Staying grounded.

Well our lease is about up, and all the expectations we had  have been thrown for a loop, lol.  That's life isn't it?

We have never changed our minds on getting back into the RV but God has made other plans for us, lol.

Have you ever felt like a sheep being herded?  Like each direction you wanted to take was cut off?  Or each direction you thought you were suppose to be headed in was blocked?  We've REALLY felt that way in the last few months, it was frustrating at moments, but more so exciting because we knew it was GOD guiding us the whole way through.

We've wanted to get back in the RV, but it turns out that's just an impossible goal with my dad living with us, which is rather indefinite at the moment - possibly permanent.  He's sometimes unstable on his feet and has falls occasionally after his stroke in January.  No big deal until you think about a grown man making a habit of falling on delicate RV walls, tables, chairs, etc...  So a few months ago we finally accepted we were gonna have to remain in a house.  Having dad with us is a huge blessing though, so it made the change in plans an easy one.

I was ready to continue to rent here at this house.  It's been a perfect location for so many of our families "special needs".

Without going into personal details of 2 of the members of our family and household on the world wide web, it has become more clear as time goes by what a necessity living away from town is when dealing with mental health issues.  Living so far out has helped in healing, even if it's only in small bits, instead of hindering healing.  I wish so much I could go into that further, but since those stories are not mine to tell I'll leave it at that.

Anyway, Marty really didn't want to stay here in the rental.  He wanted to go somewhere warmer.  Winters in Spirit Lake, ID are so similar to Alaskan winters, which is just what we moved out of Alaska to get away from, lol.  He really wanted to move to Florida.  So we began to look at finding a house down there.  But issues popped up with my dad again making that move impossible.  Another path blocked off by God.  I wasn't so bummed about this though - summers in Florida are a bit hot for my taste.

Soooo at that point I just wanted to stay put.  This rental is on ten acres in beautiful country and although winters kinda stink here, moving so many people in addition to the dog and 2 horses we now own wasn't sounding real fun to me.  Marty reluctantly agreed.  He didn't want to stay another winter here, but also wasn't ready to go looking for a rental in a warmer area or commit to buying a home either.  We just wanted to settle in, stay HERE and see what God had in store for our future when he was ready to reveal it.

It wasn't long, in fact a few weeks went by and we were notified the house we're living in was being put up for sale.  Ug.  Now we had to make a decision.  Stay and buy, or move...  And move where?  Buy or rent?

Marty didn't want to by this house - I was tempted because it's convenience but I didn't really wanna be stuck here for a few years - again, the winters are really what pushed us into looking elsewhere.

So after lots of praying we decided to look for a house in the Spokane, WA area or even in the Coeur D' Alene, ID area.  Both of those areas have very mild winters and are within an hour from us.  We decided we wanted a property with 10 acres (give or take an acre or two).  We found several properties that seemed like great fits, sometimes even perfect, but everytime we were ready to make an offer, even if it was a DAY after it went on the market, someone else beat us to it and had already locked the property down with an offer.  The first few times it happened I thought "well bummer, we'll get the next one."  But then it just continued on, every house getting taken off the market - fast enough to make our heads spin, I just knew God was blocking several more paths.

We were looking for a 4 or 5 bedroom house, with 10 acres - something private.  We really only need 4 bedrooms, but my dad needs his own living area, so he can get away from all of us and have some peace and quiet when he needs.  So either 5 bedrooms or 4 with a second living room.  We were hoping to find something set up for horses, but if not, Marty is fast at putting up fencing.  None of the places we were ready to make an offer on had any kind of horse set up, just the land to accommodation them.

So we were feeling very squeezed.  We're gonna have to move before winter, but there was no where to go, lol.  Not such a big deal for Marty and I.  Even the horses we could have found boarding for, but with the kids and dad, ug....  I was starting to feel quite a bit of pressure.  Which reminded me to rely on the Lord so much more.

Then by some fluke (I say that sarcastically - I'm certain God made this happen.) we were sent out another bunch of houses that were on the market.  It was from an automated search generator.  You put in your parameters, and it's all computerized and automatic from there.  It emails you when new houses come up within your search parameters.  It wasn't the only way we were searching for houses, just one.  Anyway it spit out a 3 bedroom house and emailed it to us.  Logically thinking, this made no sense - the computer shouldn't have sent us this one.  But looking at it, it seemed to have a large basement where we could possibly put up a 4th bedroom fast for my dad and still have a separate and second living area for him.  So we went to look at it.  When we got there we found that it had an office (with no closet) that wasn't listed in any of the ads or even on the realtors mls info.  How they forgot to mention this I don't know, but to me it was the 4th bedroom all ready to go!  We can add a closet later, or just put in a wardrobe or dresser and it's perfect for my dad.  I'm certain it hadn't been pounced on yet because that office wasn't listed, Praise GOD!!  It comes with 40 fenced acres, a great barn for horses and a garage my husband has always dreamed of.  There is an orchard with a variety of cherry trees, and apple tree, and a WRAP AROUND PORCH to LIVE MY DAYS out on!


This was taken when I first went out to see the house the first time.

I could go on and on and on about this house.  ON and ON.  It's truly more than we deserve. In short this was one of those moments God blocked our path at every turn, and saved the best for last.  What we thought would be perfect or fun or we could make due with - he said no to and gave us a gift far better than we had ever dreamed of.

Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you? ~ Luke 12:27-28

We're so excited and will be moving in, in just a few short days.  :D

Although I'm ready to go, I shall truly miss this house in Spirit Lake.  It has been just what we needed in so many ways.  Honestly I think of this house and the land like I do a dear friend who was there for us just when we needed it most, in all the ways we needed it.  God truly set this place a side for us when we were looking for a rental a year ago and we are so grateful.  We'll always look back on our time here warmly.

From Home to House.

I've been avoiding this post...





I'm not sure where to start, or even how much to say so I guess I'll just start here.


Welcome to our new temporary rental home.

Lovely isn't it?



It turns out we will be staying in the Spokane area over the winter so one of the boys can can get some medical attention.  Everyone is fine.  No death, cancer or anything like that.  Just some work in hopes of making life easier for one of the kids. 

We're really (REALLY) bummed to have to take a break from our traveling but feel VERY blessed to be able to travel right to where the best of medical specialist are.

So why have we rented a house?  We certainly didn't need to move out of the 5th wheel, it's perfect for us.  We think of it as our home.   The problem is that sometimes the close proximity of neighbors in an RV park can be difficult with a special needs child.  Nothing that's a really big deal, or anything we haven't been able to work around but since we're stuck here for such a spell we decided to look for something with more space and privacy - stretch out and make things easier because we can.

We had hoped to find some private property to park the 5th wheel on, but nothing was available like that.  So we moved on to rental properties and found this house just across the boarder from Spokane, on the western side of Idaho.  It's on a few acres, no neighbors around, a shop for Marty to tinker in, an extra room for me to craft in, hummingbirds visiting everyday, deer running through the back yard, coyotes  howling in the night and moles running amuck in the back yard - we're really enjoying it. Ok we could do without the moles, but then, they are kinda neat for us Alaskans.  Kinda.

We were picky about choosing a rental, and this place has everything we could ask for to help life run smooth while we're here.

We are not done with traveling, nor are we done with our 5th wheel.  We still plan to travel as much as possible on weekends and in between appointments.

-------------------------------------------

Our boys usually always call the 5th wheel just that, the 5th wheel.  But since we've moved out, they now call it "home".  They only refer to the rental as "the house".  Although we're in this house to make things easier for this temporary time in our lives, our hearts remain with the RV. 

As they should.  :D

Last Night at Burlwood

Tonight is the last night the boys and I will spend in our little house on Burlwood. Tomorrow at 2pm I sign closing papers and turn the keys over to the title company. What a weird thought. After living here for 7 years there is a part of my brain that is just certain this is all a joke, and we can't be really leaving lol. But, I am so excited and ready to hit the road. Although I can't make it happen any faster, I just can't wait to get into our 5th wheel where we will have beds, and a place to call home again. Even if the view does constantly change.

This little house was our first house, and although it was small, the 4.38 acres more than made up for 1100 sq ft of living space. When we moved in Marty cleared a huge back yard and once that was finished we were set. I will really miss the yard and land here, the house was great too but the yard was where our hearts were. One day I'll have to come back and drive by to see how big my lilacs, crabapple, elderberry, mayday, mountain ash and weeping birch trees have grown. I hope they survive the moose!

And tonight as my youngest was finishing his dinner our resident squirrel showed up to join him. The kids love that squirrel and all the little birds that come to the feeder on the front porch. It was perfect timing for them to see our squirrel one last time!

Off to bed I go to be ready for all the last cleaning I'll have to do in the morning!

The Plan Unfolds

As I touched on in a previous post, we finally got through repairs, renovations and the purging of all our things, and were able to put our house up for sale a few weeks ago. It's still hard for me to believe, but I’m happy to announce it sold very fast, and we are very happy with the price we got. I sign closing papers in just 7 days! Despite our strange and unconventional plans, we have felt God behind us every step of the way. I know some of you may still be wondering what the plan is! (keep reading!)

Marty had to fly back to work for his 2 week shift plus some extra weeks today, but will be meeting back up with the kids and I in a few weeks. The children, dog and I will leave Wasilla, Alaska on August 1st driving down to Washington where we'll spend a little time with friends and family, and then slowly meander on over to Idaho where we'll pick up our truck, and Marty will fly in to meet us from work. From there we'll drive over to Elkhart Indiana as a family and pick up the 5th wheel we recently purchased.

At this point our plan is to travel the U.S. for about a year before settling back down into a bigger house. Where we go and when, will not be planned very far ahead of time except Marty will be keeping his job working 2 weeks in Alaska, and having 2 weeks off (spent with us) each month. We’ll be purchasing his plane tickets close to a month ahead of time to keep the cost lower.

The house we're in at this moment is just too small to continue doing foster care, and is a bit cramped if it just remained the 4 of us! But even more, we just really want to spend some time in good weather, and enjoy our newly adopted boys (and each other!) before thinking about buying another house or doing foster care again. Our little boys lived with us for 2 years as foster children before we were able to adopt them, sometimes that timeline goes on much longer for other children. We LOVED doing foster care but it really ties you down - we would never take in a child with out being committed to seeing their case plan through. Travel is limited and your heart and time is committed to visits with the children’s family, social workers, and G.A.L’s, court dates along with keeping our training hours up and a huge unknown emotional roller coaster to put it very shortly, lol. So we figure a year vacation will be a great rejuvenater. From my count we've only had 8 sunny days this summer, so I am just biting at the bit to find the sun again!!

So for the next seven days the kids and I are living in a house almost completely empty, I just have a little cleaning to do, a lot of visiting to do, and even more praying on safe travels!

I’ll try and update later with some photos.