Everyone's Doing It.

Blogging that is. Everyone I know has a blog. I used to blog. I gave it up. Then started it again. Then, gave it up. Mostly because I didn't consider myself that interesting, and also because I tend to err on the side of being extremely truthful, and that can have a tendency to upset folk. {Hypothetically} But, as my family embarks on a new giant adventure, I felt that I should give this blogging one more shot! God has BIG HUGE plans for the Hardings! He has been preparing our hearts for a God sized journey for some time now. About 3 years to be exact. I know that He would want me to tell people what He is up to, and just how faithful, and amazing He is. So that's the plan.

Almost two years ago, God sent us to a little place in the middle of nowhere Deep South, called Albany, GA. We were very excited to be leaving the  hustle and bustle of San Diego, for something a little slower, and less "traffic-y." Our excitement turned to "where the heck is this place" after  leaving Jackson Mississippi, and realizing the only way into this place was by a 2 lane highway, through the sticks, and no cell towers. {insert "dueling banjos" here} However, many a night we vowed to give Albany our best attitude, and to purposefully seek God's will for our family RIGHT HERE.  We did, and God gave us, such a LOVE for this little town, and it's people, that we knew God had brought us here to call it our home, forever. Prayer, after prayer, after prayer, to the Lord about showing us where and what we should do, He says "here."And we say, "Yes."

Things just work out so much better when you give God your "Yes." Since we have said that three letter word to His plan for us here, He has been doing WORK, y'all! Amazing, Awesome, WORK! And, I just love how He orchestrates everything so that it will be on His timetable. Todd and I had been watching the housing market here for quite sometime. We knew that if God wanted us here, the time would come for us to find a place to live. So for close to a year we had been watching the market, and making a list of houses and areas we were interested in. One particular house started it all off. We had been watching it and watching it, and it had dropped significantly in price. So we figured if we were serious we better contact the Realtor and go look at it before it was gone. So, that is what we did. We did our pre-approval paperwork so that if we needed to put an offer in we could. We went and looked at it, and UGH, nope. NOT IT.  We knew right away, it was not the house for us. We were so disappointed. So we figured, we would keep watching and waiting. This was early December 2012. Todd figured that we would just wait until April/May timeframe to go out again to look for anything since we were not in a hurry. I however, figured that the least we could do was go look at the houses that we had put on our list, to either cross them off, or become serious about them. There were about 8 of them. So that is what we did. We went and looked at every single one. Getting more and more discouraged. There were a couple we "liked" but none that we knew was our home. That is when our Realtor mentioned to us a couple of houses that were being built and we could go take a look at them. We figured, why not, but in all honesty, I was just D.O.N.E.  First one, about 2 months from being finished, I didn't love. Then she says, on your way out drive by this lot about a block away, blah, blah, blah. So we say okay, and thank you for her time. We drive by said lot, and on it stood just a shell of a house. Wood frame and a roof. I said to Todd, "That is our house." Call our Realtor right now, and tell her. Todd says to me "ummm we haven't even been inside of it yet." I tell him, "I don't care, that is it." "I know it." So as all good husbands should do, he listened. He made the phone call, and it was ours un-officially. It had not even been listed, and it still had approximately 4 months until it would be finished. Which by the way was perfect timing for us. It put us at the April timeframe we knew we would be looking to move. PLUS, I would get to pick everything myself, and tweak whatever I wanted to tweak within reason. Right after Christmas, we signed the contract on it, and there was no turning back! And, can I just say, this whole entire process God has shown his hand mightily, every step of the way. Our prayer when we signed the contract was " Lord, show us You, in every thing we are doing." And, He has. I have lots of stories about the building of this house, and how the Lord has showed Himself in the littlest of details. Ask me about my "God Granite Story" as my friend Teresa calls it. Or how the lot our house is on, back when it was filled with trees, and barely a paved road, I told Todd how "I wished we could build a house right here." God cares about the details, friends.

So, for a first post, I think this is a good ending point. If I blabbed told everything in the first one, it would make for a very boring blog. So come back, and pretend to be interested in the next chapter! After 25 years of faithful military service,  my Todd is about to retire. We are for the first time ever in our lives, planting deep roots. In the  middle of nowhere Deep South! Todd and I have been nomads for a very long time. And, the greatest of encouragements to us both is this quite frequent saying from dear people we know. No one just chooses Albany, GA. You are SENT to Albany, GA.