Home Ever After

If you missed the first part of our leaving Alaska moving story, go read it here first: From Frozen Years to Golden Years: Leaving Alaska {Part 1}.

From Frozen Years to Golden Years: Leaving Alaska {Part 2}

We had some rough days and prayed a lot. Tensions were high. We almost got hit by two different cars in two different incidents that were way too close not to ponder. I was driving to the grocery store to pick up some extra packing tape for the boxes and I was praying the whole way.

Dnld 3-16-12 087-HEA

Above, a photo of a poster I had hanging in my office in Alaska. It’s a replica of the poster Fox Mulder had hanging in his office in the television show The X Files. The poster shows a UFO and says, “I Want to Believe”.

I asked God why things all seemed to be going wrong. I asked Him if we were really going to lose everything. I told Him that I trusted Him, but couldn’t see how any of this was going to work out because every part of our situation was broken. I prayed for an answer of where we were moving to. Where were we going? Was there going to be a job for my husband to go to? Would our house sell or go into foreclosure? Nothing which had seemed right had worked out so far. I questioned where things were headed with my family and my life.

And lastly, I asked God why both of those accidents which surely would have totaled our car and taken our lives happened and were prevented by Him in such close proximity to each other. Why did they happen and why now?

I felt low, helpless, and out of control, but I still waited on God’s time. I think He knows those moments when we feel anguish from every direction and need to hear Him.

I Want to Believe

I was still praying the final words of my prayer and pulling into the parking lot, when I got a strong feeling to change the radio station. I always listen to one of two Christian stations, KLove and Air1, so turning it to a non-Christian station was a big stretch for me. But I was obedient and changed the channel, and a song started right away called “Golden Years” by David Bowie. I parked and listened intently and knew immediately that this was not just a chance song on the radio. This was God answering me in the supernatural way that only He can!

The words:

Golden years, golden years
Don’t let me hear you say life’s taking you nowhere, angel
Come get up my baby
Look at that sky, life’s begun
Nights are warm and the days are young
Come get up my baby
There’s my baby, lost that’s all
Once I’m begging you save her little soul
Golden years, golden years

Come get up my baby
Last night they loved you, opening doors and pulling some strings, angel
Come get up my baby
In walked luck and you looked in time
Never look back, walk tall, act fine
Come get up my baby
I’ll stick with you baby for a thousand years
Nothing’s gonna touch you in these golden years, gold

Just when I realized that all the lyrics to the song were God answering my very questions from this prayer, I was so amazed and instantly felt tears on my cheeks. The next line was:

Don’t cry my sweet, don’t break my heart

That gave all new meaning to the phrase God’s timing is perfect! He even knew the exact second it would make me cry.

Doing all right, but you gotta get smart
Wish upon, wish upon, day upon day, I believe oh Lord
I believe all the way
Come get up my baby

I’ll stick with you baby for a thousand years
Nothing’s gonna touch you in these golden years, gold

I realized that while I said I had patience on God, I wasn’t showing it. While I said I believed He was in control, my worry didn’t show that I believed “all the way”. The words in the song “I believe all the way” made me feel so foolish for not having the complete trust in God’s plans that I thought I had!

Even more than that, God had answered my questions about what was going to happen. “Nothing’s gonna touch you in these golden years,” He said. Then, it all came true.

Stay tuned for part 3 of From Frozen Years to Golden Years: Leaving Alaska.

We’ve been gearing up for our minimalist move for months, now, and it’s finally complete! We’re now at home in sunny Los Angeles, California, but the move was by no means quick or easy. Luckily I’ve been taking notes and pictures throughout the whole process so I could share the story of our Escape From Alaska to California!

The first part of our story was the Minimalist Move, which was a transformational experience in itself. The process was so emotional that my husband asked me to write about it so that we would remember the way it felt later. If you missed any of the Minimalist Move story, start here:

Our story of Leaving Alaska is really a huge testimony to how God’s plan for us all is so much more infinite and detailed than we could ever imagine, and how closely each part of it hinges on every other part.

We knew we had to sell our house months ago when my husband was laid off from his job of 11 years. He started putting in applications all over the country and we went minimalist to get our house ready for sale and us ready to move out of Alaska (something we’d both wanted to do for a long time).

Every day we sold and donated more and more until almost nothing was left. We enjoyed our last night in the nursery before the baby furniture was picked up by the buyers from Craigslist. Seven and Prynne each got turns for a final rock with mommy before bedtime, and daddy taped a farewell video.

Danelle Ice and Seven Ice-Simmons Ice-Simmons Nursery

We had the final moving sale:

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We put our house up for sale, sold our 2nd car, and waited. The second day the house was for sale, we got a call from our realtor that she was going to show it to a prospective buyer.

A few showings came and went, a few job interviews came and went. The job he was most excited about (not to mention any names, but their headquarters are in Redmond, WA) interviewed him, offered him the job, and then before sending the contract by email, changed their mind! Back to square one.

Next, my husband got a call to fly to Seattle for a 2nd interview with a different company for a tech job. We knew we only had the budget for one face-to-face interview, since we had to pay for the trip ourselves, and we hoped this was the one! We also had to pay for $2,000 of our house sale at closing, since we only owned the house for one year. All the money considerations were tightly linked and had no room for variation from my moving budget.

The interviewer gave Michael the impression that this was the final meeting with the rest of the staff before they offered him the job. He went, they said good things, and he flew back home. We assumed we were moving to Seattle and started making plans. Days went by. No word. More days went by. Michael finally called them to follow up and found out that they just didn’t feel strongly enough about his interview and decided not to hire him!

Back to square one again, but this time there was an offer on our house. No job or new home to move to, and the house offer couldn’t possibly work because it had us paying for all of their closing costs and many other expenses that we couldn’t afford.

On top of that we were waiting to hear back from our accountant about our tax return. Would we owe $10,000 or $20? Would we get money back? Until we got that important phone call, we would have no idea what our financial situation for the move really was.

The direction our journey turned next was so unexpected that if it was written into a movie, no one would think it was believable! Next, read From Frozen Years to Golden Years: Leaving Alaska {Part 2}.