From Nebraska to Utah
In December 2017, my husband David had a strong feeling in his heart that he would lose his job within a year. After talking about it, we decided that I should really get my career as a holistic wellness coach off the ground, and within a few months, I went through a couple certification programs and then became a practitioner at a healing center in Omaha.
Then in about December, my husband came home from a church errand and told me that he received further wisdom from God about the previous impression. He said that he wasn't going to be laid off, like he thought, but that God wanted us to move to Utah in May/June, which was that 1 year timeframe. When he said that, I felt something undeniable. It was like a spiritual bolt of lightning, for lack of a better term, run through by body. That spiritual bolt of lightning was like my "burning bush", per se (Moses reference).
You see, as much as I enjoyed the occasional visit to Utah growing up, and the reunions and neat functions there, I had basically told myself that I'd never live in Utah. My husband felt the same way. But...God's ways are not always what we have in mind. So God knew that I would need a burning bush, and that's what the bolt of spiritual lightning was. In that moment that I felt it, I also felt that God did not want me to doubt, but that I needed to believe.
The next morning, in my own scripture study and meditation, God told me that it was true, again, and also that I needed to be a support to my husband, be there emotionally for my girls, move forward with faith, and temporarily pause my career. He told me February would be my last month at the healing center.
So I went about, little inspiration at a time, to making my career virtual, with video content, and followed as best as I could, the wisdom God was sending. I ended my time at the center in February, and took a lot of time to spend with the girls, check things off our bucket list, get rid of clutter and things we didn't need to have when we moved.
In the meantime, my husband worked on his resume and began looking for a job in Utah, because hey, we can't have a house out there without a source of income! So David applied to dozens of places, had two interviews that didn't go anywhere, and by the end of March, we, and especially David, was panicked when we were down to a month or two from our moving timeline God gave us!
We prayed and prayed for a job to open up, so that we *could* make the move. In that time of fervent prayer, David had a vivid dream.
In the dream, he dreamed that he was crossing a bridge over a river at least a mile wide, underneath, upside down carrying a laptop. I was with him, in front, as well as someone else who was carrying the laptop charger, behind. We got to a point on the bridge that required a jump. There was no other way to get over. The person with the laptop charger decided to turn back. David looked back and saw he had disappeared, as if he had fallen into the water below. We knew that we needed to jump with both hands, so he threw the laptop onto the bank, hoping it would make it safely across and undamaged, it slid a bit but stopped on the grass, clearly unhurt. I knew that David had to go first. I told him that he “needed to jump like a Jedi,” knowing full well he was behind. He jumped and made it landing a little away from the laptop. I jumped and he caught hold of me on the other side.
At the time, we speculated what the meaning of the dream could be. We knew that the laptop likely meant something to do with my husband's career, and losing the job support or backup (losing the charger), and something about him going first (to Utah?)
By the end of March, when we still didn't have a Utah job lined up, we were praying with much intensity and anxiety. We'd been working with a realtor, and had the idea to list our home on the market April 19th (that just "felt right"), even though we still had no job and no house on the other end. The end of March and beginning of April, there was a General Conference for our church, and we prayed that during the conference, that God would inspire us to know what to do. At the end of the conference, my husband, with weariness and somewhat shortness of breath, showed me in his notes the message he received from God. The message was that he would need to put in his 30 days’ notice BEFORE we would know more information about his Utah job. My husband then said, "I am fixing up my home to sell, so I can be homeless and jobless. *sigh*" Needless to say, our anxiety increased from knowing that, but a sense of peace came that at least God was aware of our situation and that He is in the details of our lives. So on April 15th, David nervously talked to his boss about leaving Mutual of Omaha. She was sad but understanding.
We continued to pray fervently for more answers. Exactly one week after he put in his notice, his boss talked to him again. She told him she didn't want to lose him at this crucial time in the company's progress, and asked him if he'd consider working remotely for up to 6 months during the move and while in Utah. When I got the phone call from David, I was overwhelmed with the miracle that God had just sent us! Peace and joy washed over me, followed by a deep sense of gratitude and trust in God. Needless to say, David accepted the offer, and we moved forward with renewed energy and gratitude.
