Mountain Callings: Our God Story

Parksville Lake, photo creds: Julia Lowe

The mountains have been calling for as long as I can remember. Generationally it was born in my bones. My first summer alive I spent there on those waters, mountains surrounding all sides, growing up learning the names of them all...Big Frog, Sugarloaf, Chilhowee. Teenage years brought rides in cars with best friends and boys, windows down, music blaring, up to those mountains. In college, I spent the summer in North Carolina as a camp counselor. Waking up on top of the Blue Ridge mountains, seeing that fog from above, that soul slow. Soon after, I saw the Tetons for the very first time. They sucked me in, sucked us in. And we couldn't not go back. So he and I took that ten day trip. It was there that he asked me to be his wife, in front of those Tetons, right by Jackson lake. It was then that our dreams really started to take root and we could see ourselves there for the long haul. 

Engagement, Chape of the Sacred Heart, Grand Teton National Park

Engagement spot, C was 6 months old

So we dreamed and kept right on dreaming that dream of moving to that last true mountain town...as we joined in marriage, fought cancer, after baby boy #1 and baby boy #2, through adoption and building Tennessee homes and new jobs and experiences. We grew our family, along with our dream. 

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"When you hold your dreams with open hands, you let them breathe, grow, and have life. This can be scary because living things move, change, and take shapes we can’t predict or control. But what good is a dream if it doesn’t grow along with us?"-Emily Freeman
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SO many times we tried to do this whole chasing our dream on our own accord, on our own time line. Each time, we failed. I am pretty sure our parents and closest friends got tired of hearing about it. Bless 'em. For a while, this shocked me, that all the mechanisms of a move across the country didn't add up. For a while, I threw some pity parties and temper tantrums, crying out to God, questioning Him. How naive and immature of me. Truthfully, how sinful. So after our last attempt to hitch our wagon and move west failed, we began to come to peace that Tennessee was where we were suppose to be (for the time being) and we started to settle down after a year of uncertainty.  We found land. We built our dream home. We plugged into new schools for the kids and new community and friendships. Things started falling into place and feeling ever so comfortable.  And then God...

Kyle got a call from the company he had interviewed with TWO YEARS prior. They were basically wanting him to come out to meet one more time, discuss details of this job. The timeline of it all is a blur, but it went something like this...we put the house up for sale. It sold. Within a month. All God. We took the trip. He had the job. A dream job for him. All God. We found a house. All God. That community and those dear friendships rallied around us, cheered us on (although many times with teary eyes). They helped us pack and load the Uhaul. They kept our kiddos. They prayed over us, for us. All God. 

And before we knew it, we were rolling down the highway, headed for those mountains. Across states we had never been, towns we had never seen. The five of us. Watching our dream unfold as the hundreds of miles passed us by. This was really happening. 

There is something about those mountains that say anything is possible. I love this quote from Emily Freeman "...we want to be a couple brave enough to move toward what makes us come alive..." Oh how true that is for us and oh how He he has made us brave. We are called to greatness. We are called to live a life of feeling ALIVE. We are called to live these crazy awesome dreams God has called us to. For our tribe, that plan was to move across the country, away from family and all we've ever known.

So now what? What is life like for us here? It is simply put, messily perfect. Messily perfect only because He made it so. Because that is what He has called us to. We have found a church. So different from what we had before and it's good, so good. We have found friends, slowly but surely. A body of believers that have put themselves out there for us, to help us feel more at home here. We have found ourselves surrounded by a mission field of lost souls that He is calling us to love big. Our time outdoors has been multiplied. Our kids are experiencing things they never could have experienced elsewhere. They are happy. Kids are wildly resilient. Life is much slower, much more simple and much less materialistic. People come as they are, no frills or facades, and accept you that way as well. We have found much freedom here, more than I ever thought possible. 

Through all of this, the Lord has been speaking softly to me. He has been persistent with me in this whole biblical concept of seeking and finding Him and being obedient to His dreams for our lives. When we are walking in complete faith and obedience, when we are at peace with His timing and His plan, when we are seeking Him with our whole heart (not just part of it), that's when real freedom comes. 

So I don't know what it may be that He is calling you to do. My prayer though, is that you can read our story and see His ultimate hand on it all and that it will encourage you and move you toward Him. Toward what He has for you. That dream that you have deep within your soul, let Him make it come true. Be brave to take the first step. Listen to the calling, whatever it may be. For us, it was and is and will continue to be these mountains.