From Disappointment to Wonder

I started writing this post way back in February, and as we’re long overdue a blogpost I’m going to start with what I wrote back then…

“The last couple of months have been challenging. Exhausting and challenging. And at times we wondered whether we’d come out of the battle in one piece. Thankfully we have, and with rejoicing. We serve a good God.

At the beginning of the year, in the midst of great struggle, the scripture that kept coming to me was Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”  That, coupled with a song we often sing, “Way Maker”

We knew in late September that we would be moving house in December, so we prayed, looked and waited, prayed, looked and waited…and prayed some more. Nothing seemed to be coming through. We had seen God provide miraculously with first house we’d been in and we had faith to see Him move again. But in the end it seemed like it was our ‘last resort’, and the only option available, that we ended up moving into… a week delayed, meaning that we moved just a few days before Christmas.

I felt bitterly disappointed and pretty much everything about the house grated on us. It was smaller, on three levels, and you could barely fit more than one person in the kitchen. The stairs to the attic creaked so badly that the girls would wake up when we went up or down. I felt like we’d missed something – missed God’s plan or timing and relied on our human wisdom to end up in this place.  The only positive we could see was that we were walking distance to the girls school and to church.

Little did we know how much of a blessing that would be when the girls went back to school in January. Or should have done. Ruth had had a virus a few days before, then the night before the girls should have gone back, all of the girls got a vomiting bug. We’ve never had all of them sick at once before…I won’t go into details but we did see the humorous side as we dashed from bed to bed catching vomit in buckets, cleaning, sanitizing and then repeating. It truly was exhausting. And whilst the older two bounced back fairly quickly, Katherine ended up in hospital for a week with pneumonia.”

Five months on from the stressful start to the year we see God’s hand all over our move and in the months since. Once we had clear confirmation from the Lord that this was indeed the house He had chosen for us (towards the end of January), no matter how ordinary a process it was for us to get it, we were able to settle and unpack. There are still some thing about the house that are challenging, but the good far outweighs the bad!  Even during Katherine’s hospitalization we knew that if we had been in our old house it would have been so much more difficult for William to get the girls to school and for him to get to work. We have a purpose in being here and whilst we don’t fully know what that is yet, God has opened doors with neighbors up and down the road – there is such a wonderful sense of community here that was entirely lacking in our first road – so we are praying expectantly. I’ll write another post soon (hopefully!) with the details of some of the amazing blessings we’ve seen since we moved – if I write them here it will be way too long!

We’re in the 10th week of the girls being off school and the country being in lockdown now, and whilst some restrictions have eased, it hasn’t meant much change for us…except for the hopeful expectation that Audrey & Katherine will return to school next week (which is actually pretty massive!)    Although it’s been another exhausting season, juggling homeschooling and day to day life with pretty much no respite from the girls, we see the many blessings of this season too. It’s been good to be together and not have the pressure of having to be anywhere on any day at a certain time. And God has blessed us with 10 weeks of glorious weather – it’s literally only rained 2 or 3 days in 10 weeks, which is supernatural for England!! Obviously for many the experience of this season has been entirely different, and we hold that in our hearts too.

I’m going to end this post here with a few photos from the first half of this year. The girls are growing fast and are still enjoying England (and the long break from school)! Much love to you all!