Part Two

So on New Year's Day, we flew back to Colorado, this time with the girls and this time with the intent of seeing if we could live here. Was this really God opening a door, or was this just us sensationalizing a week together?

Throughout the week, we both felt more and more like this was something God was offering to us. Not necessarily telling us to do, but offering that if we would trust Him, He'd have something great for us.(This song kept playing over and over in my head.) The process began with Matt looking for work.  He began calling Keller Williams offices from Colorado Springs up to Denver, and a call to the office in Highlands Ranch--the town where I have 3 college friends living--opened up more doors. A great group of Christian leaders were looking for another leader in their office, "I know this sounds crazy, but you were just the person we were praying for to fit into our office." Not sounding so crazy now....

From January to April, we were riding an emotional roller coaster. The excitement of the move was starting to wane as the realities of the move set in. How would we get our aging dog to make the move? Where would we live? What about Matt's business here? We were finally starting to make some great friends, was God really asking us to leave them?  As I studied the book of Genesis through BSF (bible study fellowship), story after story of picking up and leaving everything to follow God gave us confidence in what we were to do. God was being specific and speaking gently to us through the stories of Abraham, encouraging us to lean on Him and begin again in Colorado.

In April, our family dog of the past 13 years grew sick and we were faced with the painful decision to have him put down. We had kinda been hoping for this, knowing he would not be able to make the move but I'm not sure any of us were prepared for how hard that would be and how much that would affect us. But God was ready to bring us some joy.

We had recently studied the story of  Abraham's servant going to the well and praying specifically for God to show him the girl Issac was to marry (Genesis 24).  So we decided to pray specifically about the house we would rent.We prayed for a house in a great family neighborhood, in a location that would back to open space, that we'd be able to walk Reese to school, and be close to the community centers and parks. We prayed we'd have a big enough house that we could host friends and guests. We got specific.

That day after Seb died, with us feeling the pain, God made that house come available. I told Matt a house just showed up in the Ken Caryl area of Littleton, and it looked perfect. Matt called, left a message, and went to work.  The homeowner called back, said that 6 others were lined up to see it the next day, and asked if we could come. Matt was set to fly out on Tuesday (it was currently a Friday), so we couldn't, and he said it'd most likely be gone by Tuesday.

A few minutes later he called back, saying another out of state renter had offered to put down a deposit sight unseen, and he wanted to give me that opportunity. No thanks. Sounded like a scam. He encouraged Matt to look at his LinkedIn profile to assure us he was legitimate. Matt did, and was surprised to see he too was a Westmont graduate. A little more conversation and we discovered he works for the same company all our insurance is through. He also used to pastor with the man whom had counseled us back in November. My friend Janay graciously offered to go check out the home for us and take some more photos, and with her approval we agreed we'd move forward and commit sight unseen.

We applied, knowing that a commissioned real estate broker who didn't know a soul in Colorado probably wasn't the best looking tenant on paper. But we kept praying, and kept being specific. That Sunday, as we were preparing to teach Sunday school, the owner called, said he and his wife believed God wanted us to have this house!  We were so grateful and did a happy dance or two.....until we remembered we also needed to rent out our house........conclusion to come tomorrow.....if you are still interested. :)