Preparing to leave part 1

I was thinking the other day about all the "things" I am going to miss about Mississippi. When you have lived in the same town for 29 years-you become a part of the town. I made my list of tops and in no particular order-I thought I would share with you my heart on the things I am preparing to leave.

Tonight-I am sharing our church. Our church means more to me than most anything else on this list (my family is just a bit above)

I have been going to our church since I was 3 years old. 26 years. I started in the preschool department-and there I learned about Noah and Moses and Jesus and the Devil-It wasn't as advanced teaching as we have now but it was a good foundation and a guarantee that I would get animal crackers when we talked about Noah.

As I grew older I became involved in the youth choir-which took me on many choir tours-and allowed me to witness to 3 kids. I still have those kids named etched in my head...Ronald on the basketball court..Elijah the little boy who called me sister...Velicia the precious girl with dimples...

In high school and college my involvement with the church dwindled as my life with sin increased. It wasn't until Todd and I were parents of 2 did I return.

When I returned it was because I was desperate. Desperate for help-for guidance-for God. I knew I needed Him and I didn't know where else to find Him.

It wasn't long after I returned did I become an employee in the Children's Ministry. It was here my growth as a Christian really began. Here I learned what it meant to live out the life God wants for us. Here I made my first adult friends and learned to study the word.

It was here I discovered my desire to teach kids the truth about being a Christian-Not to encourage them to pray a "prayer" and be saved-If they felt the calling to do that then that was awesome-I wanted to teach them how to live out a life that is anything but ordinary-how to have a desire to learn about God-how to apply the lessons we read each week to their daily life.

I began with 4 year olds-then dropped down to 2 year olds-then moved over to 1st grade-where I have been for almost 3 years with my teaching buddy Richard.

Man-am I going to miss Richard. Richard is a dad and a husband. He has 4 girls (Jr in high school-8th grade-2nd grade and 1st grade)

 He is ex military and he works countless jobs. He is dedicated to serving the youth at our church-he takes them camping, canoeing, picks them up for church if they don't have a ride, he takes a week off of work to serve as a camp counselor at our summer camp. Richard has a servants heart and he has been a great friend and mentor to myself and to Todd.
God picked out a great teaching partner when he selected Richard.

Our pastor Greg and his wife Susan have been instrumental in my life. Dr. Greg came right when Todd and I started coming back to church. He is a pastor that preaches the word. He is steady leading our church to reach out in missions and in the way we "do church". He has been a father figure to me and such a wonderful example of a Godly man for Todd,

The friend from church are a whole other day-but there is one other group that I can not leave out.
My kids. Not the Broadus 3...my church kids. I tell this story every year and I feel the need to share it with yall.

I never wanted kids. At all. When Madyson and Aubrie came-my heart began to change-and when I began teaching these kids-My life-my heart grew. I never once knew you could love someone else's children the way you love your own-but yall-I do. I absolutely adore the kids in our children's ministry and all the ones that have passed through my classroom. These kids are going BIG things in their lives. They have a desire to learn and to grow. 2 weeks ago we were learning 2 Kings 22 about King Josiah being 8 year old-we got on the topic of doing things we don't want to do but doing them because God calls us too. I shared with the kids about our move to Georgia and how I did not want to go-but I asked God that if this was His will for Him to make it easy-I told them how he sold our house and got us a house in Georgia-how He did everything for us-all we had to do was pack. One of my precious little boys-asked  "why don't you want to go?" My eyes filled up with tears as I mumbled "I don't want to leave yall"

I never thought that being a Sunday School teacher would be so much of my identity. But I love being "Mrs. Sarah" and I love getting up every Sunday to go to church and investing 1 hour of my time to 15 eager and hungry for God first graders. I love being able to know that with each hug and each lesson about controlling your sword and each story of compassion and wisdom and with every animal cracker...they are becoming one step closer to an eternity with Jesus. You just can't
get any better than that. I love being a tool of God's. and I will continue to serve in any aspect He has planned for me. But boy...I am sure going to miss these kids.

