1. 2. 3.

Have you ever been caught outside, just at the end of a big storm? It’s this eerie, quiet moment where you can sense that something big just happened, and it’s unclear whether it’s really finished or just taking a break? That’s where we are.

One year ago, I was a full time grad student, living in Virginia, was just beginning a really great internship that had me travelling to D.C. three days a week, while writing a thesis and preparing to present some research at a national conference. I had another full year of grad school before we could even think about moving away from VA. My husband and I were hopeful that someday (read: in the next 10 years), God would make it possible to move back to Ohio and start a family… we figured it would be all but impossible to get back to Ashland (where we wanted to be).

Then, 6 months ago, we began the whirlwind that has been our life since July, where God has poured out blessings like water. Today, we are both employed in Ashland/Mansfield, expecting our first child, and starting to look into buying our first house. Here are three lessons we’ve learned:

1// When God is clear with you that an opportunity is the wrong choice, listen.
A very lucrative career opportunity arose for us and we were given pretty clear indication that it was not the right choice, so we turned it down. God used this as a catalyst for all the blessings that came after.

2//When you know something is the right choice, and it feels like God, it likely is.
Every awesome, exciting change that happened over the past six months happened because we were prayerful and recognized the Holy Spirit in these things, and how it feels when something is of God. We never hesitated, and have not missed out on blessings because of doubt, as a result.

3// If things aren’t great, pray about them, and God will change them/you. Promise.
Maybe this won’t happen immediately - we prayed for awhile for some of the blessings we’ve received and went through some hardship awaiting those blessings, but they will change.