BIG Changes on the Horizon!

For the past couple years, I've had this overwhelming urge to uproot myself and become more available to be used for God's purposes. Having a small retail business, I don't really have the freedom to "get up and go", even if I were feeling called elsewhere. My focused prayer (starting a couple years ago) became this (paraphrased): "Lord, what I desire is to be able to support my family financially doing YOUR work, hopefully in the area of music related ministry where I seem most gifted. Also, if there's an opportunity to move to a warmer climate (compared to Minnesota), I'm all for it. But, so I know this is Your will and not just my personal fantasy, You'll have to align buyers to show up for my home and business at the same time." With this shaky economy, I figured my chances were thin, but I put everything up for sale anyways.

Withing two weeks of each other, we received an offer on my home and business. I counter offered the business price, and he accepted. We counter offered the house price, and they dissappeared. Yikes! Anyways, the reality of major change has entered in and we're doing our best to not get overwhelmed with it all. On one side we're very excited, on the other side, we're a little terrified. (Not really, but kinda... ) I've looked into "next steps", and I believe we'll be heading to Colorado Springs so I can go through the New Life School of Worship. It's a 9 month course, and then I'll be seeking a full time position in that field afterwards. We're somewhat open to location, but ultimately looking for somewhere to lay or roots down for a while again. Of course we're kicking ourselves a little for not accepting that first offer on the house, but in our defense it had only been on the market two days and I didn't know the business was getting on offer the following week. So now we're praying like crazy to get another similar offer soon. I know God is looking down at us shaking His head saying, "HELLO???... I had it totally set up for you, and you messed it up!" :(

We haven't had many more showings on the house since, but we just dropped the price under $200,000 last weekend, and we've got a showing lined up for tomorrow. The business is scheduled to close (close, meaning transfer of ownership) on July 28th. We'll most likely be heading to Colorado that first weekend of August. It's kind of tricky to do anything to prepare right now, because we're trying to keep our house looking good for showings even though it would be nice to start packing things away and getting rid of some other things.

We should have more details in the next month or so. Is this crazy, or what!?

House for Sale

I'd like to offer an apology to our family and friends who check our blog frequently. We have been busy getting our house ready to go on the market and it's been completely consuming. We are tremendously thankful to all of our friends and family that have stepped in to help prepare the house or watch the kids for us while we prepared. Also, we'd like to send a special thanks to Zac's dad for painting and preparing several rooms in the house, and Zac's mom for taking the kids for two weekends in a row! And thanks to my aunt, uncle, and cousins for taking the kids for the weekend! There is no way we could have finished the house without all of your help!!!!

We know that the timing of the sale of our house is all in God's hands. We are trying to carefully let go of our worries and remember we are surrounded by His presence and perfect timing. It is extremely difficult keeping the house suitable and spotless for showings with three little ones so I pray that the house would sell quickly, but again, it is in His timing. My kids have been very good despite us being so distracted and unable to give them the attention they are used to. Aubriella cleaned the entire playroom yesterday, made Micah's bed, and did several small chores. What a trooper!

Here is a link if you want to check out our house -Feel free to make an offer ;)

www.4531washburn.com

First Father/Son Retreat

This past weekend, Gavin and I went to Covenant Pines in McGregor, MN for a Father/Child retreat. This was the first year he was old enough to go, so we thought we'd give it a try. We both had a great time! The weather was forecasted to be cold and rainy all weekend, but Saturday ended up just about perfect. It was a little chilly, but the sky was clear and the sun was shining.

The other fun surprise was that Mike Norton from Mora was doing the preaching part of the weekend... accompanied by his great storytelling abilities and some magic tricks. I got to know the Norton family quite well as I grew up in Mora. I played music and formed a couple bands with Mike's son, Zak, in high school and after high school. Also, I used to help the Nortons when they led retreats at Big Sandy back in the day (not too far from Covenant Pines). So it was great to catch up with him in between activities too.

Gavin got to try all kinds of new activities while he was up there. One of the coolest parts for him was the huge climbing wall. I don't know how high it is, but I'll guess about 40 ft. And, once he gets to the top, there's a long cable ride for him to ride on. Click on the album below to see some pictures, and there's a short video of the cable ride below that also. I did a poor job shooting the video because I lost Gavin through the viewfinder for a couple seconds, but you'll get the idea.

Covenant Pines 2009 Photo Album