In 2019, the Lord told me I was moving to a new city. I thought He meant Cincinnati proper since I technically lived in a village outside of the city limits at the time. Spoiler alert: He didn’t. In the summer of 2020, I felt the inkling that I would be moving soon and had an idea that I would start looking for a new place the following spring. In the fall of 2020, the Lord would wake me up in the night watches and instruct me to walk the halls of my home and pray for the people that would live there. I knew my move was coming soon, but I had no idea how major it would be.
In February 2021, the Lord told me to move to Texas, then confirmed Dallas was the city. I was absolutely shook. I knew immediately in my spirit that this was the Lord, but that didn’t make it any less shocking or overwhelming. Around this time, my poor Belle and I got attacked on a walk. The attack hit me in every way - emotionally, physically, financially, and spiritually - and I came to know it was nothing but the enemy. I was in a tough season where I was tired of doing life on my own without a partner, and adding something like moving across the country with no one to help wasn’t a vibe for me. February was a difficult month, so I focused on my and Belle’s recovery and did little to nothing about moving to Texas.
As time went on, I still felt the nudge to move, so I spent all of March praying, confirming, and dipping my toe into what life in Texas would look like for me. I started looking at homes and apartments in Dallas to get an idea of what was available. I found plenty of dream homes and apartments out of my price range, but I quickly narrowed my search to what I really needed and a little bit of what I wanted. My house in Cincinnati had a generous yard, which I loved when I first toured the house but quickly despised when I realized I had to take care of it on my own. I was adamant about never mowing another lawn for the rest of my life, which left me with two options for my new place: townhome/condo or apartment.
Did I mention that I had no idea why I was moving to Texas? If not, I had no idea why God was calling me to Texas. I discovered I could keep the same job (we had been remote since March 2020), so it made no difference where I lived within the DFW metroplex.
But, not knowing why I was moving to Texas or what I would be doing there left me with major ambiguity in terms of what kind of home I would need.
For all I knew, God could call me back to Cincinnati after only a few months! This made house hunting difficult, but at the same time, it gave me a focus point of choosing something suitable for the moment and the future.
In April 2021, I put my Cincinnati home on the market. This was my first home, and a lot of blood, sweat, and tears (literally) went into it over the 3 years since I bought it. All of this was a colossal faith move for me, so I asked God to make it extremely clear that I was doing the right thing (and to correct me if I wasn’t). Within hours of my house hitting the market, I had more than 5 showings lined up, two of which were for that evening. By 9PM that night, I had received two offers, one of which was full price with no crazy contingencies. I prayed about it and accepted the offer the following day.
I did feel some resistance with agreeing to sell my home, but God came through.
He led me to the story of when He had instructed Abraham to go to the land He would show him (Genesis 12:1).
When I first found my home in Cincinnati, God confirmed it was for me by showing me the promises of the Abrahamic covenant. (Read more about that experience here.) Now that I was leaving the house, God pointed me back to Abraham in a new way.
I knew God would show me where I would live once I set foot in Dallas, so I booked a trip for the first weekend in May to look for a place. As soon as I landed, I began house hunting with my (fantastic) real estate agent. I admit I was being extremely picky at the time. I was low-key burnt out from owning and maintaining a single-family home alone. I wanted something with little to no maintenance and something new, preferably brand new. That would’ve been fine... if it wasn’t a Seller’s Market with inflated prices and bidding wars all over the place. After not finding any homes I wanted within my price range, and being outbid on a house I was willing to stretch my budget for, I decided to go with an apartment.
When I first toured the apartment, I absolutely loved it! It was beautiful, spacious, the kind of floor plan I wanted, full of natural light, and was still pretty private since it was a corner unit. Sure, the rent was higher than my mortgage, and I would be gaining zero equity. Still, I was okay with that since I wouldn’t be responsible for any maintenance. The morning before I flew back to Cincinnati, I went to take a second look at the apartment. As I drove up and walked the unit, I was excited - on the surface. However, when I actually stopped and thought about living there, I felt nothing but dread in the pit of my stomach. But, the weekend was over, I would be moving in less than a month, and I hadn’t found a house. So, I chose to go against that feeling and apply for the apartment. I was disappointed that God hadn’t made it clear to me where I was supposed to be, but I needed somewhere to live and felt that this was the best choice for my situation.
