A New Life

Today was D-Day for our household... Discharge Day that is! My husband put on his uniform for the last time and signed the papers. He's now retired from the Army! This process has been extremely long and hard for our family, and I'm so glad it's over with. They gave him a flag and then they even gave me an award for standing by him through this process! How neat is that?

On Sunday Travis will be flying in from New York so that we can start our new life together. It's scary and exciting at the same time. It's going to be new and different. When you're in a military family, you're always told where to go and what to do, and that has been our life for the last three years, and our whole marriage. This time we're out on our own making our own choices. I hope it's going to be a wonderful adventure!

I've partially moved into our little duplex in Northwest Arkansas. I have a couch, an air mattress, plastic dishes and utensils, and very few decorations, as the majority of my belongings are loaded in a moving truck in New York. Even so, after 3 long years in New York, I finally feel at home and so very cozy! It's such a nice feeling-- one that I've missed for so long.

I've greatly enjoyed being able to spend time with my family and friends. I've been able to re-aquaint myself with my little nephews, and getting to know my new niece. I've also been able to spend time with my family's dog, Cocoa, which I didn't think I was going to be able to do ever again, as she had been diagnosed with cancer some months back. I've been able to drive around and see some of my favorite places. I cannot express how much joy all of these things have brought me.

For the first time in a long time I feel at peace, at home, comfortable, joyful, and am thrilled about the future.

A Home of Our Own

Less than an hour after posting my last blog, I got a call from a realtor telling me that we were approved for renting an amazing house! God sure does work quickly!

For months I have been thinking about all of the features I would want in a rental:

* A fenced in yard for the dog

* Hardwood floors (carpet collects nasty things that aggrevate my asthma & they're gorgeous!)

* A kitchen with lots of cabinet space

* 2 bedrooms

* A fireplace

* A garage

* Great neighborhood

* Cheap!

Even though I wanted all of these things, I knew the likelihood of finding all of these qualities would be slim to none... I've spent countless hours looking through housing ads and looking at homes. After an unsuccessful day of house hunting in Springfield, I decided to look for places in the Rogers/Bentonville area. As I was browsing through ads, I opened one ad with tons of wonderful features.. As I was showing my mom she said, "This is the one!!" I thought it was wonderful, so I e-mailed the realtor. She showed me the house and I couldn't believe it.. It had everything I wanted, except the hardwood floors. As she was showing me around, the maintenance man came in and started pulling up the carpet. They said that the previous tenants had animals that trashed the carpet, so they were pulling it up to put in hardwood floors!!! Needless to say, I was estatic! I applied for the house, and now it's mine!

Yet again, God has shown that He cares about the things we care about, no matter how insignificant they are. Of course I was going to find a home, but He went above that and gave me all that I wanted and more. Also,  I'm now seeing that when things aren't quite working out and you feel frustrated and abandoned in the process, He's actually gone ahead of you and is preparing something even more wonderful.. We just have to be patient and keep our eyes focused on Him or else we get lost in the small things and miss the blessings He has for us.

Life As of Late

About a week ago, I packed up and moved down to Arkansas. I packed up the car with some of my things and three dogs. God spared me from a terrible accident only hours into my drive. I was driving down the interstate when this semi started weaving in and out of traffic almost running me and a few other cars off the road. I felt that God wanted me to slow down quite a bit and let this guy get quite a bit, so I did. About an hour later traffic started picking up. After being stuck in traffic for about a half an hour I passed the scene of a horrible accident. Some how the same semi that ran me off the road blew up.. I don't know if another car was involved or not, but it was bad. Thank God I was not close enough to have been involved!

Since I arrived in Arkansas, I've spent a lot of time catching up with family and friends. It's been amazing! I've also been looking for a house or an apartment to live in, and have had horrible luck. Everything I've seen so far has been in poor condition and has reeked of mildew. Hopefully I'll find something really soon so that I can start looking for a job.

Travis is still in the Army, but he shouldn't be in for long. We're hoping that he'll be out in about 3 weeks or so. I miss him terribly! He finally received his VA rating, and was granted 100%+ disability. This is such a huge blessing for us, as we were expecting 60%. God is good!

About two months ago, God started dealing with me in regards to one of my past friends with whom I had a huge falling out with about 2 years ago. Little did I know that God was also working on her as well. A few weeks later, I received an e-mail from her. Ever since, we've been exchanging a few e-mails back and forth. Well, last week I was able to meet with her. We had a wonderful time and we were able to work through a lot of our past hurts. It's amazing to see how God started working on both of us at the same time! I'm so glad that God worked in our situation.

Well, that's all for now. I'm going to try to post more as I start to get settled.

A Blessing

Because I do not have many pretty things to decorate my home with or a lot of money to spend, I've been looking into inexpensive, creative ways to decorate. Well, yesterday I saw a picture of a big, but cheap mirror that was hanging on the wall above a dresser. I thought it looked amazing, so I saved a picture of it in my wishes folder.

Last night, we were about to pull in our driveway, when we noticed some things piled out on my neighbor's curb right next to their trash can... Guess what was there?

It is completely flawless, so I have no idea why they were trashing it! Also, it's even more fancy than the one I was looking at! This goes to show you that God cares about the things we care about- no matter how small.