April 19th, we put our home on the market, and 36 hours later, the evening of the 20th, we accepted an offer on our home (miracle!). Not only did the buyer offer exactly the price we listed, but also offered to pay the closing costs (another miracle!). Trust me, the few days we had to clean our home and keep it insanely clean with kids running around was the most difficult part of moving, in my opinion. Fortunately I only had to for photos to be taken, a pre-listing walkthrough, the couple days on the market, and then the 2nd walkthrough of the buyer. 5 times! Those 5 times felt like torture, but God heard our prayers, and gave us a quick sale. God is SO good! Can I say that enough?
Previous to receiving the offer to work remotely, we were deciding that David would end work before Mother's Day, and then leave the following weekend, May 19th, to head to Utah and look for a home. We had been looking casually at homes online, and felt good about looking in the Riverton, UT area. David felt like eventually he'd end up working for the church, and the office buildings for technology are there. He had applied at jobs there, but, as I mentioned, they hadn't evolved to anything. After receiving the invitation to work remotely, we felt like we should still look for a home in Riverton, despite not yet having a job there.
Looking at homes, we saved ones we liked, knowing they probably wouldn't be around by the time we got there. In one of my meditations, God impressed upon my mind that I would not get to choose our home. God had the home picked out, and would show David within an hour of him seeing it. At first, I was a little taken back, because I knew what type of home I wanted and had been dreaming about our future home since December when we found out we were going. But then I came to terms with the idea that if God Himself was picking out our home, it would be the perfect home for us. So I tried to stop worrying about David choosing a house I wouldn't like, because God was choosing.
The plan we laid out was that David would go to Utah on the 19th, and the rest of us would follow on the 26th, once our oldest daughter ended school. Upon his own meditation, God told David he needed to come back and move with us. So we decided he'd go out the 19th with our car filled with some things that couldn't go in a moving pod, spend the week finding our home, staying with a good friend, and then fly home the 25th, spend Memorial Day with us and my family, and then leave the following weekend, June 2nd.
The time came for David to head out to Utah, and I came down with an ear infection right before he left. I asked for a priesthood blessing before he left, and in the blessing God told me, among other things, that I should not worry about how we'd be able to afford our future home. That was an interesting, considering I knew that if God was picking out our home, of course He'd make a way for us to afford it.
David left the 19th, spent the night in Colorado with his parents, traveled to Utah on the 20th, and got situated at our friend's house. All day the 21st he looked at homes. There was one home that especially stood out to him in person, and me looking at the online photos while he was looking at the home. Neither of us liked the price tag, but there were several reasons we thought maybe this was the home God had in mind. One of the reasons that came to my mind was the address of the house. In the address was the word "Rose". That is a name I've always loved since childhood, and a name my daughters started using as a favorite word, without any prompting from me. I never told them until after they named their playhouse "The Rose House", that I told them I also liked that name as a child. The Rose House is the house that my husband had built for them just over a year ago. Now we had sold our home in Omaha, with the Rose House...was God giving us a larger "Rose" house, with roses in front of them, on a "Rose" street?
The second thing that tipped me off was that everything we wanted, the house had, including garden beds. Not only that, but it appeared the house needed no major work or foundation issues. It was move in ready, in mint condition. Since prices out in Utah are already twice the price they are in Omaha, the fact that the house didn't need any work was also very appealing.
The third thing was that roses remind me of God and His love, and the word "Crown" was also in the name-- a perfect name for my little princesses.
So we put in an offer on Monday the 21st. Tuesday they counter-offered, and then we counter-offered. By Wednesday, they didn't accept our counter offer, so we walked away. During that time, God told David that He would give him that house- so it IS the one! So that prompting held David through the additional house hunting on Wednesday, and Thursday, before they called the realtor back Thursday evening, and changed their mind and accepted our offer! Miracle! God is so good, and He has obviously been in each of the details.