If you are not a part of a church because you don't feel like you fit in-or you don't have anything to wear-or you don't like the music....I beg you-make it your mission to find a place that you feel comfortable in. You might have to try on a few "pair of shoes" before you find the one that doesn't give you blisters-but please find a church body to worship with-to help you grow. Our church has been such a blessing to the Broadus Bunch-we would not be where we are today if it were not for the love of Jesus we have been shown by the people of our church.

Brown.

Moving boxes are brown. And brown is not blue or yellow or any other bright happy color-it is blah. And when all your beautiful things that fill your home and bring you happy butterflies are packed up in brown boxes..it makes it hard to be joyful over something you were joyful about before your house was taken over by brown.

I had my first two cries the other day. I am sure many more will come. First-madysons best friend for all 7 years of her life spent the night the other night. This was their first sleep over together. They truly love each other and it breaks my heart to see her try to be so strong when I know she is so sad. 

The next cry was Monday night after our 2 year life group meet and greet. Being surrounded by friends that have loved on our family through the good time and the bad knowing it was probably one of the last times we would all be together was hard. Especially with our best buddies-the Byrds. We have been there for each other in every ugly situation you can think of and we have always seen each other to the other side. They are our girls other parents and their kids are mine and Todd's extended hearts.

The thought of us being apart is killer-but God never said His plans were easy.

As I sit in sadness for what we are leaving-I strive to make myself see the greater picture. He has great plans and we must go and seek out His will. He has opened up these doors for us to basically walk through without effort and I must stay focused on the goal-to follow God and trust Him in everything we do. I am so thankful for all of our friends-and I am blessed because of them. 

Following and trusting

Todd and I are moved and overwhelmed by the response we have received over us moving-we have dear friends here and leaving is just one of the hardest decisions because of them-but y'all God has some amazing plans lined up and although we have no idea what they are-they are big. let me catch you up to speed on this exciting time we have been living in.

We tossed around the idea of moving for the last year. I have never lived ANYWHERE else. Ever. Todd has.

He didn't want to lose our church-take the girls away from their friends-leave our family here...

We talked about it and I kept getting the prompt in my heart to "just say yes" Atlanta was never my first pick. I really wanted Birmingham or Nashville.

One night we were in the kitchen-talking about it and I told him-we just need to do this-I feel like----right now.

Baffled because Atlanta was not on my list he asked why-I told him "if god called us to a 3rd world country to be missionaries would we say no-sorry God...we don't want to leave our friends and family and especially our church??!?!" No we would go. We would sell everything and pack up and we would go. We wouldn't worry about how it was all going to work out-we would have faith and we.would.go.

He agreed and we made plans to go to Atlanta later that week.

We were there and we were looking at houses and we found one-on a cul-da-sac that we felt like was home. But it was under contract. We told Todd's step mom (our realtor) that we would like to live here. She said, well...if it is suppose to happen-it will happen. 

We get back from Atlanta-with no clue about what to do next-except have our garage sale. Our plan was decrapify-finish remodeling-move in January. 

During the garage sale we get a call from Todd's step mom that the house we found was ours and we can move in the end of the month-say what???

Blown away by the advance in this move-we knew we had to get on the ball of remodeling-after the garage sale. 

During the sale a lady was there and asked if we were moving-when we said "yes, wanna buy our house??" Jokingly-she responded with no but I bet I know someone who does-she proceeded to call a friend-who came over the next day-and then back on Monday and back on Wednesday and then a text on Friday and now-that lady and her husband and their precious family are under contract to buy our house-before it was even listed-as is-without us finishing all the remodeling. Wow God.

There is no doubt that God is up to something. I was sharing with Todd how I was a little nervous about what would happen once we got to Atlanta-because whatever God has in his plan for us-he needs us now. I know whatever it is-He is in control. 

Proverbs 16:9 says "a mans heart plans his way But The LORD directs his path" oh how this verse has been a crutch for me the last few weeks. Stepping out of our comfort zone-headed into an unknown area-without a clear plan on what life is going to be like-trusting Him for guidance and depending on faith to sustain our wondering minds. 

