On Thursday this week, I was itching to get me and Jordan out of the house! We have been staying home a lot so I can keep unpacking and getting us settled in our new house. I couldn't find anything to do except a story time in Palm Beach. I had never heard of this place before. It was called "The 4 Arts of Palm Beach". I kept going back and forth over whether to take him or not, but there was nothing else for us to do! So I finally said we'll go check it out, and I am SO glad we did!!! Mom's of Palm Beach County, this was such a gem that I found!! It was in a beautiful garden with the most exotic flowers. They were absolutely gorgeous! Huge trees everywhere. Then, a beautiful open grass area for the kids to run around. They read 3 books with songs in between. They were garden themed books. One was super cute about a little plant that was too shy to come out of his pot. Once all the kids yelled "Please come out!" the little plant peeps out with her blooming flower petals. (Sorry I didn't catch the name or Author!) They had a beautiful pavilion where the kids did a cute craft in the shade. Which was nice, because it was really hot! They gave free planting kits. One was a fruit kit with watermelon seeds and the other was cantaloupe. They also gave away a taco planting kit, where you had everything you needed for tacos. Green peppers, tomatoes and fun stuff like that! At the end, they had a map of the garden and a little scavenger hunt for certain plants and trees in the garden. Once you found the plant or tree, the kids got stickers. For Jordan, it was more like finding the volunteer with the stickers, and then they would show you a cool plant! Haha Either way, we had such a great time and I couldn't wait to go back! Until I found that they only do Story Time in the Garden every other year!! I was so sad! We will be making plans to go to regular story times at the Palm Beach library, which are Mondays and Thursdays at 10:30. But if I could make a suggestion to that board of volunteers at the garden, I would love to do it more often! It was so exciting! Hope you enjoy the pictures! P.S. I'm not a photographer! Hehe This is one of my favorites! Jordan and "Ice, Ice, Iceburg" haha Jordan and the carrot Showing off his finished craft. This plant was called a "Lobster Claw". Getting his stickers. He started putting them on his face instead of his paper. Me and my boy! Craft Time! I wish I would've taken a picture of the pavilion we were on. It was so pretty.
0 Comments
72 degrees on a beautiful Wednesday morning. Sitting at a local breakfast place and overwhelmed at God's faithfulness. We have just went through one of the craziest transitions for our family. Literally, walking by faith and just listening to God's direction. Our pastors always say that God speaks to you similar to how your headlights work at night. You can't see the whole road in front of you. The light doesn't go all the way to the next block, but it does go a few feet in front of you, and as you move the light moves. You can see directly what's in front of you, but nothing further. That is definitely how God has been working in our lives! Some of you know our story of the last 6 months, some of you know the short version, some of you just know we're back in West Palm Beach, but I wanted to really speak to how faithful God has been to us. Although it has been so scary and uncomfortable at times to follow God's leading, it has been such an amazing thing to see God's hand on our lives through this time.
December 31st was the end of our lease in St. Louis, Missouri. We loved St. Louis! We lived in the county, a little outside the city for our first year there, but once our lease was up, we wanted to move closer to the city. We've also moved A LOT in the last 6 years and I was ready to feel a little more settled. I wanted to rent a house for a year or two until we were able to buy our own home in St. Louis. I started looking for houses in November, just before Thanksgiving. 6 weeks would be plenty of time to find a place, or at least that's what I thought! Every time I thought we found the place for us, the door would slam in our face. Time after time the door was shut in our face for one reason or another. At this point December 31st had already come and while everyone was ringing in the new year, we were moving out of our town home into a bachelor pad's basement. I remember waking up that morning on December 31st. I didn't want to get out of bed. I had so much faith in God that He was going to get us a place before that day came. We had worked so hard trying to find a new place. I knew every post on Trulia, Zillow and Craigslist. I could show you the disgusting houses that we had already seen, I could show you the scam listings on Craigslist. It was my job to find us a home, and I couldn't. But it was more frustrating to understand why God didn't open the door. They say a gentleman always opens a door, but the side I was seeing was just a "slamming the door shut" kind of God. The Bible says in Matthew 9:29 "According to your faith, be it done to you." I just couldn't understand if my faith could believe that He could find a place for us, why didn't it happen?!?! It was during the stay at the "bachelor pad" that we got a phone call from our pastors. Asking us if we had ever thought of moving back to West Palm and if we would pray about the decision. Pierre clearly heard God telling us to move back. I remember Pierre saying "Here's your open door!" and I had tears streaming down my face, because we had prayed for so many open doors, and now the one that was open wasn't the one I wanted. We had jumped in head first in St. Louis. As a wife of someone on staff, I didn't sit at home for a year with our son to see if Pierre's job was going to "work out". We knew God had called us there and we knew we were exactly where we were supposed to be. We made amazing friends, loved the people of all 3 campuses in St. Louis and Jordan had friends and lots of babysitters that loved him. And now God was telling us to leave everything that had finally become comfortable, again, and move across the country, again. I don't know why God didn't tell us earlier. It would've been so much easier to give us a heads up at least! We could've put more stuff in our suitcase than just the 2 weeks of clothes we had, that ended up lasting us 3 1/2 months. I would've loved to have pulled out some summer clothes, rather than move to Florida with all winter sweaters and coats. But I also know that experiencing Him closing all those doors, gave me more peace and understanding knowing that Florida was what He was calling us to. The desire I had to not move any more, to be more stable, was challenged with moving 4 times in 4 months. Even after all of that though, God has given us such grace and peace through it all. Jordan has been so well behaved through every move, an 18 hour drive that got ruined by me getting the stomach flu, and through sleeping in a play pen for 4 months. God has made every place we've stayed so wonderful. I even missed the "bachelor pad" a little after we left. Last night we had our first dinner in our new home. A beautiful townhouse. I am so overwhelmed that God has carried us through this journey. It hasn't been easy, and there were times we really questioned what the heck we were doing, and I'm sure everyone has experienced that feeling at some point. Where you want to look up at God and say "Where in the world are we going?!" "Do you know what you're doing up there?!" "Is there a point to any of this?!" Yes. Yes. Yes. He does. To all of those questions I yelled at God, and had to ask for forgiveness because my attitude was out of control. But now feeling the peace I feel in West Palm Beach, I know it was all for a reason. I just had to trust that He knew what He was doing. So I just want to encourage anyone who doesn't know what's going on with their life. Who's questioning why doors are closing in their face. Doors that they REALLY wanted to open and had prayed for and cried for, yet they still closed. God always has a bigger plan, but just like the headlights, He can't show us the whole thing. He shows us step by step. West Palm Beach is home again, and we're excited about it. Excited for the campus that Faith Church has down here. Excited for the friends that are here and family that we have close again. But a part of our hearts are always in St. Louis and we miss the people there so much! We're excited to see all what God has for us here in Florida. So here's to new beginnings, again. |
AuthorSharing stories of motherhood, wife-life and trying to be the best woman I can be for my family and a Savior that loves me. Archives
May 2018
Categories |