Our house is so far away from our church and Dwayne's work, yet with it, God is teaching me that he knows exactly what he is doing with my life. We had to move all the way here to even afford a home when we were looking a few years back. Real estate in New England is unbelievable, so we thought God was holding something back, not letting us afford something elsewhere, something in the more affluent areas. But, this location keeps proving to offer so many things that are important to me, in particular. God has used our home to prove to me that he cares about the little dreams I've silently and sometimes even doubtfully sent up to him through the years.

Living here, I get to teach fitness classes at the local YMCA while Norah plays with other kids in the day care for free. It must be one of the best YMCAs in the country and it is only ten minutes from our house. I've wanted to teach fitness classes since my first step aerobics class as a teenager. I also get to work for one of our community's newspapers whose office is about five minutes away; another job I wouldn't have found unless I'd moved here and writing is something that I've wanted to do and even prayed about since I was a pre-teen. I wasn't sure how I could ever be mom and work in the ways I wanted to or why I even had the desire to do all these things at once, but, by living here, God has helped me make all my dreams come true in a way only He could orchestrate.

When I think like this, I am reminded of the song "No Sacrifice" by Jason Upton. He sings to God, "To You I give my life, not just the parts I want to. To you I sacrifice these dreams that I hold onto." And, when God handles my life with such care, I realize, "This is no sacrifice" and say willingly, "Here's my life."

Sometimes I think I have struggled to give my dreams to God because I thought if I gave them away, I may never see them come true. Or, I thought that if God made my decisions for me they'd be the kind I might not be able to live with. But, I think it may actually be that God asks for our dreams so persistently and earnestly because He just wants to help us make them come true.