This post has been long overdue. In fact, next month marks one year since we’ve made the long drive and moved to Waco, TX. I told myself I’ll blog about it here but a lot of things happened at the beginning of 2020…and continues to unfold.
I came across pictures of our first trip last year here in Waco. It was in late Spring, we took a vacation down to Dallas so we can checkout some cities we only knew through pictures online. Tim just came home from Jordan, refreshed with a new perspective.
We have a list of places that we want to check out:
- Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
- Nashville, TN
- Atlanta, GA
- McKinney, TX
- Abilene, TX
On our last day in Dallas, our kids encouraged us to drive down to Waco, since we’d watched the show “Fixer Upper” when we were in the Philippines. It’s the only show we watched while we were abroad.
So we did! We got up early in the morning and ate an early breakfast. But Tim and I ensured we wouldn’t put Waco on our list of potential places to move. Don’t get us wrong, we love Ohio but, we knew when we moved there 3 years ago, that it isn’t our “home” yet.
Our family has moved a lot, you can say that we’re experts in moving (we’ve moved 7 times in our 14 years of marriage). But we’re also longing to someday have our “base“, the place we will call our HOME & settle.
I’m from the Philippines and my husband lived most of his life in the Midwest. But we have been praying for a place that we can all feel, breathe, and live like we know it’s home for our whole family.
Arriving in Waco on that late Spring vacation was special. We were all surprised by how relaxing our experience was. At some point, we forgot why we were in Dallas in the first place. We were just in Magnolia for a very short amount of time. I’m glad we didn’t peruse the downtown much (more in my part 2 blog). Needless to say, after some selfies, food truck meals, and Alabama Sweet Tea, we enjoyed our time!
On our way back to Ohio, I’ve been praying how am I going to talk about our trip with Tim. I asked God that if He had put it in Tim’s heart, then it should just be easy, let Tim open the conversation. I told God (in my mind, because you know we can speak to him right) that I was hesitant to open the conversation with my husband to avoid influencing him with my thoughts. The kids were asleep at the back and I started playing some of our playlist.
After an hour or so, I opened up first. I asked Tim what he thought of Waco. What is God impressing on him?
He didn’t get a good sleep in our hotel. He’s been thinking about Waco and that we should consider it. I know that’s also what God is putting in my heart the night before, but I told Tim…we should pray more about it.
Coming back to Ohio, we decided to do some research on the things we wanted in a place to settle. In the past, the first things we looked at were schools, property tax, and crime rates. Don’t judge me, but I just found it to be the way, whenever you look at those neighborhood or city data websites. This time though, we researched first for the community (meaning church) where we will belong. It was our priority this time and the deciding factor to move. Since we homeschooled, we also looked for the homeschool community and activities in town available for a homeschooling family like us. We checked out the Library too, although not a major deciding factor.
I did ask God if He could give us a solid confirmation by providing a buyer of our house in Ohio, and then we will move. And He did within a couple of weeks!
I love it when we grow and learn from these times. All the ups and downs of life, the moves, and decisions we’ve made, allowed us to become firm in our faith and drew us closer to Him!
We learned that we can trust God in EVERY detail of our lives if we listen to HIM. We also learned that there are going to be obstacles and roadblocks after you decide to obey and trust Him, but it doesn’t mean He is not with you. It meant, He would work it out with you and help you through it. We also learned that not all voices we hear from friends and family are from God. A lot of times, we wait and seek His will through people’s advice, instead of COMING DIRECTLY to Him.
The journey of our move to Waco was a process of waiting, trusting, and humbly surrendering to Him.
(Originally published at https://3mpstudio.com/the-story-behind-move-waco/)
