This May will mark two years since Ryan and I first decided that we wanted to make Alaska our home. Out of those 24 months, we will have spent almost 12 of them in Alaska. So, as you can tell, the transition hasn't been easy. The path we've taken to make Alaska our home definitely hasn't been conventional, which may explain why it's been so bumpy, but despite it's roughness, we know we have been guided and blessed along every step of the way.
We believe strongly that our Heavenly Father has a plan for all of His children, and through every decision we've made, we have prayed and sought to know if it was Heavenly Father's will for us. However, just because the Lord directs us to do something, doesn't mean that it will always go smoothly; but it does mean that He will provide a way to accomplish what He has directed us to do! There is no way I could've done what we've done and continue to do what we're doing without the knowledge that we are being directed and led by the Lord.
Our first summer in Seward, Alaska, we sub-leased our apt in Logan, Utah for the summer months. We did this for two reasons. First, we own a Christmas light business in Cache Valley, and if we couldn't find sustainable, year-round work in Seward, or an affordable place to live during the winter, we could come back to Utah to run our Christmas Light business and have a place to live. Second, if we didn't end up liking Alaska, we would have an easy return back to Utah. Although we loved Alaska, and really wanted to stay through the winter, ultimately, the first scenario is what ended up bringing us back to Utah that first winter.
Our second summer in Alaska, Ryan and I were blessed with very gracious friends who allowed us to live in a barn behind their house. Despite what the name implies, the barn was a step up in living from our previous summer's home. It was already connected to electricity, and then our friends put in a sink and a toilet, hooking us up to running water! Certainly a tender mercy from the Lord! Despite these amenities, though, we knew that the barn would probably not be the most comfortable place to stay through the winter.
As the temperatures dropped to 30 degrees and below in October, the electric heaters in the barn couldn't quite keep the space as comfortably warm as it did in September. We also knew that our friends would need to 'shut off' the water to the barn because none of the pipes were insulated. With finances still tight and living conditions that would definitely pose a challenge during the colder months, we decided to return to Utah once more to run our Christmas Light business. Yet, we were determined to come back to Alaska as soon as we could, so that we could experience an Alaskan winter!
Our plans were to be in Utah and PA from October-December, hanging Christmas Lights and visiting family. Then we would go back to Alaska the beginning of January, return to Utah in February to take down Christmas Lights, and then head back to Alaska for good in March.
I don't know why I wasn't concerned about living in a barn during a winter in Alaska, but I guess I just told myself that it would only be a month or two (Jan and Mar), and if we could just make it through that time, the weather would start to warm up, and it would be back to the conditions we were used to. I still had not even begun to feel concerned about our return to Alaska when Ryan's cousin in Anchorage contacted us to see if we could house sit for them from January 9th to February 6th. We were scheduled to fly back to Alaska on January 11th. The timing was absolutely perfect! We had a home to live in during the most bitter part of the winter!
I was immediately overcome by a powerful feeling that my Heavenly Father knew who I was, and that He knew what my concerns and needs were even before I did.
Could we have survived a month in the barn? Probably, but it would have definitely been a struggle!
This small tender mercy of a home in the winter, reminded me that my Heavenly Father does indeed care about me. And that despite all the times in the past two years that I have been uncomfortable and uncertain of how we would live or make ends meet, that my Heavenly Father has never forgotten about me or abandoned me.
It's easy for me to become fearful when I can't see how things will work out, but through my own experiences, the Lord has taught me to "...consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, even so will he clothe you, if ye are not of little faith."
Matthew 6:28-30 (also found in 3 Nephi 13:28-30)
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