Two years ago we drove into this town, closed on a home and moved in. We knew pretty much no one. We would need to find new doctors and dentists, new grocery stores, new church, new friends, new pretty-much-everything.
And I am so glad we obeyed the Lord. He opened this door totally on His own initiative. He gave us confirming “words” all along the way as we walked through each open door. We rehearsed the “words” we had received and the faithfulness of the The Lord when the days were really hard and quite lonely in this new place.
I was reading in Jeremiah about when he was imprisoned, and he received a word from the Lord. In Chapter 32, verse 8 Jeremiah {after what God said would happen was followed up with an opportunity that matched the word from God}, said,“THEN I knew that this was the word of the Lord.” Evidently, Jeremiah believed he had a word from God but wasn’t sure what to do with the impression from God UNTIL the actual opportunity came to him to buy the land.
I remember in Decemberish of 2015 I had an impression that I sensed was from The Lord. I wrote about it in my journal, and I shared it with Josh. It was a picture in my mind of The Lord scooping me up and turning to walk away with me in His arms. I contemplated what exactly it might mean. I talked through it with Josh– ”maybe God is prompting me to withdraw more with Him and away from the distractions of the world…maybe no more social media, quit blogging? I don’t know, but it means something.”
About a month or two later is when we met a couple that we were going to Africa with in conjunction with our Pastor at the time. I just “happened” to attend the meeting because #1- it was our anniversary, #2- Josh’s dad had come to town with one of the men who would also be in the meeting, therefore he could stay with the kids in my absence, #3-our Pastor’s wife was unable to be at the meeting and I thought it would be nice to be there so that the wife of the couple we were meeting wouldn’t have to be the only lady. I didn’t know who this couple was beforehand, but I was happy to meet them and to hear their story. I remember standing in the hallway waiting for them when someone who knew of our meeting said to me, “So you have a pretty important meeting this afternoon, I hear!” I smiled and said, “Yes, we do,” though I wasn’t really sure what he was talking about. He probably didn’t realize how important this meeting was actually going to turn out to be for The Dorminy Family.
Long story short, the couple we met that day is now who Josh works for. The five years Josh tried to balance a full-time commercial real estate broker job and a full-time Executive Director of a ministry job ended up being a huge positive to who Josh works for now. He highly values business knowledge and experience and highly values ministry knowledge and experience. Josh was in the middle of both, only because of God directing his steps and opening up doors of opportunity that no man could close.
So back to that impression of God scooping me up and walking away. At the time when we were praying about the opportunity to move to Charlotte, away from all we knew in Georgia, we received specific verses and confirmations from the Lord. And one day it dawned on me– THAT IMPRESSION of the Lord scooping me up! This is what it meant. He was taking me away from all I knew, wanted me to start over.
But over the course of many months, that impression came to mean much more. The Lord provided this opportunity for our whole family, for sure. I could see clearly the advantages for Josh, even though he was being stretched in his new job. I could see the kids learning so much about making new friends, trusting God, and working through frustrations. They now say they love that we moved!! Let me just tell you, that is NOT what they were saying when we told them we would be moving away from Woodstock! But for me I had a harder time seeing the good. I trusted God would bring it full circle for me, I really did. But the day to day junk was challenging. I won’t bore you with all that went wrong in the house we were living in. It was a lot! But all throughout the adjusting to everything new, the Lord has been so personal, so faithful, so patient with me. That impression was not just a way to show me we were moving away from all we knew and loved. It was a call to flesh out the truth that JESUS IS ENOUGH. He really, really, really is.
And so today, on our two year anniversary, a few things happened that made me vividly recall the early days of living here and all the challenges we faced. #1) The washer flooded the upstairs because Mack didn’t set the load size exactly right. Enter screaming and many, many sopping wet towels as a result of trying to dry up the water that was making its way across the upstairs. #2) The chimney guys were here to service our wood burning stove and our gas logs before fall and found a small problem that will need resolving next week. I was trying to read to the kids from our history book while his large vacuum ran quite loudly. #3) Our dryer isn’t working right because the vent on the roof is the incorrect type of vent and is clogged. Still waiting to hear back from the roofer I called for help, so I decided to take all the dirty clothes to a laundromat. And there was a ridiculous amount of dirty clothes overflowing from the girls’ baskets!! Ridiculous. I may have firmly told them that “if it ever gets higher than the basket again, I will give you ONE outfit to wear for two straight weeks. You will have to wash it every day to have anything to wear outside of the house.” I can be dramatic like that. But I was totally serious.
So on our second anniversary in Charlotte we are still finding new places and doing new things!