Where God guides...

...He provides. This is a quote from the book "God Guides" by Mary Geegh. Our friends Scott and Lisa gave us this book a few years ago, and since reading it, this quote often pops in and out of my mind. Lately it has been popping up more frequently.

**This post was written a couple weeks ago. I'll be posting some other stuff from "back then" as well. Just so no one is confused!

When Darin and I were first married, we headed to South Africa to visit some friends that were volunteering at a children's home north of Pretoria. We both loved being there and even briefly talked about going back to volunteer with this same organization. After 3 weeks of playing with babies, meeting wonderful new friends and seeing some amazing sights, we came back home to Michigan and settled into life.

A couple years later, the company Darin worked for wanted to start up a business in South Africa. Darin was able to go back over on a few different occasions to help seek out different opportunities and make some business connections. In 2006, when Tyson was 2 and Jori was just a few months old, I was able to travel with him for 3 weeks without the kids. Once again we had a wonderful time (even though we missed our sweet babies in Michigan!) and were able to renew past relationships and see even more of this amazing country.

In 2008, our whole family had the opportunity to live in South Africa for 10 weeks. You can read about the great adventures we had right here (then you can decide if you want to read the rest of the entries from those ten weeks!) we had an amazing time. Our kids flourished, our marriage was the best it's ever been, Darin and I both felt like we were being called to stay in Africa. We even made an offer on a lodge, but after a few ups and downs and wondering if this was really going to happen, we wound up right back in Michigan, living our little life in Hudsonville.

Only this little life seemed like right where we were supposed to be. We both were getting more involved in our church, Tyson was doing great in school, both kids had made some very special friends and it just seemed like everything was working as it should. I finally felt content with my lot in life, something that I had LONG struggled with!

Fast forward to April 2010. We are living our beautiful life, enjoying being a part of a few different "communities", Darin was at a new job that he absolutely loved and then we get an email from an acquaintance in South Africa. This man was going to be opening up a new business and was looking for a partner. Darin waited a few days, then sent an email to get some more information. This continued for a couple weeks. Then by mid-May we are starting to pull together funds to actually buy into this new business. We sign papers-a business contract-and then things just keep moving forward from there.

Now it is the end of August and on September 1 our house will be officially on the market. I have been busy cleaning the house for the realtor, sorting through stuff for our upcoming moving sale, trying to decide what to bring along with us to South Africa and what to store at Darin's parents house. Our kids don't know. Yet. We are planning on telling them on August 30th, just a couple days before the For Sale sign goes up in the yard. I am hoping that this conversation goes well, but I also know that there could be tears and lots of fears and I am not sure if I'll be able to handle that!

In some ways it has been hard keeping our plans under wraps these last few months, but I am thankful that we have been able to enjoy one last summer here in Hudsonville without a lot of questions and comments about our future plans. I am glad that things are going to be more out in the open now as it is going to be a huge change that will probably be consuming my thoughts and probably this blog as well!

As of right now, our plan is to move sometime in January. That could very well change, so I am trying not to get myself too set on any particular time frame. We are excited to share more about what we plan on doing once we're there, and we also look forward to seeing what God will do with us!