Since the person buying our home wanted to close on June 6th, we needed to be out by then, and the Utah home looked like we might be able to close June 21st, or sooner, since he's a Mutual of Omaha employee and so therefore gets special treatment (Miracle!) So the next plan was for a moving P.O.D. to be delivered May 25th, and be picked up June 2nd when we left, taken to Utah and held in the P.O.D. storage, and then whenever we could move in to our Utah home, have it delivered. We'd spend the in-between time halfway to Utah in Colorado, with David's parents.
David came home the 25th, we had the moving P.O.D. delivered the 25th, and members of our congregation helped us move our heavy piano and other furniture inside. The rest of the week we kept moving things into our P.O.D., and cleaning the house, until June 2nd, when we were out the door by 8am, the house cleaned and emptied, and everything barely fitting into the van and pod (seriously a miracle given the amount we had to pack in there!).
We spent the next week in Colorado at David's parents' home while the buyer closed on our Omaha home on June 6th. June 6th came and went, and we were still being notified that things weren't being turned in on time on that end. It gave us frustration, because we couldn't close on our Utah home until after we got the funds from selling our old home, meaning the buyer needed to close on it. The days dragged on, and we found ourselves wondering why things just weren't lining up, and why those on the buyer's end (buyer, lender, and realtor), weren't taking it seriously. After June 6th, it would be too late to "back out of the contract" without losing money, if the buyer pulled out, so that was a stressful decision to make, staking thousands of dollars on the idea that the buyer was still going to pull through, even after all the delays. Talk about stressful! We were trying to be grateful that at least the buyer was serious (hopefully!) about the house and wasn't going to back out. Over a week after the original closing date, we finally managed to get word that the buyer had plans to close on the house on June 18th, and we scheduled our closing appointment on our Utah home on June 19st at 4pm, with the hopes and faith in God that the buyer would indeed have everything needed and would close on the 19th. We spent over 2 full weeks at David's parents' home instead of the 10 days we were hoping, but we were so grateful not to be "homeless" completely...just kind of. In our moments of putting all our trust in God, He did validate us, giving us messages and encouragement here and there that everything would work out in His timing and that things would go through this time. He gave us assurances, promises, and encouragement.
Finally, on June 19th, we made the trip from Fort Collins to Herriman, Utah. We took a tour through the home in the afternoon, and a couple hours later, signed the papers. Unfortunately, Utah has a law where you can't move in until 24 hours after you close on the house, so that was a bummer, and confusing for the girls, but we stayed at a family friend's home that evening. Tuesday evening, while shopping for furniture, we got word that we could move in. We made it "home" as fast as we could, and the girls could not have been happier to play in the cupboards, cabinets, entertainment centers, go outside and eat strawberries, and they were so happy.
Our P.O.D. could not be delivered until Friday the 22nd, so we spent the first few days sleeping on sleeping bags, cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms, getting food, and buying and assembling furniture for the girls' rooms. We also bought a washer and drier.
Friday our P.O.D. arrived, and we began setting up the kitchen and some of our basic things, like our bed! By this point, our girls all had their beds purchased and set up.
Being in Herriman, Utah still doesn't feel like being in Utah. I am used to Provo, Orem, Salt Lake, and also southern Utah. Herriman is a place I've never been, and so it feels like we were just placed in the desert and God is telling us to thrive. It's odd having to discover new grocery stores, clothing stores, etc. with no familiar friends close by to show me around or give me tips on navigating and making Herriman my new home. It's weird "shopping around" for shopping places. Our church congregation is really sweet, and helped up move our heavy furniture in on Saturday the 23rd.
