our hearts. Five families from church offered for us to park the trailer on their properties, including someone who lives in town, who said it would be less than ideal for us to live on his driveway, but more ideal for them than us moving away.
We were so encouraged by the amount of people we had rallying in prayer for us.
And all the while we were praying too. Trusting the Lord that he had a good plan for us that would all make sense eventually. Resting in peace in that plan. It was a roller coaster for sure, but we submitted to God's leading. While Coaldale seemed like an obvious answer to us, once we discussed it with more and more people it seemed much less like the right choice.
We had had a few times people ask us during the Spring how we were handling all the 'not knowing'. And our answer was/is that the years leading up to our move to Prince George had already been tumultuous and had taught us so plainly that while we make our own plans, at the end of the day it is the Lord who guides us in the way He will have us go. After some months/years of trying to push through, now we know, while we would love to have a plan and know what is happening, we know that the right thing will work out at the right time.
So with our community encouraging and praying for us, we were praying for the Lord to reveal His plan and help us to see it.
And He did.
In His way, in His timing, and thankfully it was very quick and clear. Because as sinful people I'm sometimes unsure if we are going to see it.
The church in PG needed us but we felt stuck on the housing front. The church in Coaldale did not need us but was an easy answer on the housing front, and for work, and family. As I noted in Part 1, moving Coaldale made the most sense.
But the Church was praying for us and they moved mountains.
Will and I can only describe it as a miracle.
Our eviction came on a Tuesday, all the praying that I mentioned above happened in the week following, and the next week Wednesday (eight days after the eviction) Will received the largest raise he's ever had, and completely unexpected. It just showed up on his paycheck.
We were mindblown.
We felt very clearly that God wanted us to stay in Prince George.
On Saturday we talked with a realtor in Coaldale about listing our house and he was confident we could sell it for much more than it was priced at in the spring of 2024.
The following Monday (Week 3) we got to work with our mortgage broker to find out our pre-approval for a mortgage now with Will's new wage and working towards listing our house.
We updated everyone praying for us to let them know that their prayers for us were being answered and we continued to appreciate them.
By the end of the day on Monday we were pre-approved for 525k which opened up way more options for us compared to our previous budget of 350k! With the excitement of a larger budget we were very curious to wait and see which home God had planned for us. We were in awe of how things changed for us in just a few days.
We found ourselves a new realtor in PG (now our fourth one to try out. If you need a realtor, let us know! Garnet, Denise, and Bob do not receive our recommendation, but Shawn has been amazing to work with!) and booked a showing at the 70 acres we had tried to buy in 2024. The property was still for sale and had came down in price a lot in the year and a half it had been listed.
While the houses (there are two on this property) are far from our ideal dream home, it was something that was on the market that checked most of our boxes, and feeling now this pressure to buy something, we donned our 'everything is figure-outable' attitudes and went to go check it out.
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We took the kids all along and had such a lovely time walking the property and dreaming together in the quiet of the forest. The kids picked wild flowers growing along the road and we spotted a snake. Actually, we even found a frog inside one of the houses which William let outside and we all thought that was pretty silly. We loved the property just as much as we did the year before and really felt like it was still for sale waiting for us.
Unfortunately our mortgage broker was unable to get us financing for the property and so (with his blessing) we switched to RBC. Will's old co-worker's wife is a mortgage specialist and we are so grateful to her for all the work she put into getting financing sorted out for us.
The next week Tuesday (so we're now into Week 4) our Coaldale house hit the market in the evening and was sold by Thursday morning. Then we put an offer on the 70 acres. And it was accepted!!!
Our attempted purchase the year before was very stressful and this time was not like that at all. Every thing was very calm and all the pieces kept falling into place with ease.
A small hiccup that came our way was when the home inspection for the sale of our Coaldale house came back there was found to be some deterioration in the foundation which caused their offer to be lowered. We had been approved for our mortgage with the higher price so had to borrow some money to make up the difference. But once we had that sorted out we were good to go!
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