When God moves you . . .

ByDeborah Raney
27 Comments

We celebrated our one-year anniversary of moving to Missouri last week. It seems like just yesterday that we were saying tearful goodbyes to our family and friends in Kansas and packing up all our earthly belongings and making the eight-hour trip to Southeast Missouri. What a year it’s been! (For sure, we didn’t foresee a pandemic in our future!)

We sold our house to friends, a pastor’s family from our church in Wichita, we bought our new house from a pastor’s family in Missouri. [You can read that story HERE.] Southeast Missouri is very different from Kansas. There’ve been adjustments. To weather (aka humidity!), identifying trees and flowers, driving where not everything is on a grid and where everything is up or down a hill…and so much more.

But the bottom line? We love it here! Yes, we miss our families and friends back in Kansas, but Missouri already feels like home to us. After all, we’ve been coming here several times a year for the past twenty-plus years—ever since our oldest daughter decided to attend college at Southeast Missouri State, then fell in love and married a local guy, then talked her sister into attending college here where she fell in love and married a local guy and now six of our ten grandbabies live here! Of course, we’re home!

I always thought I was a Kansas wheat fields girl through and through, after all, I’m a Kansas wheat farmer’s daughter! Turns out I’m also a woodland hills and valleys girl through and through. Our backyard, with the deer who graze there every morning and evening, is like a little piece of heaven on earth.

So is the screened porch where we usually watch them from—like living in a Swiss Family Robinson treehouse!

We are especially thrilled to have had a cozy place to hunker down during this pandemic. But we’ve had some adventures too. We bought a camper van and traveled in it for almost two months last fall. We bought our Lectric bicycles and have loved exploring Missouri on them! So much so that we’ve sold our camper van to get something that will allow us to take our bikes with us when we travel. It looks like we might get to pick up our new “rig” this week!

When God prompts you to pull up stakes and move, it might be difficult, but He always knows what He’s doing! And here’s our latest proof! Grandbaby #10 made his entrance into the world July 13. Isn’t he a cutie?

Has God ever uprooted you from a place that felt like home? Have you learned to adjust to a new normal or even found a new place to call home? I’d love to hear your story!

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DEBORAH RANEY's first novel, A Vow to Cherish, inspired the World Wide Pictures film of the same title and launched Deb’s writing career. Forty books later, she's still creating stories that touch hearts and lives. Her novels have won RWA's RITA Award, the ACFW Carol Award, the National Readers Choice Award, and the HOLT Medallion. She is also a four-time Christy Award finalist. Deb is on faculty for several national writers’ conferences and served on the executive board of the 2,500-member American Christian Fiction Writers organization for 18 years before retiring in 2022. She is a recent transplant to Missouri, having moved with her husband, Ken Raney, from their native Kansas to be closer to kids and grandkids. They love road trips, e-biking, Friday garage sale dates, and breakfast on the screened porch overlooking their wooded backyard.

27 Comments

  1. We used to live in a big lake front home in Ohio. After 33 years we begin the long process of downsizing and selling our house and moving to a senior citizen community and apartment. Everything on one floor. Very nice !

    1. It’s a huge change, I’m sure! Even though it might be an exciting new chapter of life full of wonderful friendships and a bit more ease, moving is always a letting go, too. And that’s never easy. Praying for everything to go smoothly and that this next chapter will be one of the best!

  2. Shirley, I loved reading that about you and your lake house. We just recently moved into a lake front home and, Lord willing, hope to live here for the next 20+ years or so. Ever how long God allows. Even now I’m sitting on the screen porch with the Book, reading in Deuteronomy, drinking my coffee, and watching the sunrise. Glorious!

    I’m praying for your current season of life, for your move, and for all that God has ahead of you. Much love!

  3. What a lovely home and what fun adventures! I’m so grateful, Deb, that I’ve had a ringside seat to all that God has done in your life these last many years. It’s such an opportunity for praise! I’m so grateful we’re in this together. And that new grandson… Oh how adorable! Congrats!

    1. It’s been a joy and a comfort to have you along for the ride, Tammy! Your wisdom and eye to God’s Word is always a blessing in my life! And I’m so happy for you and your family to have the lake house for this exciting new chapter that you are in! Blessings upon blessings, sweet friend!

  4. God brought me full circle. After college, I moved west to pursue my dream of becoming a jockey, but later, he led me home again and so, I am back in Indiana. I live in the house my father build just before I was born and teach at my old high school. It’s been quite the journey both physically and spiritually.

  5. I must say I missed my primary school and the teachers and friends when I graduated. More so when the secondary school turned out worse than I had expected. The teachers were old-fashioned and I had no friends in the first year there. But then things turned out all right. I got on well with some teachers and made some friends (Though not as many friends and the friendship wasn’t as deep as in primary school). But after that I realised things could turn out just fine.

