New Adventure!
Where do I even begin? To say things have changed over the last few months would be the understatement of the century. Lets rewind a bit and catch you up.
Around July Joseph and I started talking about him leaving his job of 12+ years. Things had began to be uncomfortable for him there and we were thinking of what our options were. Over the years we have found that when we decide we want something and go after it without asking God what He has for us, it doesn’t usually end well. You know what I’m talking about? You push and push and try and work to get that promotion, find the perfect house, achieve that goal, only end up where He wanted you to be anyway. We were determined to do it differently this time.
We began to pray that the Lord would show us what He wanted for our family. We wanted to be open to following His plan from the beginning. We very quickly felt compelled to put our house on the market. So we spent an incredibly hectic week prepping the house to be show ready. Joseph began his search for his new job and all sorts of ideas were floating around about what we were going to do, where we were going to be, what our lives would look like.
Time passed painfully slow for a few weeks as we got little interest in our home and made even less progress in the job search. We started off feeling so certain of what the Lord was asking us to do then it just felt like everything stalled.
As we approached October it became increasingly clear that Josephs time at his company had come to an end. After much prayer and consideration he turned in his notice and his last day was to be October 11.
Well if any of you live in the South East you know that hurricane Milton hit us on Wednesday the 9th. We were ready, we stocked up on water and food, put up shutters, and brought all the beds downstairs. We hunkered down and road out that crazy storm! Thankfully our house faired very well with only some slight roof damage.
The thing was that Liam had already signed up for his scuba certification class down in Fort Lauderdale with Brian and James for that weekend. We debated rescheduling, went back and forth on the decision, tried to figure out the best way to get Liam there. We had all but decided to reschedule. Then we woke up on Thursday morning after the hurricane and decided, why not? So Liam and I hopped in the car and drive down!
While we were there Brian, James, and Liam were gone every morning from 7-2 learning all the scuba things. I spent my time enjoying the quiet and trying to figure out our next steps. Joseph was officially unemployed and we still had no offers on the house. I even began looking for part time work for me in Statesboro! I wasn’t going to pay the bills working at Starbucks but it would sure buy some groceries!
Our last night in Ft. Lauderdale I was feeling particularly low, feeling lost and getting impatient to hear from the Lord about what in the world His plan was because I didn’t have the first clue. Why hadn’t we gotten an offer yet? Why hadn’t Joseph found the right job? Waiting is HARD!
As we were walking the neighborhood that evening I was praying asking the Lord to light up the path I was supposed to take. I was so exhausted trying to figure it out on my own, Lord SHOW ME!
As we sat down to dinner that evening I was talking to Brian and James about my frustration and even mentioned looking for a job. When I somewhat jokingly said “I could go into real estate” (for those of you who don’t know James and his family are extremely successful in the real estate world in Atlanta).
James immediately jumped on the idea (shocking I know *eye roll*) as an amazing idea. I was hesitant at first. Sure that Joseph wasn’t going to agree, I sent him a text to see his opinion anyway. To my surprise he was 100% on board with this plan. Brian and James promised to be my coaches and show me how to be successful but said this had to be my full time job. So after about 40 minutes of conversation we decided to completely do a Freaky Friday with our lives.
Sudden I was going to be the working parent and Joseph was going to be a house husband, Mr. Mom! He bravely agreed to take on all the school, cooking, cleaning, shopping… so that I could focus on real estate. I signed up for my licensing class and that was that!
After this decision was made things began happening very quickly! It was almost as if God was waiting on this to happen…
I started taking my licensing class and within a week we got three offers on our house! Joseph and the boys packed up the house while I stayed at the Farm to study. I finished my class and took my state exam in about three weeks. I got my real estate license and drove straight over to sign onto Keller Williams. I left the office and drove straight back down to Florida to get on our cruise! We had an amazing week long cruise then came home and closed on our house just in time to drive to Tennessee to visit Josephs cousin, aunt, and mother for Thanksgiving.
When we got home to The Farm I started work at the office and I have loved every minute of it! In hindsight everything had perfect timing. Joseph wasn’t supposed to find the perfect job, because he was supposed to have a career change. We weren’t supposed to sell the house before we knew where we were supposed to go. God truly took care of us better than I could have hoped. We are so blessed to have had the support of our family and friends through this time. Life has certainly changed but I wouldn’t have it any other way!
