Announcement: Life changes

Three years ago we ended up homeless, living with strangers and in hotels and so on. This all happened when a bunch of people were moving in from California, the Texas freeze destroyed many apartment pipes, and when the pandemic was still raging, so it was not at an opportune time to try and relocate. Houses were limited and most rentals had a 6-12 month waiting list! We couldn’t figure out where we would go. Finally we found a place and immediately said yes. We didn’t even get a chance to step inside of it, it was simply a roof over our kids heads within our budget. This home came to us in a very trying time and we felt grateful for it even though it was far from what we would desire.

We had just lost thousands upon thousands of dollars trying to buy our dream home, a six bedroom home in the country. Now we ended up in a home that was half the size of our previous rental house with a backyard that is smaller than some people’s kitchen tables!

There were gangs in the neighborhood when we first moved and our house ended up in the cross fire a couple of times, I’ve gotten used to hearing gun fighting outside the windows. Our garage door holds the proof. We got thrust into the middle of a brand new culture as everyone around us was African American, we didn’t know if we’d be welcome while there was a strong BLM movement going on.

Over the years we would find out just how terrible the property management company was. For anyone looking in San Antonio stay FAR away from Harper!!! We’ve dealt with many different property management companies since Josh was in the army, and this is the worst we’ve ever dealt with by far! We’ve lost so much money to a company who only cares about their income vs the family who lives here.

In previous homes we’ve even been able to save money on repairs and improve the property for the owners because Josh is such a handyman. Not here. We wouldn’t even dare to attempt that here. A loss for both parties.

So many things have happened here. It’s not a good situation. We had to leave!

This is where things got interesting!

We’ve been saving money to move into a home. We’ve been working with a realtor who deals with the VA loans. We’ve been trying to do all the right things to try again! Then we were handed a blow.

Last year we had another scary incident happen. Josh had been let go yet again! Whether it be blamed for something he didn’t do or given some measly excuse, anything to be able to replace him with someone they could pay less despite his military training in this field and years of experience! With all the immigrants moving in we were finding that work in his field was becoming less and less available or paid well (because pay is often disrespected when some people can be paid less, unfortunately). We knew he had to switch fields.

Praying together has become some new thing we’ve done lately, Josh was saved in March of 2016 but the last few years has truly changed how we found our marriage on God first. We prayed as a couple about this and were surprised when we considered crane school.

In fact, one may say it started as a joke  

But then we started honestly considering what that would look like. We couldn’t afford gas nonetheless gas up to Dallas where the nearest school was! We only had one vehicle, how were we to drive everyone up there and then drop him off and come back? Should he stay there the full 6-8 weeks, leaving me alone with our three kids? Would we be able to cover the extra cost of room and board? What about school, how were we to cover tuition? So many unknowns! But it truly felt like despite the unknowns this is where we felt he was being led!

So we asked for the provisions to make this possible. We took a leap of faith into the unknown believing God had a reason for putting that on our hearts. And golly did God provide!!! He even provided a second vehicle, something with our budget we couldn’t even imagine getting!!

That was a beautiful yet terrifying time in our lives when we first learned the power of truly trusting God with the impossible!

I do not want to undermine the fear that shrouded my heart in that season! How was I to raise three kids for 6 weeks with no “just wait till your father comes home” kind of threats?  How was I to stay strong when I’d get no breaks? What if something happens and he is so far away I can’t call him for backup? What if something happens to him while driving 5 hours back and forth each weekend? Would we have enough money when we have no income? Literally, we had no income because Josh was going to school and I was taking care of kids, no one was able to keep a job.

Every time I’d go into one of these spirals though I’d stop and pray: trusting that even though I didn’t know the answers, God did.

Josh graduating from crane school was a beautiful bittersweet moment! We got through this scary season and now our lives will forever change. He’s got a better job with a better pay than we could ever imagine!

Our first thought was, now we can save up again for our dream home! Little did we know that God wasn’t done with us yet!  

With this new job, came a brand new tax paper: a 1099. Meaning that we need at least two years of income on a 1099 in order to be approved for a home loan!

What?! God, did you lack foresight? What now?!

Ok wait a second!! Aren’t we supposed to pray?

So Josh and I got down on our knees together, “God we can’t stay here in this crappy situation, we don’t want to end up homeless again! Please tell us what we should do!”

I am beginning to think that anything God says we will take as a joke at first because it’ll sound so ridiculous. I mean the Bible is filled with ridiculous sounding ideas: "Build a boat in the desert." "Lift this stick over the sea and it will part down the middle." "Walk around this fortress of doom, then shout at the walls and the walls will fall down." "You, a virgin, are going to have a baby and that baby will save the world."

We humans consistently attempt to put a God of the impossible into a box, and often times He just doesn't fit. Similarly, the idea that came to us started as a joke, “We could move into an RV hahaha!”

My husband paused, “Wait, could we move into an RV?” What?! No! No, of course we couldn’t move into an RV! Would they even approve you with a 1099? How will we cover the costs? What about selling all of our things? We just asked God to not make us homeless and now you’re suggesting we be homeless permanently?! How will we make an income? Where will we live? What will we do? We complained about moving into this 900 square feet and now you’re suggested we happily stuff ourselves into 350 sq ft?! Did you hit your head or something? These were my questions that flew out of my mouth at rapid succession.

