every plan is a tiny prayer to father time

My plan was to come to Redding for 9 months, get everything we needed and immediately jet back home to Florida.

That is probably not what is going to actually take place.

Bryon started talking about wanting to stay for second year pretty quickly. I was horrified. I told him there was absolutely no way. I maintained that stand for about 6 months. Then I decided to actually seek the Lord about it.

I woke up the next morning knowing that we were staying. I didn't hear God's voice, didn't even feel guided in a specific direction while I was praying. But I knew. But I did not share that with Bryon.

I started telling friends and family that we might stay.. that was the scariest part of this process for me. Literally, the day I told the last person I was worried about was the day God made it crystal clear.

I was sitting outside of a local coffee shop on the phone with said person. Then one of the other Bethel students, who I'd met but didn't really know, came up to me with a prophetic drawing. She felt like it was for me. This drawing is of a person standing in front of two mountains with the sun rising between them. The person has his/her arms up in praise. She wrote on the back that this is the valley of indecision, but there is joy in the mountain tops.

I freaked out.

This may sound like just a massive coincidence to you, but I'm positive that was God guiding me. Bryon picked me up a few minutes later and I told him to go ahead and apply for second year.

I'm not going to lie, there's a part of me that's hoping God was just testing me and Bryon won't get in. That's a pretty selfish desire, I know. Bryon will almost definitely get accepted.. he's doing really well here.

And God's plans, even when they are different than mine, are too good to pass up.