Where To Next?

After leaving the property, we went south, and boy it's hot for a reason. What we thought would be a refuge and haven became an instant iron maiden around our new growth. It was a good thing we had been able to strengthen our family on the farm, because we circled the wagons tighter in the face of forced assimilation into the home culture of the relatives we stayed with. We were like flower children in  a Turkish prison. We spent every minute of the day on high alert, and I ended up in the ER twice, as we endured while hubs found work and we were able to save enough to get us completely debt-free again with a bit of a cushion. The instant that happened, things came to head, and again, he had to quit and we were thrown out on our own in the middle of December.
(No pictures, move along. The PTSD was bad enough.)

We lived in the overpacked RV in a Flying J parking lot for a week until some of our friends invited us to stay with them for Christmas. Again, I was unsure if Santa would make it. I literally had a box of crayons for each one, and some paper. But, my friends surprised us and we had a small but wonderful Christmas full of love and chocolate.

While there, we worked out a way to get to some other great friends of mine, who offered us a spare room and the chance to do our own thing. We took it, and found ourselves in a 1 bedroom mother -in-law apartment in the country. We were able to recover emotionally and get into a more independent routine of school and spiritual growth again. Suddenly my friend could no longer keep us, and we had another intense few days because we were out of options. This time, we didn't give in to the feelings of irrational fear, my friend was able to let us stay for a bit longer, and our family found exactly what we had been praying for. Through what I know to be the Lord's hand, I was put in touch with a woman who had an old mobile home for sale and was willing to seller-finance.  We are so grateful that our prayers for inexpensive temporary shelter have been answered, and we look forward to building our home on our property and setting up our farm, so that we in turn can offer shelter and freedom to others.

We have learned so much about ourselves and other people since we left our old house 18 months ago. More importantly, our testimonies of Christ and Heavenly Father have increased, as we have relied on Them for every little thing in our lives. I hope none of you will ever have to go through such a trial-by-homelessness, but we have never felt homeless, knowing that God has been watching out for us and educating us in His way.