Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

We moved to Evanston a little over a year ago to live in my parent's house while they are on their mission.  Louis had gotten a job working for the city of West Jordan as an accountant in October of 2017 and we were having a very hard time finding a house in that area.  Everything we saw that was in our price range was too small for our family, and the few houses that would work for us went under contract before we could even get in to see them.  Louis was living at his brother's house in West Jordan during the week so he didn't have to commute 2 hours home to Logan every day!  It was really hard emotionally on me.  My Dad kept saying to me, "You can move into our house.  We'd love to have someone living in our house."  Finally in December I took that offer seriously.  I went to Louis and told him I thought we should pray about whether or not we should move to Evanston.  Logically, the decision to move to Evanston didn't really make sense, but we both felt good about moving there so we went ahead with it.  Louis continued staying at his brother's house for a few more months until it got too much for me and we decided it would be best for him to come home each night instead.  It was an hour and a half commute for him each way, and it increased our gas bill A LOT, but it was the best decision for our family.
Our original plan was to stay in Evanston until the summer, when the girls would be out of school and I could make looking for a house in West Jordan my full time job.  Summer came around and Louis and I started thinking we should stay in Evanston until the following summer when my parents would get home from their mission.  We prayed about it and felt good about doing that.  So again, even though it didn't really make any logical sense, we did just that!
At the beginning of the school year Louis and I both started thinking we should stay permanently in Evanston.  He didn't have a job here, but we started looking to buy a house in the area anyway.  I felt completely at peace with that decision.  I knew that Heavenly Father wanted us here.  We found plenty of houses in our budget, but none of them were quite right.  We looked at dozens of houses and at the end of December after having an offer rejected on a house we both liked (it didn't have everything we wanted, but it would have worked really well for our family) I was starting to feel fed up.  I feel like I have a lot of faith in the Lord and His plan for me and my family, and great faith in his timing, but I was so out of patience!  Not even a week after having that moment of weakness Louis was offered a wonderful job here in Evanston that would be better hours, better pay, and a much shorter commute!  A week after he accepted this new job we found our house.  It is perfect for our family.  It has every single thing on our list.  Even things that are not on our list, like a hot tub and sauna!  It could quite possibly be our forever home and we feel so blessed.
At the beginning of the month Louis started his new job here in Evanston.  He is working for a small auditing firm as an auditor.  This new job will require a little bit of travel, but not much.  He will be traveling about 4 weeks in the spring and 3 weeks in the fall.  He already has one travel week under his belt!  Louis has the potential to really grow here and we are excited to see what this job will bring to us.
This morning we closed on our first home.  Everything from putting in our offer to closing went perfectly.  I was amazed how wonderfully it went!  I had always heard that things never go as planned with buying a house and you never actually close on the original closing date.  In our case, we actually could have closed a week early if Louis hadn't been away for work!  We are so excited to get things ready in the home so we can move in!  I will post more about it as we do those few things we want to in the house and get settled into it.

Over the last month and a half I have been overwhelmed with the love and blessings from our Heavenly Father.  I know that Heavenly Father is continually blessing me, but the blessings that have been coming to us right now have been so huge and life changing that I am truly humbled by His love.  Louis and I followed the promptings we were given with faith and we are being blessed for it.  I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father.  I am grateful for my knowledge of His Church and His teachings.  I am so grateful for my testimony and that I have learned throughout my life to trust in Him.  I know that when you do, beautiful things happen.  Each and every day they do.  From the smallest things to the most life changing things.