When Life Hits Hard, It Just Takes a Little Faith

I have a story to share on the greatness of God. The past 10 years have been full of some major life changes, big decisions, trauma, and absolute joy, and throughout all of it, God was right there. Never yielding, never leaving us to wonder. Just always right there reminding us we are not alone. It just takes a little faith.

We recently relocated across the United States without any family, no job, no house or land—just God’s calling. Before I share how amazing that has been, let me give you some of our backstory.

I grew up in a single-parent home from the age of 13. She did the best she could to provide for my brother and me. We moved a lot. I had moved seven times, I think before I was 18. I met my husband when I was 23 and we bought our first home before we married when I was 28. It was an exciting time to start my life with someone. Fast forward, we were blessed with twins, a son, and a daughter, after trying to have children and leaning on Jesus and IVF.  God is good, and we will forever be grateful for the blessing of making us parents. The twins were about 3.5 when my husband was diagnosed with a large aneurysm, and then two days later, our home burned down, taking with the fire our pets and vehicles. To say this happened and we didn’t watch it in a lifetime movie is surreal.

God never left.

We all survived; sentimental items made it safely out. And for the most important part of this back story, my husband was the 24^th patient to have a pipeline placed in his brain healing the aneurysm. Two long years later, the twins graduated preschool, mama graduated with my Bachelor’s degree, and Daddy was on the mend. There were no more blood thinners, just annual checkups. We moved into our brand-new home that we got to design. A couple of months later, the pandemic happened. A couple of months after that, we started thinking about what else was out there.

My best friend’s mom put all her things in storage and traveled the United States in her Beaver motorhome. She found some online groups of people who were relocating and invited me to these groups. So, for a year, I started online reading and looking into small towns all over America to see what the hype was all about. My husband and I chatted about it here and there but again just moved into a brand-new home, the twins were in kindergarten, we loved our church, and family and friends from our whole lives surrounded us. We both wanted to leave and start over 20 years ago, but it didn’t happen. You get a job and a place to live, and the next thing you know, you’re tied to a place.

As the days of the pandemic got longer and holidays got quieter, we started to think we could go anywhere. My parents had passed, and his mother was in Portugal, having just passed away a couple of months ago. So we did not have the obligation to stay near our parents. So, the seed was planted. We started thinking about where and looking into those places, home prices, quality of life, jobs in the area, politics, all of it.

God was there.

On a whim, we decided to drive out to Tennessee. We had looked at Idaho and were quickly priced out of moving to the areas we were interested in. We packed up the car, drove, and stayed in hotels along the way. It was December, and we needed to be home for Christmas, so it was a quick trip across the United States. We weren’t too sure when we arrived, and we went to the towns on our list and some of the homes for sale looked like it would be a no let’s stay in California. We finally got to the town last on our list, but I was the most called, too. Within 5 minutes, we all felt it. This was it. It was magical. The old movie theatre with the old car in front with the white lights and the brick buildings. A hallmark movie in real life is what it felt like. So we stayed and checked it out for a couple of days. Then we drove home and had Christmas with our little ones. That January, we decided to fly out and take another look. This time, we brought my brother.  We did see more this trip and questioned if this town was for sure the place God was calling us, yet we mostly found places we could see ourselves living…. Happily.

We got snowed in on that trip and had an extra day. Before that, we even got to see a family that was building coincidentally. They are from my hometown, and the wife worked with my mother. What are the odds? They inspired us so much more. Thank you, Diaz family. By this point, we were really excited about picking up and starting over somewhere new. And we found a new place.

We then went home, sat on the couch, and made a list of reasons to stay and a list of reasons to go. Can you see where this is going? The reasons to go outweighed the reasons to stay. This was January. We sold our home in May and were here by June 2. This June, it was two years since we took the leap of faith. That’s all this is—a leap of faith.

God called, we answered, and he provided.

As a type A person, I tried to make it all happen and have a plan, and God kept saying, “That’s not faith.” If you find a job, a home, or somewhere as comfortable as you are now, that is not faith. I kept hearing it repeatedly and am blessed my husband believed as well. We decided on a cold day in January to start a new adventure with 7-year-old twins. We packed up all the belongings that had just been put into their new places and started unraveling life in California. After two years to finally settled and hearing God calling you to leave, that was scary and exciting.  We sold our campers. we sold our home, had our stuff shipped over, hitched up a travel trailer, and hit the road, with only reservations at KOA along the way. No job lined up, no home waiting, no land we were in contract with. It is just God’s calling.

It just takes a little faith.

I am here to tell you.

If God is calling you, answer it. He will make a way. If he has placed a seed in your heart, he will see it through. In his time, in his way. Just have faith. We were blessed beyond our wildest dreams when we let go and let God. We landed in June of 2022 by July my husband got a job with the County, by October we had land, by April we were on our land. Although we are still in our travel trailer, and it hasn’t been easy, I am here to tell you. Answer the call. Even in the hard, even in the seasons, we weren’t sure our marriage would survive, even in the tight spaces that make you look at your sh##.

We are always saying wow, we can’t believe we did this. We listened to him, and he didn’t for one second make us question where he was at. Looking back over the last two years, we can see his hands woven in all of it. He was there. He knew what was happening when he called us here and what would happen next. I could have waited until my home was done to write this when everything is complete and my to-do list is nicely checked off, but that’s it. It never will be. God willing, I get another day at this beautiful life. It’s easy to be grateful when things are going well. I want to be grateful in this tin can he called me to live in, I want to be grateful in the storm, I want to be grateful my control freak type A personality listened to him when he called and didn’t try and plan it out.

God has us.

If you are thinking of doing something big and feel him calling you to jump, trust me, he will catch you. And this thing you are excited about but scared to do—it’s even better than you can imagine. Do not try to make it all work out; that’s not faith.

Just jump.

Life is not perfect. Nothing is. I yell a little more than I would like at my twins, we have seasons in our marriage good and bad and hard and great just like everyone, but I can tell you now when we look back at this decision, we will not regret listening to him. I will not question his intentions for our lives. I know he has only good plans for us. I know his hands are on my children, and a love for him is in their hearts. And for that, I am eternally grateful.

During these two years of coming and starting over, when we weren’t sure how something would happen, God knew, and again, we were reminded, “I told you, I got this.” Again and again, he has shown us not to worry, just to have faith and keep going, that in his time, things will happen as they should. This has grown our faith tremendously, and as the twins grow up and see God at work, I pray it is doing the same for theirs.

A surprise in this journey was the Tennessee tribe he blessed us with. We never imagined in our move that we would find the families he has placed around us. If you are afraid of leaving your people, trust me, they come with you. Your people will always be your people, but God has surprises around every corner, and they are great. I know this is just the beginning of what he has called us here to do, and I cannot wait to continue to unopen his gifts, share his light, and watch his plans for our children. We may want to plan it all out, but let this control freak perfectionist be the first to say that’s not faith.

Let go and let God you won’t be disappointed.