Grace: “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9) We’ve only been up here in lovely San Jose for about 18 days, but we’re excited – and surprised! – to announce that we’ve already found a new place to call home. Originally, the plan as I knew it was to move up and stay with my parents for at least the summer, giving us time to rest from the initial move, get established with Kaiser, get to to know the area, and do a thorough apartment hunt before Ivan starts working full-time in August. It seemed like a great plan on our end, and we were thankful that the offer to stay with my parents took away the pressure to “hit the ground running” as soon as we arrived. Also, my parents had warned us that the housing market was pretty competitive and fast-paced, so our expectations of being quick enough to spot and nab the right place on the first try were fairly low.

But once we arrived,  Ivan (who has learned throughout these last 6 months that “success” most often does involve a running start) started browsing some listings online anyway, just to get a feel for what was out there. That first night, he spotted a first-floor unit in a new complex….a complex that was literally a block away from my parents’ condo and about 5 minutes away from Kaiser. This seemed beyond too good to be true, so he put it on hold, and he and my mom went to look at it the next day. By the end of that day, he had signed a lease, and we were some surprised but grateful new apartment renters!

This past week we’ve been slowly unpacking boxes and getting our things settled, in addition to keeping up with Kaiser. Correction – Ivan has been doing most of the unpacking, and I’ve been “supervising” and managing the Pandora playlists. And admiring his unpacking and assembly skills. Since Valley Christian will be sending Ivan to a music symposium in Indiana for a week starting June 25th, our plan is to finish getting everything ready at the new place before he leaves but stay settled with my parents until his return, then officially start living there July 2nd.

This was definitely not our vision of how June would turn out, but God’s way has proved so much more generous and abounding than anything we would have thought to hope for. It’s moments like these that remind me to be thankful that He – not me, or Ivan, or anyone else – is the One who’s actually deciding what each day will bring.

Ivan: Amen to that! 🙂