Day 34 in Oxford. Welcome to Oxford.
If you didn’t know, Wes just recently moved to Oxford, England back in September, where he is attending a yearlong program at Oxford’s Wycliffe Hall and RZIM’s school, OCCA (Oxford Center for Christian Apologetics). I was unable to obtain a job in Oxford, and therefore unable to obtain a visa, so the kids and I had to stay home in Kentucky while he went ahead of us. The only option left was to go on a 6-month tourist visa, so we had to wait until the end of December. The last three months were exhausting and quite emotional. I’m in awe of how many families do this kind of separation on a regular basis…I’m also quite embarrassed by how poorly I handled the separation in comparison to so many of them. But we are separated no more!
The kids and I arrived into Heathrow on December 29th and were met by Wes in the airport. It was a sweet reunion after having been separated for over three months. Wes and I had planned reunion details ahead of time. The kids would get hugs and kisses first, and when the kids had had their fill, Wes and I would openly make out for about 5 minutes. Okay…so maybe it didn’t last 5 minutes, but we got some good snogging in.
From there we went to pick up Blue from the Animal Reception Centre. Unbeknownst to us (thanks for telling us, United!), we were supposed to have an agent receiving Blue, but we were never told of such things, and because of that we had to wait for over 3 hours for Blue to be processed….a small glitch in our family plans for the day, but that was okay. It was a happy reunion with Blue, as well, once she walked through the doors of the reception area.
From there we made our way in our 9 passenger van with all of our luggage to Oxford. When we arrived we went to Wes’s tiny flat to pick up a few things. When we entered he surprised us with a little bit of Christmas…a tiny Christmas tree with presents under it for me and the kids.
We were supposed to be moving into our new (to us) house that day, as well. When we arrived we found out that the landlord (who lives in China) had still not signed the paperwork with the agency. So we were stuck without a home to move in to. We may have felt quite stranded had it not been for a fellow Wycliffe family (the wonderful Webbs!) that offered their home to us while they were out of town for 2 nights. And despite the fact that both the husband and wife are allergic to dogs, they allowed our sweet Blue to stay in their home! We thought for sure that after two nights we would have news. Alas, it was not to be. Two days came and went and still no place to live. Fortunately, another Wycliffe family (also friends of the Webbs) offered us their place while we were in limbo. The Philbrick Family allowed us, complete strangers other than our Wycliffe connection, to stay in their home without having met us. They would be gone for two more days on holiday, so they let us take over their lovely house while they were gone.
Two more days passed by, and we got word that the landlord had finally responded and promised to sign the contract that day, and hopefully we would be able to move in that day. We were thrilled! We started jumping up and down all over the living room. We were going to have our own place soon! Well…one more day passed. It was now Wednesday. Our agency called and said that the landlord had not signed the contract, and his number was no longer working, and it was unlikely that he would respond…they suggested we start looking for a new home.
We were in the common room at Wycliffe with the kids, at the time, and I was pretty down in the dumps. I laid on the couch and tried to nap my sorrows away. I was losing faith quickly. I really felt that God had called us all to Oxford, but things felt like they were deteriorating quickly, and I was starting to think I got it all wrong. Our new friend, Patch, happened to be sitting in the common room when we got the news, and in full servant’s heart mode, he offered to take our kids out so Wes and I could get a little time alone to sort things out in our heads. It was a HUGE blessing to be loved on like that. He will likely never understand how much a seemingly small act of kindness meant to us.
That afternoon we walked to a new house that our agency wanted us to look at. It was nice enough, and it was our only present option, so we made an offer. The next morning (Thursday) we found out that our offer had been rejected. So it was back to square one.
That night, I was in what Anne calls, The Depths of Despair. We got back to our friends’ house (yes…they let us stay in their house knowing that we had know idea when we would find a house…forever grateful for their kindness!) and I just went straight to bed. My heart felt broken. I felt like God had led me astray…I felt like He wasn’t listening and that He didn’t care. I was sad. I had lost faith after only seven days.
On Friday morning we got up slowly. I felt like crap. But we decided to take a walk into town to keep from wallowing in self pity. Wes was holding it together quite well, and honestly, he is the reason there was still any amount of positivity left in the atmosphere. He was a rock when I was wavy, inconsistent mess.
Just as we were about to walk out the door at around 10:30, Wes got a call from our agency. The landlord had signed the contract! We could move in that day! Could we be at their offices by 11:30, they asked? Ummmm….Hell yes! We made our way to Headington (where the offices are located) with some battered hope, but hope none-the-less. We were still a little gun-shy…we had already been fooled once…what if we got our hopes crushed again? But it sounded pretty certain. We didn’t tell anyone the news, because we wanted to be holding the key in our hands before we made our announcement. We wanted to be double sure that this house was happening!
Well, at about 2pm on Friday (a week from when we first arrived in Oxford), we held the keys to our new house in our hands!
And our friends, the Webbs and the Philbricks, didn’t even hesitate when we asked if they could help us get all of our luggage over to our new place. They dropped everything to help us! Who does that?! Amazing, kind, and generous people, that’s who! They take the whole “take care of the Body of Christ” thing seriously…they loved us and took care of us like family. I thank God for them every day, and I want God to bless them 12-fold in return!
So by late afternoon we had all five of us (four humans and a sweet pup) and all of our worldly belongings in our new home. Words could not express how thankful we were….how thankful we ARE!
In a few days we’ll have been in this house for four weeks. We have already hosted friends here, and our neighbors even brought us cake to welcome us to the neighborhood. Can you believe that?!
We hope this house will be a place of peace and comfort and love for others. We want them to be blessed the way we have been blessed.
It is only a 25 minute walk into town, which is SO great compared to the hour-long walk that most of the other places had that we were looking at before we found this house. And it’s a walk through parks and foot paths, which is even better. We are right next to a park that the kids love to play at and Blue can chase her ball at. We are a five minute walk from the grocery store, and we have a nice back yard, or a garden, as they call it here. We are thankful.
If you are wondering where we are at with finances, we are pretty much still in the same place we were last month. We have no income, but God has shown us favor thus far, so we are trusting Him to continue to provide for us the rest of the way. If the house thing was a test of my faith, I failed terribly. Seriously…how weak am I if I can’t even last 7 days without crumbling and thinking God has abandoned me?! Having said that, I know that at the very least, God is a good father, and He doesn’t keep a checklist of my wrongs and use that to assess how He’ll care for me moving forward. I’m just praying that I can be a little more faithful, and trust Him just a little bit more ( a LOT more!).
Thank you to SO many of you who prayed so diligently for us. Do you know that it was only the times when groups of people stopped what they were doing (sometimes with us, and sometimes apart from us) and prayed intentionally for our situation, that movement happened? Each and every time! There’s something to this prayer thing, and making movement in the heavenly realms and here on earth. Hmmmm….
I’ll try to keep a steady journal of our comings and goings here in Oxford. Our daily routine usually includes walks, work, and conversations. And we get to do that in one of the most beautiful cities in the world!
Thankful.
