One Year Ago Today

One year ago from today...

My mind seams to go in so many directions with that statement.

The depth to that simple statement has never been so great in all our lives.

What a year it has truly been.

A year we never saw coming.

The tribulations and triumphs we never could have prepared ourselves for.

The great blessings and sacrifices we would face.

All that we lost and yet so much was gained.

How do you even begin to put into words all that we walked through in this past year?

One thing is for sure, I am so grateful to be where we are now, in a lot of ways we're on the other side, in some ways we're still swimming. 

But overall we are blessed beyond words and measure by the Lord.

April 21, 2011.

Happy 5 year anniversary to us (one day early) we headed to the escrow company to sell our first home, our beautiful, unique, quaint and perfect first home.  We had no idea what lay ahead just two months from then.  We had no idea that the Lord was orchestrating a miracle on our behalf. 

One year ago we moved into a camper where we would live for over half a year.  The 'home' we brought our third child home to. 

And one year ago we began the process of building our own home.

Last night Nathan and I went out to dinner to celebrate 6 years of marriage.  As we sat down for dinner we began to reminisce about all that we've been through in our six wonderful and blessed years of marriage.  In some ways it seems as if we have yet to slow down.  And in some ways I doubt that that will ever happen, it seems to me that life just keeps going by faster and faster, each moment passes through my fingers like quicksand and I wonder where the time has gone. We began our married life together serving at a youth camp in Virginia.  Almost one year after we got married we packed up a moving van and headed to a town no one knew existed, not knowing that just 5 years down the road it would be a boom town that the rest of our country would be flocking to for work.  And just a few short months after arriving, finding a place to live and a job to pay the bills, we welcomed our first born, our precious boy Ezekiel into our lives.  In 2008 we bought our first home, a historic home near downtown Minot next to a park and the zoo.  A home that was unique and looked like a barn to my mothers great delight.  We had a great yard and a family friendly neighborhood, the perfect spot to raise our family.  And then in 2009 our family grew and everything we knew changed.  We welcomed our second child, McKenzie, into our family, just 16 months after our first child was born.  And at that point in our lives we weren't sure where or what we were supposed to do as the main reason (or so we thought at the time) for us to be in Minot had taken a major change.  We had made the extremely tough decision to leave the church that we had come to Minot to be apart of and we sought God for what was next.  That year the Lord opened the door for us and through a co-worker, at the time who only worked with Nathan for a little over a month, we were introduced to many families in the homeschool community here in Minot and through that the Lord began to direct our steps in a whole new direction.  And Easter Sunday 2 years ago we began our home fellowship church.  The things we have learned over the last few years are too great in number to name them all, but one great thing we learned during that time was the importance of the family and the father being the true leader of the home, not looking for the church to fill all those rolls.  We are so grateful for all we have learned.  And then there was pregnancy number three.  And that's when everything began to change.  I could not figure out how I was going to put 3 kids in one room in our house.  The way it was layed out was odd and we could not come up with a solution.  After a trip home for Christmas that year we began to consider the option of selling and moving to find something that would fit our growing family better, a home that we could grow into.  At first we had considered building but quickly set that thought aside not wanting to pay the high price of sacrifice.  And so we began to look for homes on the market.  Few were available at the time and we had no idea just how hard it would be to find a house to live in just a few months down the road in Minot.  The Lord began to direct our steps and through a falling through of an offer we had made on a house, we decided that building was our only option.  And thus began the road that took us through the journey of a lifetime: this past year. 

Check out some of our highlights:

How the journey to building our own home began.

Our new 'home'.

We began digging for our house.

The first walls were put up.

Main floor walls.

Looking like a true house.

Minot, ND historic flood of 2011 here and here.

We became a family of 5!

Sheetrock.

We finally moved into our new home!

Kitchen and Flooring.

Family Time!

Mid-Way House Tour: Living Room, Dining Room, Sun Room, Kitchen

We have been truly blessed beyond what we could ever deserve or imagine!  The Lord has blessed us with 3 beautiful and wonderful children, Nathan has a great job and he built our family a beautiful home, we have amazing friends and family who helped us through this past year, had it not been for them this all would not have been possible.  And our marriage is strong and beautiful.  Above all we know the one true Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ.  He has guided us and helped us and provided for us through it all.  And He always will.  We have life because of Him.  A purpose and a hope amidst this world because of Him. 

