Storytime with Keagan and Charity! There have been many life changes in the K & C world! Praise the Lord that He is an unchanging God! Through it all, we’ve been able to trust that God is with us and for us and hears us because He is faithful and unchanging.
(Warning: this is a very long post, but they will not all be this long!!)
Hello Friends and Family!!
There have been numerous changes happening in the K+C household and I am excited to finally have time to share! God has been so faithful to us during this season of change as there have been many unknowns, disappointments, and excitements.
I guess you could say change really started to happen way back in October. I was accepted into a program at a hospital in Dayton, OH on a labor and delivery unit to complete my preceptorship for my final year of nursing school. What was unique about this program was that it came with a contingent job offer after graduation and passing NCLEX. Since this program is difficult to get into, I never thought I would get chosen, but I knew that if I wanted to do labor and delivery right after college this would probably be my only opportunity to get my foot in the door. This was the event that cascaded change in Keagan and I’s life. It was the first time that I had a sense from the Spirit that God was doing something much bigger than I could see, I just needed to trust and wait on His timing.
In January, I started my six weeks precepting on the labor and delivery unit and absolutely loved it. Do not get me wrong there were very challenging parts to it. Days of great joy and days of great sorrow. Through it all, God gave me confirmation that I was where I was supposed to be. Even though the atmosphere of working in a secular environment is difficult, God taught me a new level of intimacy and trust in Him.
After precepting was finished, I waited to hear back from the hospital to receive the official offer on the unit. I wrote an earlier blog post sharing how God lead us to take the offer I received so I will not go into that story. What I will say is that I accepted a nights position on the labor and delivery unit at which I had previously worked. I am nervous about working nights, but God clearly lead and gave Keagan and I so much peace about the decision.
Now that I had a job lined up it was time for Keagan and I to think about where we wanted to live! Our house at the time was about 35-40 minute from my work and 35 from church so we knew we wanted to be closer to where we would be doing life. Originally, we thought we had plenty of time to look for a place to buy but two unexpected things happened. First, the house market is insane and second, our landlords decided that they were not willing to rent to us month by month after our lease was up. This was a shock as they had said they would allow us this accommodation. If we had known this, we would have started looking earlier, but God knew and He had amazing but hard faith exercises instore for us!
All of April Keagan and I were looking for places to live. It was a stressful time as I was also trying to finish up school and be intentional with friendships that would change after graduation. I was an emotional rollercoaster to say the least. Keagan and I’s relationship grew in new ways and to new levels as we strived to learn how to love each other when our tanks were running on… stress at best and panic at worst.
God was beyond faithful during this season. It was hard. Perhaps one of the hardest seasons we have gone through yet, but amidst the tension God met us. He held us. He sustained us. And of course, He provided for us… but perhaps not in the way we first thought.
A week before I graduated Keagan and I found a house to rent. We were excited because it was a fixer-upper and the relators were going to let us do all the up-dating and provide us with the materials. Finally, we knew where we would be moving after I graduated in a week. Just in time because we had to be out of our house by the end of May! This gave us three weeks to do renos, move in and still have time for a backpacking trip with my sisters in TN, Memorial Day weekend. Or so we thought.
Graduation day came and it was a grand celebration weekend! ALL glory to God for getting me through nursing school! While our parents were up, we took them to see our house. Then, we discovered it… there was water in the crawl space with what looked like black mold growing underneath the floor. AKA not livable.
All the next week we had to figure out if it was mold and then how to un-sign our lease. God again showed us His provision because we were able to get out of the lease and lost no money over the ordeal. God is good!!!
So, the search began again. At this point, we had 3 weeks before we had to be out of our house. We had scheduled to go home for Mother’s Day and to spend some extra time with family. From there, I had to go straight to an NCLEX review session in Columbus. While I was in Columbus, Keagan was faithfully searching for houses.
(This post is getting extremely long so if you are still reading I feel very honored you gave me so much of your precious time).
The final three weeks of looking for a place to live were so hard. I was having a melt down at least every other day. Communication was hard. Expectations even harder. Still, one thing God showed me through this was that I was not alone. When I finally took time to stop and be still, I saw just how many people were praying for us. Then I knew why underneath all the scariness of not knowing where I would be living after May, why I still had peace. It was because we had so many people praying for us and having faith on our behalf.
Finally, with two and a half weeks to spare, Keagan found a house for rent. We moved in with the help of family, old friends and new. We are settling in. Change is hard for Keagan and I and we have struggled with some of the adjustments but in the end, we are more than blessed.
Our land-lords are Christians and treat us like their own adult children. We live in a 100 year-old house with a wrap-around porch and black shutters. We are planting a garden and getting to know our neighbors. We are praying for our little town that God’s presence will be active, that He will use our home to pour out love to our community. God was so faithful through every step of this season of change and that is what I will never forget.
I hope that at lease some of you have made it to this paragraph because this is what I really want you all to know. No matter what you are facing right now God sees you and cares. I never thought that finding a house would be such a spiritual journey of intimacy with the Father, but it was. He asked me to trust Him in ways I had never trusted. He showed me to ask for things and believe that He would come through even when it clearly looked like He had failed. Friends, God does NOT fail, and He always comes through. It may not be in the way that we think. I asked God to give us the first house. He did but in His goodness, He also showed us that it had mold in it and proceeded to give us an even better house.
I do not know what you are asking God right now, but this I do know. He hears your prayers. He will answer. It might be with a yes or a no. It might be with a not yet or a keep asking, keep waiting. Whatever the answer remember that God gives what is best because He knows what is best. Everything He does is for your good and His glory so that you can know Him more fully. Just like I thought the first house was best God said, “Actually I have something even better. Will you trust me?” It is hard for me to ask God for things because if I am honest, I am afraid He will say no. Sometimes He may but I have to remember it is not out of an unloving heart that He says no. It is from a heart of steadfast love. A heart that says, “I have something even better, will you trust Me and wait as I work it into existence?”
Author:
Hello! I’m the C to KC & Co! My name is Charity, and I am so excited you are checking out our site and blog. My deepest desire is that God will use the words on this blog to encourage, strengthen and deepen your love for Jesus. Read more of my writing here.
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