    Deb, you do have a knack of arranging things beautifully. The photos are gorgeous. You are also a good photographer.

    1. I think sometimes (probably always!) God uses our adjustments to teach us important lessons, and yes, with Him, things ALWAYS turn out just fine…even if we have to wait until eternity for a TRULY happily-ever-after.
      Thank you for your kind comments! My iPhone gets most of the credit for my photos…and Ken has taught me a lot over the years too! (He took the photo of the deer in our backyard.)

  6. As newlyweds my husband and I lived in Richmond, VA, where I had lived since I was 5 years old. When my husband’s job uprooted us from Richmond and took us to Atlanta, I learned to see that move as an adventure. We loved Atlanta but only lived there for one year before his job brought us to Houston, TX, where we have lived for over 40 years. Each move was blessed by the Lord, and we have been very happy in Houston as well. We’ve found new friends, churches, jobs, and ministries each time we’ve moved.

    1. It’s a real gift to be able to view change as “an adventure”! So glad you’ve put down roots in Houston. Our oldest son and our youngest son’s in-laws both lived in Houston for several years and really liked it there. (They’ve both moved elsewhere now.)

  7. What a lovely new home, Deb! I love the deer and the view. So lovely! I’m a homebody, and I’m sure it would be hard for me to leave the place I’ve been for all of my adult life, but as my kids start to leave the nest, I can certainly see the benefit of moving closer to wherever they end up. With adorable grandbabies like you have, what more motivation do you need? Now I just have to see where God takes them to figure out if I’ll uproot, or remain the central hub for everyone to return to. 🙂

  8. Well, there’s something to be said for being the hub too! 🙂 It took us a dozen years after our last birdie left the nest to decide to make this move. We wanted to be sure our daughters were pretty well “entrenched” here (they are!) and being close enough to visit back in Kansas was another consideration. But God’s leading was unmistakable! Praying it will be for you too, when the time is right.

  9. He’s beautiful! Congratulations! Loved seeing the photos of the new spaces. Now not so new.We are living in our RV, waiting for the Lord to help us decide where/what next. No answers so far. So we enjoy and try not to chomp at the bit. (That would be me…).

    1. Ha! That would be me too, Angie…as you know! But I’m actually kind of excited about our new direction (a little bigger living/working space than before) and eager to travel again. Praying the Lord gives you all the patience you need until He has your next move ready!

  11. Yes, three years ago, my husband and I moved from Virginia to South Carolina. We moved to be closer to son, daughter-in-law and first grand baby. We are so glad we moved to SC. We never thought we would move from VA but when son and daughter-in-law asked us to move and be closer to them, we said yes. 🙂 Now, second grand baby is on the way. 🙂 SC is home now.

  12. I am constantly amazed at your ability to beautifully decorate your home, wherever you are, and still write!It looks like you’ve been settled in for quite a while. And that new grandbaby is precious.

    I was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, met my husband in college, and then moved wherever the Marine Corps took him. Your ability to decorate and settle, puts me to shame. Our most interesting duty station was Nicoisia, Cyprus, where we immersed ourselves in the Greek and Turkish cultures for 28 months. Our daughter was born there. His last duty station was aboard a Navy ship out of Norfolk, Virginia, and we lived in Virginia Beach, where we decided to remain after my husband’s retirement. We finally built what we intend to be our last home 26 years ago, but who knows. Deb, I could certainly use your gardening and decorating skills!

    1. Sounds like God has taken you on such an interesting journey, Betty! Especially that time in Cyprus! But a blessing to be in your house 26 years now. I hope we can someday say that about this house. (We’ll be WAY up there in years by then! Haha!)

  13. We have moved many many times. First The Navy, then for Schooling, parsonages, more school, a fire and retirement! After 51 years of marriage, we are buying a house on the other side of our Mid Missouri town!
    Were you sad to see Merriweather go?

    1. How fun to be buying a new house after 51 years of marriage! Blessings on that new chapter!

      And yes, I think we both got a little teary seeing Meriwether pull out of our driveway, but we felt so happy about the family our camper van went to (in Texas) and we were happy that camper held its value so well! Plus, we knew we wanted something that would allow us to take our bicycles, so mostly I’m just excited about this next chapter! And of course, I’ll share all about it here on the blog.

  14. Thank you for always sharing pictures of your house; I think all of us enjoy your decorating style so much! Three years ago this summer, my husband and I left the church where we met (and I had been a member there since my youth group days–27 years)!That church felt like “home” but it did not allow for the growth our whole family needed. “Healthy things grow.” It was a hard change but such a healthy one!

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