This past year was not easy.  I won't lie.  As we sat and remembered it all last night there was laughter and there were tears shed by us both.  We lost a lot.  A lot of time as a family that we will never get back.  But in the end we gained much more.  We have grown much and hope that the Lord will continue to mold and shape us and use what we went through for good.  We gained great friendships and deeper relationships through the process.  And we have learned to appreciate everything is such great ways.  Our relationship with the Lord and how we need Him so desperately, our marriage and how we each have our own strengths and weaknesses and how we can complement each other and help each other together, through all life brings us.  Our family and children and how precious the time is that we spend together.  They are not young for long, we blink and will miss it.  So a major priority is just that, investing time in our family, raising our children for the Lord.  And we appreciate all that we have been blessed with in our home.  So very few live with the amenities that we take for granted every day and we have way beyond just our needs.  However long we have it, we are grateful and thankful and hope to use it to the glory of God. 

The greatest hole in our lives and hearts is the distance from family.  Our love for you is so great, and the tears that have been shed over the years because of missing you and wishing we could all be closer have been many.  There is a price to pay in following the Lord and going wherever He may call you.  But when you chose to follow Him, no matter where He leads you, the blessings He showers upon you snd the joy that comes, sometimes eventually, from obedience is far greater!

Thanks for going through this journey with us whether from near of far. Your help and prayers and words of encouragement have meant the world to us. 

As spring begins to shine through the darkness and new growth is all around us it seems so fitting that that is just what we are going through in our own lives.  Spring has come to us after this season of building.  We look forward to the new growth the Lord is working in our lives and whatever else He has in store for our family.

Trust in the Lord with all your hear, lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths. 

Proverbs 3: 5-6

Papa & Grandma Visit Part 3: Flood Edition

While the grandparents were visiting we drove around Minot to show them all the flood damage.  We also stopped at our old house, it was the first time I was able to walk onto the property and look in the windows at the damage.  It was absolutely heartbreaking, I couldn't help but cry.  My mom reminded me that no matter how hard things might get while we're building they are no where near how bad they would have been if we were still at our old house.  Here are some pictures that my mom took while we were driving around.

^before and after of our old house: you can notice the water line on the window (right) of how high it got^

^before and after: interior^

^the stairs after the carpet was ripped out^

^back deck looking into the house from the slider.  Before you would have seen a wall of kitchen cabinets and the door to the bathroom/ laundry room ^

^notice all the garbage in the fence^

^everything is filthy, and piles off stuff still line the streets everywhere^

^a church in our old neighborhood, good view of the water line^

^ a dike ^

^a house that was flooded up to the roof^

^a FEMA trailer that you can put on your property to live in while you fix up your flooded house^

^the Salvation Army drives around and offers free water and hot meals to anyone working in the flood zones^

Count Your Blessings

I was reminded the other night, while Nathan was praying, that we have so much to be thankful for.  I was reminded to count my blessings!  It's been a week.  Not terrible.  We are just all adjusting and my list of tough issues was growing and that's what my focus has been on.

We drove through Eastwood Park, our old neighborhood, the other evening and my heart broke.  That could have been us dealing with a house that had been flooded, wondering where to begin, how would we afford it, would the house be safe or even livable.  The stench, the mold, tearing the house apart to try and start over.  My heart broke for the devastation each of those families are facing.  For the road ahead of them as they face each of those questions.  And yet, by the grace of God, He chose to spare us from that.  We have a brand new home to move into soon.  Yes, it's a season, that we chose to walk into, and at moments I think we're crazy for it, but we are grateful to be where we're at.

^ our old home, we drove by the other night (when I didn't have my camera) and they had the door open and you could see inside, everything was ripped out down to the studs^

^ you can see the water line on the front door ^

^ what it looks like around Eastwood Park ^

I am grateful for my Savior, my Rock, my God who is God Almighty and yet He meets us each where we're at!  The One who we can turn to, who we can put our trust in, who leads us and guides us.  For His forgiveness and grace, and that His mercies are new each morning.  He is always there and His love for us is unfailing. 
I am grateful for my amazing husband, who is working tirelessly building a home for his family who in the midst of all that continues to sacrificially serve his family as much as he can.
I am grateful for my wonderful children.  I am so blessed to be a mom!  They fill our home with joy and laughter, creativity and wonder.  My heart is so touched as I listen to them pray at night, watching them grow, and learning each of their personalities, who God has created them to be.
I am grateful for the new precious life that has joined our family. What an amazing blessing, the gift of life that has been entrusted to us for a time.  We have been reminded once again how delicate life is.  Janessa is fully dependent on us, her parents.  She would die without us.  And that reminds us of our dependency on the Lord, our need for a Savior.   
I am grateful for all the amazing people God has placed in our lives.  Wonderful friends and family.  We are so blessed by each of them (you!).  And we are so grateful for how so many have served our family in this season.  How we have seen the love of Christ demonstrated in such practical ways.  We have learned so much of what is means to be a willing servant. 
I am grateful for this season that the Lord is bringing us through, for all that He is teaching us, for all that we are learning even though it's been and will be hard at times.
I am grateful!

