New Home!!!

There are many times I look at our new home & realize where God has brought us from. So I wanted to share this beautiful testimony.

For the last 6 years we have been renting. Moving either every year or every other year. So when it was time to rent again. We started looking at buying. We prayed about it and agreed we would not force the issue. If it happened then this was where we needed to be. So in June our house hunt began. We looked at several dozen. Put an offer on one, it needed work before we moved in, but it was still a good size. The offer was rejected. That was hard to take. We "regrouped" our mind. Continued to pray. This was getting into the month of July. And we knew we had to find something soon. Our current rental lease was up on August 31st. We had 3 new houses to look at. I told my husband if these don't work then I'm done looking, and we'll just rent another year.

I walked in the house (that is now our home) and absolutely fell in love. This house checked off so many needs as well as desires of ours. I won't list every single one out. Although that is a part of the testimony. But the major ones that was like a reassurance that God is looking out for us were: When we put our offer on the other house that needed work we had talked about painting our master bedroom gray and replacing the doors to the doors that have character. We also looked at photos & we really loved the dining room ceiling with the tray sectioned ceiling. THIS HOUSE HAD IT!!!

Y'all - God knew our desires!!! When the other offer didn't go through, my friend said "that's ok, God has something better" ... but that's not how I was feeling at the time..... but HE DID!!!

The more of the testimony is our closing date of our new home was ON August 31st. That was the day we had to be out of our rental. And to top it off, they had a new tenant on 9/1 !!! Talk about stressful. So we told a few people to pray for an earlier closing date. We asked our Loan Agent if he could try for that. He laughed & said that would be a miracle. You see, the typical loan process was 45-60 days. And we were already getting it great on the lower end of that time frame (we submitted our offer on 7/20). Then Monday 8/22  our Loan Agent called me and said, can you do a closing this Thursday? 8/25 WHAT!?!? My Realtor called me and was just so shocked, he said a week is HUGE in the 'closing' world!! GOD IS AWESOME!!

There are several details I have left out. But that is our testimony.

And just to kinda put things into perspective, to those who did not see our first house we bought in 2006. I've attached a photo.

Believe in Your SELFIE

a fun tote bag I received for my birthday

This year (no, not a New Year's Resolution) I have been trying to do just this: Believe in your SELFIE. And no I don't mean posting more Selfies on Facebook or Instagram. What I mean is believing in myself that I don't need other people to approve of me.

Yes, I am the friend that untags myself in photos that I wasn't prepared for. Yes, I am the one in the group that makes people retake a picture because I don't like how I look. Aaaaand  I get joked about it often. I criticize everything about myself in the picture. My hair, my teeth, my weight. 

I scroll through the 'likes' on my photos and comments to see 'who has approved'. I mean, really, look at my blog name. I have issues. ;-)

This has taken me a loooooong time to actually admit this to myself. 

I'm not saying to not care about how you present yourself. I am all for taking care of your body, your health and your appearance. But not for the approval of others. Do it because you love yourself. *and on that note, ditch the scale, ditch the idolized size in your clothes. As long as you are healthy and happy. THAT should be the main goal.*

I pray I can teach my daughters this. And if I could teach every young girl/teenager something. It would be to love yourself. You will not find self appreciation by someone else loving you. You will look for self appreciation in your friends, in your parents and even in your spouse. It doesn't matter how many times my husband tells me he likes the way I look. If I don't like it, then it doesn't mean anything to me. And truthfully, in the end, the only person it is harming is.... you guessed it.... yourself. 

Your family and your true friends love you for who you are. Not by what you wear, or what your weight is. So don't feel like you have to have their approval. 

I'm not gonna stop posting pictures... cause I do enjoy staying connected with my friends and family. But I will stop obsessing over what I look like. And I will love myself, flaws and all.