So we've had a successful move, complete with a very significant amount of trust in God, patience, being in limbo, and many discomforts and inconveniences along the way. It's nice to have a home, or nest, at least. God has pulled us through, and we've been blessed much along the way. We are still counting on the promises He has given us when we felt like we weren't sure we could do this, and God promised us great and significant blessings. We do have a beautiful home up close to the mountains, and there's much to be grateful for. We are happy the move happened, and we all arrived still in pretty good shape. We are so grateful for God's goodness, and look forward to many wonderful things in a new land!
You see, as much as I enjoyed the occasional visit to Utah growing up, and the reunions and neat functions there, I had basically told myself that I'd never live in Utah. My husband felt the same way. But...God's ways are not always what we have in mind. So God knew that I would need a burning bush, and that's what the bolt of spiritual lightning was. In that moment that I felt it, I also felt that God did not want me to doubt, but that I needed to believe.
The next morning, in my own scripture study and meditation, God told me that it was true, again, and also that I needed to be a support to my husband, be there emotionally for my girls, move forward with faith, and temporarily pause my career. He told me February would be my last month at the healing center.
So I went about, little inspiration at a time, to making my career virtual, with video content, and followed as best as I could, the wisdom God was sending. I ended my time at the center in February, and took a lot of time to spend with the girls, check things off our bucket list, get rid of clutter and things we didn't need to have when we moved.
In the meantime, my husband worked on his resume and began looking for a job in Utah, because hey, we can't have a house out there without a source of income! So David applied to dozens of places, had two interviews that didn't go anywhere, and by the end of March, we, and especially David, was panicked when we were down to a month or two from our moving timeline God gave us!
We prayed and prayed for a job to open up, so that we *could* make the move. In that time of fervent prayer, David had a vivid dream.
In the dream, he dreamed that he was crossing a bridge over a river at least a mile wide, underneath, upside down carrying a laptop. I was with him, in front, as well as someone else who was carrying the laptop charger, behind. We got to a point on the bridge that required a jump. There was no other way to get over. The person with the laptop charger decided to turn back. David looked back and saw he had disappeared, as if he had fallen into the water below. We knew that we needed to jump with both hands, so he threw the laptop onto the bank, hoping it would make it safely across and undamaged, it slid a bit but stopped on the grass, clearly unhurt. I knew that David had to go first. I told him that he “needed to jump like a Jedi,” knowing full well he was behind. He jumped and made it landing a little away from the laptop. I jumped and he caught hold of me on the other side.
At the time, we speculated what the meaning of the dream could be. We knew that the laptop likely meant something to do with my husband's career, and losing the job support or backup (losing the charger), and something about him going first (to Utah?)
By the end of March, when we still didn't have a Utah job lined up, we were praying with much intensity and anxiety. We'd been working with a realtor, and had the idea to list our home on the market April 19th (that just "felt right"), even though we still had no job and no house on the other end. The end of March and beginning of April, there was a General Conference for our church, and we prayed that during the conference, that God would inspire us to know what to do. At the end of the conference, my husband, with weariness and somewhat shortness of breath, showed me in his notes the message he received from God. The message was that he would need to put in his 30 days’ notice BEFORE we would know more information about his Utah job. My husband then said, "I am fixing up my home to sell, so I can be homeless and jobless. *sigh*" Needless to say, our anxiety increased from knowing that, but a sense of peace came that at least God was aware of our situation and that He is in the details of our lives. So on April 15th, David nervously talked to his boss about leaving Mutual of Omaha. She was sad but understanding.
We continued to pray fervently for more answers. Exactly one week after he put in his notice, his boss talked to him again. She told him she didn't want to lose him at this crucial time in the company's progress, and asked him if he'd consider working remotely for up to 6 months during the move and while in Utah. When I got the phone call from David, I was overwhelmed with the miracle that God had just sent us! Peace and joy washed over me, followed by a deep sense of gratitude and trust in God. Needless to say, David accepted the offer, and we moved forward with renewed energy and gratitude.
