There Was An Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe...and Then She Was Told To Get Out

A month from today we have to be out of our house.  Which seems reasonable, except we just found out. Four years ago we bought our first home.  I was a stay at home Mom with two small children.  Asa was 3 and Gretchen was 1.  Life was...simpler.  We had moved to FL 3 years prior to that for Ray to take a position as worship pastor at Sarasota Christian Church.  We LOVE the church.  And we love Florida.  So we did the next rational thing and bought a house.  An ugly house.

But it was structurally sound, a great price, and close to everything.  Then 75 of our closest friends showed up in force to help turn our ugly house into a really cute little home, ready for our family of 4.  In 12 days (what were we thinking?) we:
*replaced all the flooring
*painted all the walls (after removing horrible wood paneling that we discovered was covering over wallpaper.  Lots and lots of wallpaper)
*replaced all the kitchen appliances and built a new kitchen countertop
*put in baseboards
I am sure there was more. It was a whirlwind.  But it was worth it.  After all, this was the house we were going to die in.  Our family was full grown and we had found "home".

A year later God tapped us on the shoulder.  He whispered something about foster care and orphans...yada yada yada.
Our plans changed.
Our 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1400 square foot home for four became a home for seven.  Our 3 girls shared a room and our 2 boys shared a room.  The kids ages were: 2, 2, 3, 4, and 5.  I think I just threw up in my mouth a little....
Anyway, they were small and we all fit just fine.  We knew as the kids grew we may eventually need something with more space, but for almost two years the seven of us fit quite nicely in our little house (and I had spent enough time in Haiti to know that even calling our home "little" was laughable compared to third world standards).
In November 2010 our foster kids' case took an unexpected turn and suddenly the kids we loved like crazy were eligible for adoption.  My heart broke for their loss, but rejoiced for our gain.  We knew we could never let them go.  Keeping sibling groups together is apparently a pretty big deal and we knew that our three foster children, along with their 3 older siblings (who had been placed with a family in our church) were a package deal.  More on this later.
By December 2010 our 1400 square foot home housed the 10 of us.  Ray liked to joke that it felt like jail. We each had roughly 10'x10' of space.  Again my mind returned to Haiti.  Could we stay in our home?  Sure we could!  Plenty of people deal with far less.  But our two teenage girls didn't even have a bedroom.  We decided to rent for a year.  The thought of purchasing another home just didn't seem possible.  Not simultaneous to becoming a mom of 8 children!  Yesterday my biggest challenge was potty training.  Today I am dealing with driver's permits and dating.  I was not equipped for house hunting too.
So we rented our little house out and we moved into a large rental.  It's hard to believe we've been there 15 months already.  We signed a 12 month lease and have been month to month ever since.  We considered moving sometime this summer or early fall.  Myopically, I never considered that our landlord may want to move back in.  Which he does.  In 30 days.
Here's what I know: It WILL all work out.  God has the perfect home for us.  What I also know is that God's timing is not always my timing.  And that for the desires of my heart to be fulfilled, sometimes my desires need to change to be His.
One of my favorite songs right now is by Lincoln Brewster.  The chorus says "I receive everything that you're doing in me.  And I believe that the rest of my life are the best days of my life."  Amen.  And amen.