Will You Leave Room For God?

 I'm quite certain that at this point, nothing I can say will shock you.

Make you shake your head, probably.

Shock you, nope.

So here's the thing.  Last year we felt strongly called to sell our house and buy a small farm, with the goal of radically transforming our lifestyle and food supply.  We've probably always been so-called-urban-homesteaders with our gardens, herbs, cloth diapers, laundry lines etc- just not really thinking much about the terminology.  This past fall, however, we just felt like maybe it was time for more.  Like God wanted our family life to be more family and more life and abundant in a new way.

And then epilepsy reared its ugly head and it became seriously clear that selling our house while Lucie was unstable was not going to happen.  It hurt to pull back, but it needed to be done.


I made myself let that dream sleep.  I didn't like it, but I'm a mom- that's what we do sometimes to take care of the little ones in front of us, right?

Well Tim couldn't quite shake the itch that God still wanted this to happen now..

He did some researching and creative thinking and started dreaming of just buying land we could build on later or something that wouldn't mean we had to sell our current house.

He kept praying and kept looking and almost daily bringing me new properties to review or look at.  After driving out to look at one that was decidedly creepy (pretty sure to this day there were squatters living there), I finally told him.  Honey, look- I want this as much as you do.  I just think God is saying not right now.  I can't keep looking at listings and driving to places and getting my hopes up, only to have them fall through.  I need to just focus on things at home, which are hard enough right now without moving.

He said ok, but one exception-  I had to agree to give God room to have the final say.

I had to leave room for God's creativity and blessing.

One week later, Tim brought me another property.  I wasn't going to go look.  He said he thought this was it.  I asked how on earth that could be possible- he said trust him.

I did.

I do.

I should trust him more, really.

Within 24 hours we had visited, made an offer, had the offer accepted and put financing in order.

Not a farm house, but the home an older couple split off (along with 8 acres) from their original homestead and built for themselves 50 years ago that was recently taken entirely apart to be refinished only the most recent owners got tired (broke? bored? other?) half way through and stopped.  Right after they did all the hard stuff like new drain tiles in the basement, new well and septic, and the kitchen.   Ironically, its the newest house we've ever lived in!

It was a steal and when our old house sells our mortgage will be less than it is now.

A financially blessing on top of everything else.

(We just have to share one bathroom and one bedroom until we can finish the rest of the basement.... Indahl's have got grit though, I'll tell you that, and I'm sure we will be just fine.)

Of course, the reason we have so much grit is because nothing here is ever boring.  One might even say we like to do things the hard way.

We closed on the first Friday of March and Tim left the next Monday for a work trip to Florida.  I spent that day in the ER with Lucie who wore herself out playing outside while we moved and had 22 seizures before lunchtime.



The next Monday, we spent the day in the ER and OR because Tomas got his finger caught in the front door.



We totally fell off the Soup for Lent train, although we are hoping to make a last push next week during Holy Week.

Aidan is dancing in a show the end of April and has rehearsal many times per week only its now 10 minutes further to the studio.

Lucie is wearing a helmet full time and starting early intervention preschool...in our old school district because they started her IEP and thats what makes the most sense, but it means more driving for me.  It's also now twice as far to the clinic for her therapy but somehow I'm making it work. Her epilepsy is still not remotely controlled.



We've painted the entire upstairs, finished the rabbit and chicken coop, started cleaning out the barn, marked out fence lines, are running a dozen maple taps ...and have done absolutely nothing to remedy that bathroom/bedroom situation.



We really do need to work on that eventually!

Our farm has already expanded by 22 wings, thanks to the generosity of another homeschool family getting rid of their flock (and a second family who took them in for us short term).



We reserved a puppy from a breeder.

Sarah thought it would be the ideal time to learn to stand up.



I may or may not plant a garden this year, but I ordered seeds just in case.

Our old house will be on the market in a week or two after we finish cleaning, but that my friends is the kind of crazy that happens when you agree to let God work in the margins of your life to make things happen.

Oh, and I'm speaking at a women's retreat in Wisconsin on Saturday and its supposed to snow.  Pray for me!

On the surface it may look like I haven't left much room for God this Lent.  In reality, He's found plenty of space of his own to call home.  A friend's son walked into the new house, flaws and all and whispered, "It's so peaceful here."

And that my friend, is the whole and entire point.