I think what hurt the most was the fact that I just finally found my mom tribe, my community! After years of screaming and crying about wanting even just one friend! After years of wondering what was wrong with me that I just scared everyone away! I finally have not just one friend, I have people in my life who truly know me and whom I would happily stuff into a village to do life with. I can’t just up and leave!

So we prayed again, that if the RV was indeed not a joke that God would give us a sign!

The following day, I took my kids to coop (a homeschool group where we collectively teach our kids various subjects together). I knew it was missionary day, I knew we had missionaries from Ukraine, Uganda and the USA. I even made the joke: God needs U to go out and reach all the other Us.  (hint hint: another joke!) However, I did not know that the woman who was a US missionary LIVED IN HER RV! That woman marched straight up to me and told me to my face: “Whatever you do, do for the glory of God.”

I mean, I guess in this season of my life I wouldn’t be surprised if anyone came up to me and said that but the fact that she lived in an RV hit a little differently. Um, ok, thanks?

I moved on. Surely that doesn’t mean anything.

I decided to test a group of some of my closest friends, “We are praying about moving into an RV.” “Wow!” “That’s awesome!” “Congrats!”

Wait, what?! Oh shoot, they must not love me! That was too easy to say goodbye to me. It honestly broke my heart at first.

Later I confessed this to my dear friend and she told me, “It’s not that we won’t miss you, it’s that it makes the most sense! I can totally see this as God working in your life.”

Ugh!  I don’t want to hear that either   I wanted to hear “That’s a ridiculous idea. Why would you even consider that? How are you going to live like that?” Not further confirmation to go. That is more scary!

Josh seemed to not hear any of my concerns. How will we pay rent and the RV at the same time? How will we make an income? How will we get rid of all of our things? How will the kids transition? The list went on. It felt like I was the only one freaking out. Finally all the voices in my head died down, I prayed and came to a peace about it. God will work it all out, like He has before. God is faithful.

So off we went to look at a possible used RV. We didn’t feel like it was a good fit. It was a bumper pull and for those who don’t know bumper pulls don’t have a lot of storage underneath. It was across town in the country and on the way home I needed to use the bathroom so I asked to stop at a gas station.

Since I had finally come to peace about God working this out, I suggested we make the leap of faith, go to a bank that day and pull out a personal loan so we can buy used. But then, in that moment, Josh suddenly had all the same concerns I’ve been crying about for weeks!

It felt like he hadn’t been listening! Why are you now panicking when I finally quit?  

It honestly made me mad and we started nipping at each other when I finally said, “I’m gonna go to the bathroom now because we don’t need to fight about this. I’m going to go calm down.”

While inside I prayed that God would give us Josh assurance as to what we were supposed to do. I went back to the truck only to find my husband more pale than I have ever seen him before, he looked so scared. Josh blurts out in a panic, “Have you seen the bank account?!” His tone sent ice down my spine! Oh no, God, what kind of sign is this? Did we get hacked and robbed? What is going on?

“No?” I pull it up on my phone and my jaw drops. My hands start shaking. This can’t be real!

For the last three years we’ve been trying to get Josh’s disability approved so he can get better care for something he’s dealing with from the military. We’ve been denied so many times that we had come to believe it just wouldn’t happen. When I prayed for a sign of what to do, the back pay had hit our account!

Not only that but I had been praying on ways to reach a base monthly pay to feel more secure in living this new life. I was trying to find a remote job or something but having no bites. The amount that was approved, perfectly matched that base month pay I was praying for! Like literally, the exact number!

We were scared to even touch the money at first because we thought it was a mistake! We figured it wasn’t real! I bet God was laughing at us sitting in that truck at that gas station, our faces pale, hands shaking.

Why do we doubt our God?

The same God who spoke all of creation into existence! The same God who pulled us through our every trial before. The same God who parted the Red Sea. The same God who puts breath into our lungs. The same God.

So folks, we bought a fifth wheel and a truck. We are beginning to sell all of our belongings. We are starting to say goodbye, a very difficult thing to do for all five of us. God is moving in our lives in powerful and mysterious ways! He’s calling us into the wilderness and it’s a call we cannot ignore. We will go!

It may be the end of this chapter of our lives, but we know Gods already written the next chapter we have yet to explore.

Many have asked how to stay in touch to watch this next chapter play out. Funnily enough I had felt compelled to set up this digital footprint at the beginning of this year. I don’t know why Forging Warriors seemed like such a perfect name but it’s a name that I couldn’t step away from. Now I see, as we blaze trails through the wilderness with our three kids, God will definitely be forging warriors out of us. Every scare, every mistake, every weakness, being forged into trusting Him more and more becoming warriors for His glory. Sharing the good news of His redemption along the way.

So you’re invited to come along with us, share in our stories. Share in our learning. Share as we laugh over our mistakes. We are all a part of the body of Christ, and we truly will need your love, prayers, support and hope.

And we’re off!