April 19th, we put our home on the market, and 36 hours later, the evening of the 20th, we accepted an offer on our home (miracle!). Not only did the buyer offer exactly the price we listed, but also offered to pay the closing costs (another miracle!). Trust me, the few days we had to clean our home and keep it insanely clean with kids running around was the most difficult part of moving, in my opinion. Fortunately I only had to for photos to be taken, a pre-listing walkthrough, the couple days on the market, and then the 2nd walkthrough of the buyer. 5 times! Those 5 times felt like torture, but God heard our prayers, and gave us a quick sale. God is SO good! Can I say that enough?
Previous to receiving the offer to work remotely, we were deciding that David would end work before Mother's Day, and then leave the following weekend, May 19th, to head to Utah and look for a home. We had been looking casually at homes online, and felt good about looking in the Riverton, UT area. David felt like eventually he'd end up working for the church, and the office buildings for technology are there. He had applied at jobs there, but, as I mentioned, they hadn't evolved to anything. After receiving the invitation to work remotely, we felt like we should still look for a home in Riverton, despite not yet having a job there.
Looking at homes, we saved ones we liked, knowing they probably wouldn't be around by the time we got there. In one of my meditations, God impressed upon my mind that I would not get to choose our home. God had the home picked out, and would show David within an hour of him seeing it. At first, I was a little taken back, because I knew what type of home I wanted and had been dreaming about our future home since December when we found out we were going. But then I came to terms with the idea that if God Himself was picking out our home, it would be the perfect home for us. So I tried to stop worrying about David choosing a house I wouldn't like, because God was choosing.
The plan we laid out was that David would go to Utah on the 19th, and the rest of us would follow on the 26th, once our oldest daughter ended school. Upon his own meditation, God told David he needed to come back and move with us. So we decided he'd go out the 19th with our car filled with some things that couldn't go in a moving pod, spend the week finding our home, staying with a good friend, and then fly home the 25th, spend Memorial Day with us and my family, and then leave the following weekend, June 2nd.
The time came for David to head out to Utah, and I came down with an ear infection right before he left. I asked for a priesthood blessing before he left, and in the blessing God told me, among other things, that I should not worry about how we'd be able to afford our future home. That was an interesting, considering I knew that if God was picking out our home, of course He'd make a way for us to afford it.
David left the 19th, spent the night in Colorado with his parents, traveled to Utah on the 20th, and got situated at our friend's house. All day the 21st he looked at homes. There was one home that especially stood out to him in person, and me looking at the online photos while he was looking at the home. Neither of us liked the price tag, but there were several reasons we thought maybe this was the home God had in mind. One of the reasons that came to my mind was the address of the house. In the address was the word "Rose". That is a name I've always loved since childhood, and a name my daughters started using as a favorite word, without any prompting from me. I never told them until after they named their playhouse "The Rose House", that I told them I also liked that name as a child. The Rose House is the house that my husband had built for them just over a year ago. Now we had sold our home in Omaha, with the Rose House...was God giving us a larger "Rose" house, with roses in front of them, on a "Rose" street?
The second thing that tipped me off was that everything we wanted, the house had, including garden beds. Not only that, but it appeared the house needed no major work or foundation issues. It was move in ready, in mint condition. Since prices out in Utah are already twice the price they are in Omaha, the fact that the house didn't need any work was also very appealing.
The third thing was that roses remind me of God and His love, and the word "Crown" was also in the name-- a perfect name for my little princesses.
So we put in an offer on Monday the 21st. Tuesday they counter-offered, and then we counter-offered. By Wednesday, they didn't accept our counter offer, so we walked away. During that time, God told David that He would give him that house- so it IS the one! So that prompting held David through the additional house hunting on Wednesday, and Thursday, before they called the realtor back Thursday evening, and changed their mind and accepted our offer! Miracle! God is so good, and He has obviously been in each of the details.