On one level, I was frustrated that I would be going back to shared walls and throwing money away on rent every month. But on another level, I was excited to be debt and responsibility free. Since I still felt that the apartment wasn’t for me, I didn’t immediately sign the lease. It was early May, and the unit wouldn’t be ready until mid-June. The closing date for my Cincinnati home was set for the end of May. So, I arranged for my stuff to go into a storage unit and for me and Belle to stay with some friends in Texas until the apartment was ready.
Following instruction from God comes with pushback from Satan, and I experienced a lot of chaos during April and May.
The enemy was doing everything he could to deter me from moving.
I had to continuously remind myself that God confirmed this move and simply trust that He would be in it with me. I was nervous and a little scared, but I knew I had to do it. I closed on selling my first ever home on June 2 and spent the remainder of the week in a hotel with Belle. On Friday, June 4, I started the 14+ hour drive to Dallas.
I’m not one for road trips, especially alone, with a fur child and a car full of suitcases and boxes. But, that drive (split between two days) was the smoothest drive I have ever experienced. I only hit minor traffic once, and had no other delays or traffic issues until I arrived within the DFW metroplex. On my second day in Dallas, the friend I was staying with and I were on the way to check out a couch I had purchased online to make sure I liked it in person. We drove by a new townhome development on the way to the store. I googled it, saw they had some lots available, sent the info to my agent, and set up a showing for later that day.
The townhome had everything on my list: the minimum number of bedrooms and bathrooms I wanted, a garage, an end unit with plenty of natural light, and even a fenced courtyard with some grass for Belle! The community had amenities I didn’t even ask for (shoutout to Ephesians 3:20), and the overall neighborhood was picturesque. Even with all of those pros, I wasn’t immediately sold that this was the place for me. This same thing happened when I found my Cincinnati home, so I wasn’t new to wanting extra confirmation from God. After a few days of prayer and pondering, I knew this was my house. The only issue was that it wouldn’t be ready until the end of June, two weeks after I had planned to move into the apartment. The amazing friends I was crashing with said it was okay if I stayed longer, so I decided to move forward with purchasing the townhome.
Here’s a lesson for those that have never dealt with new construction: don’t count on it when they tell you a date. After I was locked into the contract, I learned my closing was delayed until mid-July. I was beyond frustrated because not only was I in a brand new city, I was without my own space and all of my stuff.
I felt like I couldn’t start my life in Texas and was stalled from moving forward.
I wasn’t comfortable exploring the city or meeting new people because all I had brought with me was comfy loungewear and workout clothes. I had packed light since I wasn’t planning to do much of anything before moving into the apartment. I told myself I could push through for two more weeks. So I did. Then, those two weeks were up, and my closing date got pushed again. Finally, almost two months since I had said goodbye to my home in Cincinnati and moved my entire life across the country, I closed on my first home here in Texas.
This season of in-between had some of the most challenging moments I have ever experienced. The longer I went without a place to call my own, the more unsettled I felt. I am an extreme homebody, so not having a place of my own was problematic, to say the least. Not surprisingly, I started moving things in immediately after my closing appointment and made a reel to celebrate. All my appliance and furniture deliveries arrived within the first few days, and my stuff showed up from Cincinnati within the week.
This home, the place God eventually showed me, was and is truly an answered prayer. It not only fit the bill in terms of my house hunt, but it fit my style and “level” of where I always wanted to be in terms of furniture & decor. Call it superficial, but God knows my deep desire for a specific type of home, and He delivered on those things with this home. This journey was an absolutely crazy yet gratifying whirlwind that fueled my faith like never before. To relieve these memories with me, take a look at my “New House - Moving/Dallas” highlight on my Instagram.
If you are in a season of in-between, or if you’ve received an instruction to go to a new place (whether it be a job, city, relationship, etc.), trust and know that God is with you. He is with you in the ambiguity and will show you where you need to be. Sometimes a leap of faith is just that - a leap. You can’t see what’s on the other side, and you can’t imagine what may go on in the middle, but you have to know that God is with you from the start. By His grace, I successfully uprooted my entire life and moved 1000 miles away from home to a promise God had for me. There’s no telling where He will take you in your situation, and you won’t know unless you take the leap.
To celebrate officially being in my home for one year, I’ll be revealing a few things I’ve learned since I moved in. You can check out those gems in my next post.
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