1/27/2022
Lately I have been reflecting on the last few years and seen so much evidence of how God has continually shown up, how He has led Brandon and me to opportunities that change the trajectory of our lives. Philippians 4:19 says, “God will meet all your needs,” and that has been proven time and time again for us, even in things that seemed trivial at the time but now I see were an integral part of God’s plan.
Though COVID has brought so much disappointment, suffering, and struggle, it has also been an opportunity for some amazing blessings for us.
If you had asked me 3 years ago if I was an outdoorsy person, you would’ve been met with a resounding “no.” (Though my parents do remind me that this was through no fault of theirs as I grew up tent camping often, riding horses, and playing outside on my grandparent’s farm.)
However, because we had more free time while school went virtual and everything was closed, we started spending more time outside, hiking and walking. Being dirty, sweating, and tromping through the woods never seemed like a good use of time to me until I had nothing but time and no other options but going outside. Because Brandon is an Eagle scout who grew up hiking constantly, he introduced me to the joys of spending time outside in God’s creation and I quickly fell in love with the hobby. Now, nearly two years later, we hike between two and six miles 2-3 times weekly, usually having some of our best conversations and memories from these experiences.
Another COVID benefit, somewhat spurred on by the new active lifestyle we adopted, was the decision to speed up our timeline on getting a puppy. We had always promised ourselves that we wouldn’t be those people who got married and immediately adopted a dog, expecting to finish our 4 years of graduate school first. However, the ability to be at home so much with virtual schooling and the ease of fitting a puppy into our newly chosen hobbies saw us deciding in Fall 2020 to look for a golden retriever which had long been one of our dream dog breeds. The day after we officially decided to try to find a dog, I texted one of my friends who already had a golden retriever asking where she got hers, Walker. And much to my surprise, her uncle who had bred Walker a couple years prior actually had a brand-new litter (Walker’s sister’s puppies) with only a couple puppies left unclaimed. We immediately claimed one and went to pick him up just 30 minutes from my parent’s house a few weeks later. Now over a year later, our little bundle of golden fluff is the center of our world and love of our lives—Nash.
Now, because we had a puppy, our cozy third floor apartment that we had loved for the first 3 years of marriage, suddenly seemed much smaller and much more inconvenient. I was walking up and down 3 flights of stairs to take Nash out constantly, and because I was spending so much more time outside, suddenly realized that our apartment complex was a little bit sketchier than I had thought. Being outside in the dark at night by myself made me a little uncomfortable, and Nash could never be let off leash because of other dogs, close by neighbors, and trash left strewn about the parking lot. So, we began the search for a rental house with a fenced backyard, moving out of our little apartment in February 2021. Our house has been a huge upgrade and made our lives so much better, Nash being able to run around in his own backyard anytime he wants, and the extra space meaning we can host people more often.
However, just a couple weeks ago we were given an even clearer sign that moving was the right decision. A news story popped up about a SWAT team standoff with an active shooter for 18 hours in an apartment complex in Norcross. As we looked a little further into it, turns out that apartment complex was the one we lived in for 3 years, and the shooter was barricaded into an apartment on the first floor of the same building we lived in. We are so thankful that we were no longer living there during that horrific situation and are prayerful that everyone involved is safe. (The article about the situation:
https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/norcross-apartment-swat-situation-barricaded-gunman)
Each one of these situations so clearly shows me how God has provided for us and made sure we are exactly where He needs us to be. COVID-19 seems like it is one piece of bad news after another, but some amazing things have come from the pandemic for us. I am reminded of Romans 8:28 which says, “All things work together for good.” God can turn any situation into an opportunity to bring glory to His name and I look forward to seeing more examples of that in our lives in the future.