Since the person buying our home wanted to close on June 6th, we needed to be out by then, and the Utah home looked like we might be able to close June 21st, or sooner, since he's a Mutual of Omaha employee and so therefore gets special treatment (Miracle!) So the next plan was for a moving P.O.D. to be delivered May 25th, and be picked up June 2nd when we left, taken to Utah and held in the P.O.D. storage, and then whenever we could move in to our Utah home, have it delivered. We'd spend the in-between time halfway to Utah in Colorado, with David's parents.
David came home the 25th, we had the moving P.O.D. delivered the 25th, and members of our congregation helped us move our heavy piano and other furniture inside. The rest of the week we kept moving things into our P.O.D., and cleaning the house, until June 2nd, when we were out the door by 8am, the house cleaned and emptied, and everything barely fitting into the van and pod (seriously a miracle given the amount we had to pack in there!).
We spent the next week in Colorado at David's parents' home while the buyer closed on our Omaha home on June 6th. June 6th came and went, and we were still being notified that things weren't being turned in on time on that end. It gave us frustration, because we couldn't close on our Utah home until after we got the funds from selling our old home, meaning the buyer needed to close on it. The days dragged on, and we found ourselves wondering why things just weren't lining up, and why those on the buyer's end (buyer, lender, and realtor), weren't taking it seriously. After June 6th, it would be too late to "back out of the contract" without losing money, if the buyer pulled out, so that was a stressful decision to make, staking thousands of dollars on the idea that the buyer was still going to pull through, even after all the delays. Talk about stressful! We were trying to be grateful that at least the buyer was serious (hopefully!) about the house and wasn't going to back out. Over a week after the original closing date, we finally managed to get word that the buyer had plans to close on the house on June 18th, and we scheduled our closing appointment on our Utah home on June 19st at 4pm, with the hopes and faith in God that the buyer would indeed have everything needed and would close on the 19th. We spent over 2 full weeks at David's parents' home instead of the 10 days we were hoping, but we were so grateful not to be "homeless" completely...just kind of. In our moments of putting all our trust in God, He did validate us, giving us messages and encouragement here and there that everything would work out in His timing and that things would go through this time. He gave us assurances, promises, and encouragement.
Finally, on June 19th, we made the trip from Fort Collins to Herriman, Utah. We took a tour through the home in the afternoon, and a couple hours later, signed the papers. Unfortunately, Utah has a law where you can't move in until 24 hours after you close on the house, so that was a bummer, and confusing for the girls, but we stayed at a family friend's home that evening. Tuesday evening, while shopping for furniture, we got word that we could move in. We made it "home" as fast as we could, and the girls could not have been happier to play in the cupboards, cabinets, entertainment centers, go outside and eat strawberries, and they were so happy.
Our P.O.D. could not be delivered until Friday the 22nd, so we spent the first few days sleeping on sleeping bags, cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms, getting food, and buying and assembling furniture for the girls' rooms. We also bought a washer and drier.
Friday our P.O.D. arrived, and we began setting up the kitchen and some of our basic things, like our bed! By this point, our girls all had their beds purchased and set up.
Being in Herriman, Utah still doesn't feel like being in Utah. I am used to Provo, Orem, Salt Lake, and also southern Utah. Herriman is a place I've never been, and so it feels like we were just placed in the desert and God is telling us to thrive. It's odd having to discover new grocery stores, clothing stores, etc. with no familiar friends close by to show me around or give me tips on navigating and making Herriman my new home. It's weird "shopping around" for shopping places. Our church congregation is really sweet, and helped up move our heavy furniture in on Saturday the 23rd.
So we've had a successful move, complete with a very significant amount of trust in God, patience, being in limbo, and many discomforts and inconveniences along the way. It's nice to have a home, or nest, at least. God has pulled us through, and we've been blessed much along the way. We are still counting on the promises He has given us when we felt like we weren't sure we could do this, and God promised us great and significant blessings. We do have a beautiful home up close to the mountains, and there's much to be grateful for. We are happy the move happened, and we all arrived still in pretty good shape. We are so grateful for God's goodness, and look forward to many wonderful things in a new land!
Comments
Post a Comment