The list goes on, the things to be grateful for, His blessings, are too numerous to count!

Thank you Lord for the reminder of where my heart needs to be, where my eyes need to be: on You!

Historic Flooding in Minot, ND

A week we will never forget, a time permanently etched in our memory, the devastation set before our eyes; our hearts are breaking for those who have been tragically affected by this horrific flood. 
Some of our friends outside the city limits of Minot have been fighting against flooding since April.  Thankfully the Paulson family who we have been living with have not had much damage up to this point, some of their pastures were flooded but compared to others they were in a good place.  But as large amounts of snow began to melt in Canada and they were seeing large amounts of rainfall, so were we, the dams were beginning to fill and had to release their excess water.  Come Monday, June 21 the word went out that all residents in previous evacuation zones were required to begin to evacuate immediately and were to be out by the 22, at 6PM.  Nathan went to work helping evacuate his bosses shop and some friends houses.  But by 1 PM on June 22 the sirens sounded for immediate evacuation.  Since then we have waited and watched as the river has risen to never before seen heights and has overtaken the dikes and consumed much of Minot.  Approximately 1/3 of the town, around 12,000 people have been evacuated.  The scenes are shockingly sad.  We have had reports of friends who have seen their house on TV and only 2 to 3 feet of the house is above water.  We have seen pictures of the shop and it is well in water.  And the water level only continues to rise still.  Just this morning did we start seeing a more dramatic increase in the river level at the Paulson's house.  They had been clearing out their basement and working on getting farm animals relocated and they moved the rest of the animals this morning.  We have been relocating cars and farm equipment to higher ground, not knowing just how high the water might possibly get.  To see before and now pictures of the water at their farm check out their family blog: www.paulsonhomestead.blogspot.com 
They also have pictures posted of friends of ours who live right down the road, their family has been dealing with water and flooding since April of this year, and they finally moved out yesterday knowing they could no longer save their homes. 
We have watched the river level rise and creep higher into the yard little by little today but as of now we are still safe from the water at the Paulson's so we are staying put.  There is still a small chance we may have to relocate temporarily to another friends house and there are roads still open at this point to get us to Minot but we are hoping to be able to stay here. 
And again, we cannot praise the Lord enough for His provision in getting us out of our old home just 2 months prior to this flood.  That house is well flooded at this point and being over 100 years old and gone through multiple floods we would be surprised if it will be salvageable after this flood recedes.  That was only by the grace of God.
We appreciate your continued prayers.  The river has yet to reach it's peak and the water will not be going away any time soon.  There will be days, months and possibly even years of damage from this historic flood.  Our hearts are breaking for those who have been severely affected and continue to pray for the Lord to protect their hearts through this time, that Christ would ultimately be glorified through this situation and many would come to know Him as their personal Lord and Savior.

And as of yet there is no baby born, she is content to stay in my belly.  My main concern, other than watching to make sure a road stays open to get to the hospital is that there is a concern for a loss of water, sewer and power at the hospital.  The Lord's timing is perfect, please pray that I would continue to keep my eyes on Him and put my trust in His perfect timing and plan for the birth of Janessa.

^ 3rd St, where the shop is located ^

 ^ front of the shop/ church meeting place/ apartments prior to flood ^

^ front of shop as of June 24th around noon ^

^ hwy 52, the highway we take to get from Minot to the Paulson's and our new property ^

^ an idea of how high the water is, notice the date was yesterday and the water has continued to rise since this picture was taken ^

^ aerial view ^

^ more recent photo of the shop (past 'Firestone' building), you can sorta tell that the water is up to the bottom of the windows now ^

^ by our library, there was a train track bridge and a road that went under it that are now completely covered by water ^

^ Broadway Bridge, our town's main access between North and South, has been closed ^

