Our First Military Move: A U-Haul, Some Faith, and Nowhere to Go (Part 2)

Our first military move was one for the books. It was the grief cocktail of a cross-country move shaken up with with a newborn, a puppy, toxic mold exposure and not yet diagnosed severe postpartum depression. At that point, I was extremely ill and we needed out of the moldy house ASAP. We need to throw all our stuff in the back of a U-Haul ASAP but we had nowhere to go. If you missed it, pretty please catch [the first half of the story here] before reading on today.

A “new adventure.”

“A new adventure.” That’s what military families call each military move. Depending on the family, age of children, and their personalities, they refer to a “new adventure” with different meaning. Some military call a new duty assignment a “new adventure” blindly; others, tongue-in-cheek. Some naively; others sarcastically. A military move might be more honestly called “hell on wheels,” but we’ll humor the others and fall in line and call it a “new adventure” too. Why not.

The black mold and formaldehyde from the “sick house syndrome” sent me into one of the worst health crises of my life. Because of how mold spores attach and grow, we had to throw away everything porous that wouldn’t fit in a laundry machine… couches, mattresses, writings, paper, my printing press broadsides, works of art. We Thieves’ed and wiped down and sunned everything else that we owned. To kill the mold spores, Dan washed every single washable thing we owned in the laundromat with Thieves over the course of a couple days.

Everything was financially, emotionally, and physically devastating.

Crisis.

During that first military move, we ended up fleeing a toxic mold house and stayed in a guest bedroom of gracious folks yet practical strangers. In such a vulnerable place, we had the most heated exchange of our entire marriage from the stress of it all (combined with my crazy-making physical and mental state). We weren’t the most chill guests they’ve ever had. (Again, please read Part One if you haven’t yet)

Oh God, will you tell Dan I’m sorry, again. And tell him thank you, again, for continuing to love me anyways. That flashback leaves me in tears.

We were in crisis and didn’t know where to go and didn’t know anyone in town and didn’t know anyone we could turn to. (It’s a huge myth, by the way, that military takes care of its own… so PLEASE take care of military in your community. Do not “absolve yourself” from helping these dear families.)

The Bedside Conversation.

One night in their guest bedroom, our belongings still in the moldy house, and no idea where to go next, and after getting our beautiful colicky baby to sleep in her pack n’ play … we laid in bed and talked about how this is crazy. We couldn’t get another rental in that market no matter how fast we were racing to the leasing office. With time ticking to get our stuff out of the moldy house, we discussed putting everything left in a U-Haul but had no idea where to take it.

Dereece’s Faith-Stirring U-Haul Testimony

Then I remembered a testimony from our dear friend Dereece from our church family back in Colorado. When we were newly engaged, she told us a story from when she was helping a refugee family. They had to leave their housing situation asap, so she loaded everything they owned in the back of a U-Haul, and started driving, not knowing where she would take this refugee family. Praying the whole time.

I still remember how she told the story. With her hands out in front of her, she pretended to hold on to the steering wheel, and looking left and right, like she was wondering where on earth will I go? Then, she got a call that someone found this dear family a place to live! The way opened WHILE SHE WAS DRIVING, seemingly aimlessly.

As We Are Going.

God does this often. They WayMaker makes the Way AS WE ARE GOING. He stops the Jordan AS WE STEP IN THE FLOOD WATERS. He opens the Red Sea AS WE WALK FORWARD to promised land.

My missionary friend puts it this way, “Sometimes, God lights the way AS THE SUN IS RISING.” Just step by step. Little by little. He slowly illuminates the path.

Dan and I firmly held on to the hope of that story with anything we had left. We talked about how we could relate… That’s precisely how it felt during our first military move. Loading everything up in a U-Haul with no idea where to go next (yet). Hoping God would show us as we are going.

Jaw-dropping U-Haul Devotional.

That night in bed, after remembering Delrece’s testimony together, and praying together as we had a habit of doing, Dan cracked open a couple’s devotional and started reading.

The devotional was on Abram and Sarai and how they were called by God to leave their family, friends, hometown, and everything familiar and head to an unknown promised land. The author tried to make this relatable in modern culture, saying this:

“It would be like God asking you to pack up your family and everything you own in the back of a U-Haul truck and not tell you yet where you are going.”

Our jaws dropped! Our eyes bugged out! We erupted in laughter. It might’ve been our first laugh in a few max-stress days of all the tumult.

God didn’t fix our situation with the words of that devotional, but He showed us that He saw us in our story! The timing was unreal! The exact words Dan and I just discussed only moments prior… The back of a U-Haul with nowhere to go?!? Only God.

The Lord still didn’t show us where to go yet.  He had more reasons to keep our feet to the fire. He refined us in that trial and set foundational truths deep in us because of it.

But even though He didn’t show us where to go, He did show us that He sees us. He had not forgotten or abandoned us. He affirmed the little faith we had and helped our faith to grow.

So in faith (and in exhaustion and in the unknown), we packed everything up I the back of a U-Haul and started driving without knowing where we were going—but trusting the God who did.

In Jesus' name, may God bless you today with more faith and trust that He will light your path "as the sun is rising." Brightening the way, one step at a time in trust and obedience.