A New Place

If you would like to join me on a walk down memory lane, click on the picture above to find out how! I promise you will have a lot of fun!!

I ran across some pictures the other day and I knew that I would use them for a memory post some time. When I thought about it, I realized these pictures were perfect for something on my heart lately, so here goes!

I grew up as an only child, adopted by my parents when I was 13 months old. My Dad was one of the hardest working men I have ever known. I don't think he ever missed a day of work in his entire life. He worked as a Pipe fitter for Brown & Root for over 25 years. When I was about 5 years old, my parents bought a mobile home and we moved to Joshua, Texas. It's a small town about 45 minutes away from Ft. Worth. He used to work at a power plant in Glen Rose, Texas. When I was 13, he got laid off from that job (I believe the power plant shut down, but I'm not positive). My parents knew that if he wanted to continue that type of work, they were going to have to move somewhere where work could be found. My Mom's best friend lived in Baytown, Texas, so my Dad went to visit her to see if he could find work. In this type of work, jobs come and go, so they had to make sure they would be somewhere where Brown & Root would have plenty of contracts, thus plenty of steady work.

I know alot of you have probably never heard of Baytown, but this area is like the capital of chemical plants! We are located about 40 minutes East of Houston, on the Houston ship channel, so there are just rows after rows of these kind of plants, thus plenty of work for Pipe Fitters! Exxon and Shell are two of the main plants here. My parents decided that moving to Baytown would be the best option for our family. My Dad always loved what he did, and he was excellent at his craft.

Here is a picture of the Fred Hartman Bridge that you go over as you leave Baytown. It stretches over the ship channel.

This is a picture of our house in Joshua.

Have you ever woke up one day in your own home and everything felt exactly the same, but when you looked out the window, everything was completely different? That's what happened when we moved. We literally moved our house to Baytown with us!! What an odd feeling as a little girl, to wake up and realize that even though the comfort of my home was the same, the outside world had completely changed and was foreign to me!

Here are a couple of photos of our house on the move!

Here is a photo of our house once it made it to Baytown. Everything was oddly familiar, but completely different all at the same time!

So, when I thought about this story, I thought about how it really does relate to my life lately. For those of you who read my blog, you know my life is completely changing before my eyes! I prayed that the Lord would renew my faith, show me that He really is there, and it's like I woke up the next day and although everything around me seemed the same, it was all very different!

It has been amazing the way the Lord has been working in my life! Everywhere I turn, I see Him. He has delivered me from my anxiety, sent people my way to encourage and pray for me, and given me a hope again that I have not felt since before my Mom died. My tastes have changed, my thoughts have changed, my desires have changed. It's wonderful! Every day I wake up, it's like the Lord has something even better in store for me! I feel like I truly don't deserve all of these blessings that He has been sending my way, but I know that none of us do, and that is what makes them such great blessings!

I'll be honest and say that I used to just not understand Christians who always talked scripture and were always trying to talk to everyone about being saved. I didn't understand their passion for it. I loved the Lord too, but I didn't understand why they were so excited about Him. I am ashamed to admit that, but it's true. I was saved as a little girl, but I never "got it" until just recently. When you experience what I have in the past few weeks, you really do want to fall to your knees and just praise Him! It's exciting and you want to share His love with everyone that you meet. It is true that when other people see Him working in your life, they will want what you have! That's what happened to me when I started blogging and met all of these strong, Christian women. I wanted what they had!

I don't want to be closer to the Lord though for what He can do for me. I want to be used in whatever way He feels necessary to bring Him the most glory. I hope that my story will be a testimony to the power of prayer and a story of faith and His abundant love. I want to show others what they are missing when they choose to reject Him. I want to teach my girls to lean on Him like my Mom taught me. Most of all, I don't ever want to lose this passion that I have for learning more about Him. I'm not sure exactly where I'm headed, but I hope that you all will join me on my journey, and we will see where He takes me!