Moving to Nashville

After a few years of teaching second grade, I felt like I was called to more but did not know what that looked like. I felt like all that I knew was how to teach. I felt stuck, and decided to pray into what God had next for me. I wanted to create and pursue something that spoke truth and life to other girls in a similar season that I was in. During that prayer time, God completely flipped my life upside down. I just didn't realize it in the silence.

I never planned on moving out of California. I had a great job, my best friends, my family...my whole life!  With my teacher schedule, I had been traveling out to Nashville pretty often because I had a good crew of friends here. Without moving anywhere on my radar, I had randomly requested a part time position at my school. I knew I wanted a new schedule and wanted the afternoons off to start WayLane. I was working in the mornings, and dreaming up WayLane in the afternoons.

A few weeks after school had started, I had a Monday off at work. I took a weekend trip to Nashville to see some friends and catch up. It was that weekend that I realized I maybe wanted to try living there, but I didn't know what that would look like. I knew I needed to pray about it so I went straight to scripture.

I was reading a verse in Luke 11 that encouraged believers to pray specifically for things...to be bold in any requests before God. So I decided to pray that if the Lord wanted me to move to Nashville after the school year finished up, He would need to open up a house and provide a car. Pretty bold-I know. I had never prayed this specifically about anything before. Every day, I journaled and prayed this prayer. I really didn't tell anyone about it and did not have any idea what God was going to do.

Fast forward one month, and I decided to book a cheap flight and come out to Nashville again. This was the Spirit prompting me because I had just been a few weeks prior. I went to church with some friends and ran into an old sorority sister in the lobby. She had NO idea what I had been praying and at the end of our quick catch up conversation, she randomly said, "this may be out of the blue but my husband and I are leaving town for two months if you want to stay in our house. Oh, and you can use our car, too!" My stomach dropped. That was a direct answer to prayer I was almost too scared to say yes. God had heard my bold prayer. I had no idea why He wanted me out in Nashville but I said yes!

I didn't know where she lived in Nashville, what it would look like, what my days would be filled with, but I knew God wanted me here. I told my work, and because I was part time, it was much easier for me to leave. Though this was 6 months earlier than I was praying about, I packed my bags, ended up taking over their lease, buying their car, and moving to Nashville. The owners of the home ended up extending their trip and moved to Uganda to work with Heal ministries. Kingdom work on earth!

This is such a long story and there are many more details I want to share, but I will save those for later. In the midst of loneliness and confusion, God made a way for me to be out here, made a way for WayLane to flourish, and is continuing to make a way when it seems like there is no way in sight!