"Go...to the land I will show you."

After a blissful week of honeymooning, Erin and I returned to Gwinnett and moved into our temporary home: her family's houseboat. Yes. Another boat. We were only there for two days, but there was plenty to do. Aside from the crazy issues our home church was dealing with, we had to find time to see our families, move my things over to her house, tally up wedding presents, work on getting her name changed... At this point it's really all a blur! It felt like we never stopped to breathe. Quite different from the honeymoon!

Now, we had set aside the coming week to find a home. The journey out to Baton Rouge isn't short, we had more than enough on our plates before the wedding, and we weren't keen on paying for two hotel rooms. That gave us one week after the honeymoon to find a place (the movers were scheduled to come take our stuff that Friday) and then another week to move in and get settled before Erin started work.

But Erin and I like to live life on the edge. Remember how the weather was starting to get gloomy and rainy at the end of our cruise? That's because our ship was outrunning hurricane Isaac. I think maybe the hurricane was after us because the night before our planned trip to Baton Rouge, Isaac changed directions and headed straight for Louisiana. So after an early trip to the Social Security office (to get Erin a new card) we spent a few hours trying to decide if we were foolish, desperate, or making a big deal out of nothing. We thought. We prayed. We made some phone calls. Erin got us a hotel reservation (which was tricky, most hotels had switched to a first-come-first-served basis for the sake of people leaving New Orleans and the coast). And we decided to go for it.

 

 

 

On the way there I started compiling a list of apartment complexes and making phone calls. Half of the places we were interested in were going to be closed until Thursday at least and many of the rest planned to close early on Tuesday in order to make storm preparations. As far as we could tell, the storm was supposed to reach Baton Rouge on Tuesday afternoon then be really crazy all of Wednesday before hopefully calming down on Thursday. I made a few appointments for Tuesday and talked to a few people who said to come by on Thursday if the weather would allow it. We just figured we'd spend Wednesday staring at each other in our hotel room.

 

After a long drive (though not the longest we've ever made), including a Mississippi pit stop for groceries (just in case) and gasoline (apparently there was none left in Baton Rouge), we arrived at our hotel. Only thing on the schedule for that night was coffee with an old STP friend, Tyler. We had a great time catching up and learning a little about the area from him, and then went to bed early.
We made our first stop the next morning at 8. Unfortunately they ended up being closed for the day.

We looked around... nothing fancy... then decided to go to the next place early. The Park on Bluebonnet looked fantastic from the outside! Erin compared it to a college campus- pretty buildings and grounds you can actually see yourself using. When they opened up at 9 we got to hear all the details and see an empty unit. It was one level up from the one we were considering, but it gave us an idea of what the place would be like. We were both impressed, I think. It was definitely on the high end of our budget, but we got some sweet discounts because Erin worked for BASF and because our apartment would be on the 3rd floor. And rent included a lot of other things (like a washer and dryer) that many other places didn't. Erin actually had a friend who lived there as well, so we stopped by her place before leaving.

 

 

It was going to be hard to beat. In fact, for a brief second we were tempted to sign the paperwork then and there. But we decided to at least see the rest of the places we had appointments for... The next place was also very nice. But it didn't come out on top. Only notable thing there was that they forgot to give me back my drivers' license, and I forgot they took it, until we were halfway through Alabama on our way home! Oops. We saw one other place. It was cheaper, but not by much. And it wasn't half as nice.

 

 

So by this point it was about noon. The few prospects that we had left (including Thursday appointments that may or may not ever happen) didn't look super promising. We stopped at our hotel and prayed. Then packed up. I called The Park, which was apparently closing up early for the storm. They said they would email us whatever we needed. And that was that! We checked out of the hotel and aimed the car for Georgia, skies still blue.

After a very long drive we made it home. It's not SUCH a long drive. But 20 hours of traveling out of 36 is rough.

Yet we were so thankful. I don't think God could have proven himself more faithful. What kind of crazy person goes apartment hunting when a hurricane is on its way? When we left Gwinnett on Monday, Erin said she had Abram's calling from Genesis 12 in her mind. Turns out God had some promises and blessings for us as well! Surely there are things we would have liked to go differently. For example, it definitely may have been nice if the apartment was open for us to move in sooner than the very day Erin was supposed to start her new job!

But we have been so thankful to start off our marriage living in God's hands and not our own. When he calls, we will follow- into a new life, a new home, new friends, new jobs... and even towards a hurricane.