It's big. And it's scary. And it's exciting. And then I have doubts like-how are we going to pay for?? What if?? And I get an automatic feeling of "I have this-do not doubt me"

And y'all-it is the strongest spiritual feeling I have ever had. 

As I sit back and look at the last months of trial and pain-I see it as God broke us-in ever way to make us completely dependant on Him-for this very reason. He had to bring us down to our dirty, grimy, exposed selves to make us so aware that He is in control and surrendering to Him is the only way.

This marks the beginning of a new chapter for the broadus bunch-and I am excited to see what all God has planned! 

A new begininning

To bring you up to speed on the last post about us moving to Georgia-let me fill you in on the details you need to know.

Over the last few months Todd and I have gone back and forth about what our future looks like to us. We wrote out our plan and although it was descriptive-it wasn't specific (i.e.Live in ___ state)

So as we begin to pray about Todd's job (since he is the one with one) I began to feel like I didn't need to sign up for next years PTO committee-because, I wouldn't be here. All of our emotions kept telling us that we were not to be comfortable anymore.

See-we live in a town they call "the bubble" it is a small, safe community where most people live and stay their whole life-you know of everyone.

We are comfortable here. We love our church-it is home. We have been actively involved for 6 years-teaching preschool, children, youth and choir. We are in love with our church kids and we are just comfortable.

But the more we prayed-the more be uncomfortable came up-it was like God was personally saying-"you aren't going to be here"

With Todd's new job-he travels-and we prayed about what to do and all signs pointed to us moving. We are really letting God orchestrate this and I can't wait to share just how awesome He is handling it.

Yes-the girls know. They are excited and nervous and sad at the same time. We all are. We love our friends-our family here but we both really feel like this is our time to step out in faith and let God show us this next chapter.

So when? Where? 

When-in 2 weeks Todd will move to Atlanta to our new house! (Yes-we already found one...how? God.)

The girls and I will be here staying with family in the district til they get out of school in December.

Our house: is for sale. Please. Buy it. It's a great big 2680 sq foot 4 bedroom house we are selling for way below its value because we don't want to  pay for two houses. If you don't want it-find us someone who does.

god knows-he will send them. 

Where in Georgia-the burbs of Atlanta-if u want specifics-I'll tell u in person. :) 

Well-there ya go....:) 

The finale of our decrapify process.

Y'all-it is over.

We have decrapified.

All of the weight that held us down and made my heart ache and my mind become overwhelmed is gone. All of the stress of spending every waking minute in a house full of crap-is lifted.

10 weeks ago-I made the decision that I want to be able to spend quality face-to-face time with my kids. That I want to sit in my bible study and not think about the mounds of laundry I need to do. I wanted freedom to live-with less-and be content.

God orchestrates life so seemlessly that half the time we think we are fulfilling our plans-he is really prepping us for the bigger picture.

First-here is the garage sale-we set up Friday morning after the girls went to school-that way we avoided any early birds and our morning was pretty relaxed.

We sold til 6pm-pushed the leftovers in the garage and headed to Todd's dads for Todd's bday dinner :) 

Saturday morning we got up and pulled it all out again! 

We sold and sold and sold and sold til noon-then we scheduled a pick up by a local charity for the rest!

It was freeing, exhausting, and all around...worth it. We made around1,300$ during this sale-totally awesome. 

The bigger picture? About 2 weeks ago Todd started a new job...in a new state. Something that 10 weeks ago-wasn't even on our radar. So all this decrappifing  certainly helps since in a few weeks our house will be on the market to sale. Because we will be going to our new house in Georgia...in just a few weeks! OMG!!!

And it's a lot easier to sell a house when the lookers don't have to worry about things falling out if the closets and cabinets. 

So there ya go! Our decrapifing challenge full circle! If I seem distant over the next few days it is because I am busy trying to get our house ready to list. We still have a lot of projects that we were saving to do over the next 3 years-that we need to fit into the next 2 weeks!