*some* answers

God answers prayers.........He just does it in *His* own timing, not ours.

When we first REALLy decided we wanted to move closer to the church, plus wanting to decrease our monthly rent, we talked about a certain neighborhood. It was just a block from the church, close to the youth pastor and his family and a nice family-friendly neighborhood. There was a duplex across the street from this YP's home, it was for rent, but it was probably the *least* nice house on the block, it just didn't look good for us (and I think it ended up being a 2 bedroom, which we figured wasn't large enough).

Well, in the past few months, we have looked EVERYWHERE. In that particular neighborhood, MILES away for there, ANYWHERE! There was *nothing* that was appropriate. It was either too expensive, too small, too scary or in a scary neighborhood. I am now APPALLED at what landlords call *nice* and where some families actually live. Saddened, really, that some people feel there is no other choice then put up with these creepy landlords and landlords who just don't care.

Then, just a few days ago, we saw a For Rent sign across the street from the YP's home ~ right next to the yellow, not-so-nice home. This was also for a duplex. We called right away, and got in to look at it. Technically, it's too small, as we will have to find storage for some of our things, but it was nice. Clean. Cute. And Cheap!! Praise the Lord!

See, we have had some mishaps that I won't get into over the last few months, trying to find a rental. We even thought we had found a place, gave our 30 days notice at our current home, only to have it fall through a few days ago. So here we were, without a home to move to, yet we HAD to be out by Aug. 1st. Kinda worrisome.

And I *did* worry, but MUCH less than I would have in the past. I just had this *feeling* ~ I KNEW the Lord had us in the palm of His hand. I knew we had a good church, and no one was going to let us live on the streets. Now, we hunted every. single. day. looking for a home ~ we didn't just sit back and say "oh, the Lord will take care of it". We searched and searched and searched ~ knowing the Lord *was* taking care of us.

So YES, we are moving to the small duplex. We have spoken with the really WONDERFUL Jr. High Pastor who is allowing us to store some stuff in his garage (he lives in the other side of the duplex that also houses the YP and his family). We may invest in a shed for the backyard for some more storage. Things may be tight. But it is CHEAP! It is only for a year or so. It will be fine.

And this will simply "encourage" me to work even more diligently at cutting back, scaling down, getting rid of the "stuff". We are not pack-rats by *any* means, but we are Americans ~ thus we have too much stuff (generalization, I know). The only thing I need now is to invest in some storage bins, organizational shelves or drawers, and keep up my energy.


So now I need to go pack........
~ACK~
*Michigan Momma*