From the Beginning

I realized a few days ago that I just started this blog willy nilly without really starting from the beginning. Some of you know the story others of you may have lived part of the story with us but for the sake of documenting and for the few of you that don’t know I will now “tell the rest of the story…”

It all started in early 2004, okay truthfully it started way before then but trust me you don’t want to know the WHOLE story. So it was 2004 and Braxton was on the missions committee at Christ Methodist. We had some close friends that had moved into the neighborhood and I pretty much thought they were ridiculous but I also knew that they did not have kids yet and the minute they did they would not want to live there anymore. Why in the world would anyone want to raise kids in the hood. So he comes home from one of his meetings and says, “I really feel like God is calling our family to move into Binghampton.” I said, “Yes sweet husband, you lead and I will follow.” (That is what I should have said) Okay, here is the truth… Insert bug eyes here…WHAT?!?!?! You have lost your mind, we have two young children and we cannot do something like that, please pray about that some more because if you go you go alone. Insert me putting my foot down. (I was so wrong for this!)

I thought that was that, surely he would listen to reason. Reason being his wife that would constantly bring up all the bad stuff that was happening in Binghampton and then put in front of him his two beautiful angelic sons.

About 3 months after he dropped that little bomb shell we signed up to do a missions blitz with our Sunday School class. We volunteered with the BDC, Binghampton Development Corporation. We met on a blazing hot Saturday in August in the front yard of another set of our radical and crazy friends who had moved into the neighborhood. Brian Crenshaw who at the time was working for the BDC welcomed us and said, “thanks for coming today. we are going to walk across the street to this yellow house and do some work on it. The BDC has purchased the home and we are trying to fix it up to move in an intentional family. Before we begin let’s pray.” Well as we started to pray I had one of those moments that I will never forget, in fact it still gives me chill bumps to this day. The Holy Spirit in a still small quiet way said in my heart, “that is your family.” Well, we finished praying and I was hoping to heaven that my husband had not heard the same thing, I was pretty sure I had just made that up in my head. So no sense telling anyone, right? We proceeded to walk across the street and work on the house. The minute we walked in I felt sick, no way I could ever live there. It was incredibly small, dirty, messed up floors, ceilings, etc..

Fast forward to October 31st, Braxton and I have been looking around at houses. We are preparing to buy a home finally, it took us 4 years to sale our house in Ripley. We found a home that I simply loved. It was so cute, in a great area and had a screened in back porch with a swing. Those of you that know me well know that I LOVE a swing. So, we were going to sign a contract on the house the next day. Well that night I could not sleep at all, tossed and turned, had bad dreams, the whole nine yards. I woke up the next morning and was in the worst mood. I went to work without even really speaking to Braxton. It was at about 2:00 that day that Braxton calls and says, “I have not been able to get a hold of the mortgage guy or the real estate agent all day.” At this point I burst into tears and say, I know why, we are supposed to live in Binghampton, I just don’t want to. He sits there in silence for a few minutes and then says, “I know, I have known that all day, I just did not know how to tell you.”

We talk for a few more minutes and then I tell him I am going up to talk to Robert Montague, director of the BDC. I walk into Robert’s office and begin to sob again. I am pretty sure he thought at first I had gotten lost on my way to the counseling office, but once I was able to complete a sentence I told him Braxton and I wanted to live in Binghampton.

We talked for awhile and in the next few weeks we rode around the neighborhood looking at lots and talking about options. In the meantime, I still had not told a soul about what the holy spirit had placed on my heart back in August. Also, we had decided not to tell anyone about us moving to the neighborhood until we knew for sure where that would be and what it would look like. We knew it was going to be a shock for our families. It was right before Thanksgiving and I was on the phone with my sweet friend Erin Crenshaw, Brian’s wife, and she said, “Oh, I meant to tell you, you know that house that your Sunday School class worked on? Well they are going to tear it down and build another house. It needs too much work to fix it up.” I about freaked out!! I had heard right, this was the place where the Lord was leading our family. I immediately called Braxton and told him. We then called the BDC and told them we wanted to build on that lot.

So after much prayer, paperwork, telling our families, etc… we started to build in June 2005. We moved into our home on December 18,2005. It has been a journey and one that I am so glad I did not miss out on. I will tell you now that by maturity in the Lord if my husband comes home tomorrow and tells me we are moving to China I will follow without hesitation, maybe with medication but without hesitation ;)