Flooding

What a week it's been.  And I can only praise the Lord that we have mostly good news to report.  Our rivers have been VERY high this year, and many families outside Minot city limits have already been dealing with water and flooding issues for a while now but it got worse this past week.  Monday Nathan got some work done on the house in the morning before it started pouring rain in the afternoon.  We had heavy downpours and lightning and thunderstorms all afternoon and into the evening.  Late Monday night we got a call from Nathan's boss, Al, who updated us on the river status in the city of Minot and reminded us that all our storage was in their shop basement and he wondered if we had considered moving any of it.  To be honest the thought had never once crossed our minds since we had known things were beginning not to look good with the extra rain and river situation.  So we went into the Paulson's house and decided that Nate and I and Bob and Trevor would head to the shop and try and move some of the more important items to the main floor.  When we were headed into town we ran into a spot on the highway that was now completely covered in water.  So we crawled through the water that had debree floating all around and it was pitch black outside.  We made it to the shop and it was harder than I anticipated deciding what was really important and should be moved upstairs.  We moved a few items when Bob got a call that their neighbor and friends of ours sandbag dike had broke and water was now rushing into their basement.  We decided to leave the shop and pick up sandbags on our way back to their house.  When we got to the area of road that was flooded they only let us pass because we had sandbags, it was too dark to see the road so you just hoped you were driving straight.  We made it to their house by midnight and helped as much as we could.  The next morning it was still raining and that's when we heard the news that Minot was being evacuated (10,000 residents) and the National Guard was being called in and the town was working feverishly to build up dikes all along the river and begin on secondary dikes.  With that news Nathan, Bob and Trevor headed into town and moved all of our items in storage to the main floor.  Also, our windows for our house were being stored at the shop and they were all moved to higher ground.  A 12,000 $ investment that we were really hoping we didn't have to replace.  (my windows are huge, you'll eventually see from pictures when they get put in the house)  Wednesday Nathan and the crew went and filled sandbags and made barriers around the shop windows and doors and then we waited for news until Thursday when the river was suppose to crest.  It was amazing to hear about all the people who helped fill sandbags and pull together to help out and do what we could.  Thursday came with good news:  the river had crested and it was lower than anticipated.  Nathan and the crew had worked out of town that day and when he got home we decided to go on a date.  It was eerie to see so many homes evacuated, and the National Guard directing traffic to let the trucks carrying sand for the dikes through the intersections as fast as possible and then to drive around the areas of town that were not in danger of flooding and seeing all the people who were probably staying with friends or family while they were not allowed in their own homes.  It's hard to put into words, other than describing the facts of what was going on, of how it felt to be in a natural disaster.  Very few areas in town flooded and there were reports of basements flooding due to water coming up through their pipes or the ground, overall the situation was far better than it could have been.  But we are not out of the danger zone yet, the dikes are what are keeping the river in and it's HIGH and there is rain in the forecast, so we'll see what the future holds and we'll keep praying.
But we did want to share our MIRACLE from the Lord!  We sold our house about 6 weeks ago, not knowing what the weather would hold.  Our house we sold sat in one of the lowest areas in Minot and had to be evacuated.  That house was over 100 years old and had already been through two major floods and we suspected it to have mold issues already.  Everything happened so fast and fairly smooth for selling a house,  it was never on the market and the first people who came through offered to buy it at full price and were willing to give us 6 months to live in it before closing on the house so we could figure out what we wanted/needed to do.  We were spared from the stress of possibly being flooded and having to evacuate while I'm in my last month of pregnancy.  And who knows, they could be dealing with minor flooding if water came up from their basement.  The possible damage and concern for more mold growing, so many things that the Lord spared our family from.  We are SO grateful to Him, for His provisions and that He knows all and how He directed our family and continues to! 
And it's amazing how thus far we've been so gung ho about building our house, having Nathan out there every night it's been nice to get as much work and progress done as could be done, and in an instant we didn't even consider it anymore when there were others who were in desperate need of help and the concern for major flooding in town was immanent.  So we've realized it's been hard to get back into the swing of things with building the house and getting out there again as much as possible.  But tonight was the first night this week that Nathan got out there and started working on it.  A good reminder that building our house is not what it's all about.  Yes, we need to work on it but our focus needs to be on the Lord, and He will guide our every step.
Please continue to pray, we have multiple friends who have and are experiencing major flooding in their homes, the river will not go down for a while and there is the potential for the river to rise if we have more rain.  The road is still long and hard for them, as they are still battling the elements and will have major repairs and rebuilding once the water finally recedes.

Keller Paving, on the outskirts of town, major flooding

hwy 52, the road out to where we live, completely flooded and for a period of time was closed

one view of the river, near where our old house was (only a block away)

the shop where our stuff is being stored and where Nate and his crew sandbagged

a dike that was built near the shop

Please Pray: Flooding

We just got a report that the family whose house we took a picture of on Sunday is currently stuck  at their home because the river has risen again and has completely washed out the road.  They are working at trying to get the water out that is coming into the basement.  There are a couple guys out there at their home helping but  no one else can get out there.  Please pray for them and that the river would begin to recede.