Walking in the Way...

Before and after..... Here's some pictures of our new house. This is what it looked like last April 2004 when we bought the property. The whole story seemed like a miracle for us... we had prayed about someday living in a house with a yard, but at the same time we knew the best way to get to know people was to live in an apartment. Right out our apartment window we could see two rows of houses and I kept thinking well if one of those was for sale it would be so close to everyone it would be great for ministry but the kids could have a yard. One day after picking up Rachel from her art school, I decided to drive down the road where the row of houses are... as I was driving I quite literally heard a *voice* say to me, 'go ask that Grandmother over there if she knows of any houses for sale.' I stopped the car, went to ask the Grandmother and she point to the lot across the road where a house had burned down two years ago. 'I just talked to the lady who owns that lot, she's back in town and just decided to sell.' She gave the the phone number and I tried to not get excited as I saw a beautiful plot with apple & cherry trees and a big lilac tree out front. James called the lady as soon as he got home, and the next morning at 10:00 am sharp we bought the land! As we started cleaning up the property and removing the burned out house we had 5 different people stop and ask if we wanted to sell.. all offering more money than we paid.. truly one of those God at work things..

Here's Rachel, David & Caleb playing in the backyard. The house has two bedrooms, and then the attic upstairs will also be a bedroom when the kiddos get older. The yard is small, but is has lots of beautiful trees. And you look over the back fence and there's our apartment building - 5 minute walk away.