If you are anything like me, you like to have a plan for everything – and a way to execute that plan. You like lists to checkmark, and setting goals with dates on them. And you would prefer that God’s timing aligned perfectly with all your hard work, and when it doesn’t, it can be a bit stressful or painful.

But we rarely can see the big picture that God sees. He knows the timing that is best for us but it can be so hard to be patient and wait.

Last year Robbie had this great idea to sell everything we own, move into a 5th wheel and travel for a year. I jumped on board because it sounded exciting and also because it meant he would sell a ton of his stuff! (He has a lot of stuff – we can maybe say boarder-line hoarder?)

I waited until January to tell people of our plan because it was such a big goal – and I wanted to be sure we could pull it off. Once we announced our plans it felt a little scarier – now it really had to happen! So exciting and terrifying at the same time.

June 1 was our goal to leave. In my head I knew it was really more July 1, because Robbie’s time-frame to accomplish tasks is a little skewed. 😉

I worked so stinkin’ hard to get our house cleaned out and decluttered. We had a lot of stuff and there was no need to store it all if we were going to be gone for a year. I went through all of our closets, underneath beds, and in all the crazy places that ‘stuff’ gets put. We had three yard sales in the spring of this year to get rid of  extra stuff we had accumulated. It was work! But it felt good as the house started getting emptier.




After looking for months, in April we finally bought a 5th wheel that was a perfect layout for what our family needed to live in for a year. We knew we needed something with good space because we have three young kids, but more importantly the layout had to allow kids to sleep in their own space so everyone could get sleep each night. We had just sold a big item and had cash to pay for the 5th wheel – which seemed like a complete God thing to us.

We were on track to move out in the summer – it was crunch time – but we were ready to go! Robbie booked our first campground for a month in the Florida Keys. We decided to start off our trek with lobster season, since that is our annual vacation every year.

Once he booked the campground it felt even more real. And we still had a lot of work to do. We needed to have one final yard sale and put our house up for rent – which also meant fixing several things around the house too. We needed to put a little money into our house to get it ready to rent, and we were struggling to have anything extra to get it done.

A week before we were going to have our last yard sale and put our house up for rent, a television production company approached us about doing a possible reality show for our Flea Market Flipping business. This was completely out of the blue and not something we would have ever thought about doing – but we decided to do a few interviews and see where it took us. We did a Skype interview with a producer, then one with his boss, which led to him flying down and filming us in less than a week’s time.

We decided at that point not to put the house up for rent before we went to the Keys because we didn’t know exactly what they would want to film. This proved to be a good idea because once the footage was shown to the owners, they wanted more before presenting it to a network.

We ended up cutting our Keys stay a few days short and coming back to film for 3 1/2 days. It was a long three and a half days and once the crew left, we were back in our half-empty house wondering what’s next. Do we pursue our original travel plans? Do we wait and see what is happening with this show? Which brings us to exactly where we are now – a month later. Still waiting. Pondering God’s timing in everything.

Here’s a pic of the last day of filming.

The reality is we can’t afford to travel without having the house rented out. We intended to cut some costs by moving into a 5th wheel for a year, and have some income coming in from our house. At this point we can’t really rent our house out because if a network picks up the show – they might want to film in it.

While of course the idea of a show is super exciting, as a planner by nature I would like to know what we are doing. Our original plan had us traveling for a year and back just in time for our oldest to start kindergarten. I know homeschooling is an option, but I really would like her to go to school (her personality does so much better around other kids).



And then there is the expectations from others. We have told everyone about our travel plans and I feel like a fraud if we don’t go. Many people have been excited and supportive, and there are also some that don’t think we will pull it off. So of course we want to pursue it and show them that we will. 😉 

But it might not be God’s timing right now. He may have different plans. Maybe He is keeping us from traveling for a reason that we will never know about. (Not that this makes it much easier- we still want to follow through with our original plan – because we said that’s what we were going to do.)

To be completely honest, the past few months have been a real financial struggle. Our main income is our eBay business and sales have not been as high as they need to be. Maybe it’s another sign that we shouldn’t go, or maybe it’s God’s way of keeping me in daily prayer about it.

Living in this place of uncertainty has definitely been a struggle for me. I tend to get worried and stressed when things don’t go according to plan, but I have to be reminded that God’s timing is not our timing.

This past Sunday our pastor spoke about faith, and something he said got to me, but I wanted to push it aside – because I knew it would mean my husband was right. 😉 Robbie doesn’t stress about much – which tends to make me stress even more. Our pastor said that if we don’t have peace, we can’t have faith. Which means if we are stressed and anxious about something, we don’t have the faith that God can handle it. Ouch.

It makes complete sense, but it’s something that is a struggle for me.

Going through this situation I was reminded of another time in my life where God’s timing was not my timing. I struggled for 3 years with infertility before we were able to conceive our first baby in 2012. It was a long and painful 3 years, and even writing about it brings back some of those emotions. All I wanted was a to be pregnant – like all of our friends. I didn’t know why it was so easy for so many people to get pregnant, and I was having such a difficult time. I didn’t know if having kids would ever be in God’s plans for us. And now my days are crazy filled with three little loves of my life. 

Maybe my kids were supposed to be born at a certain time to do something great in their future, or maybe infertility is a part of my story so I can help and support others who deal with it. Or maybe it was just to increase my relationship with God and live in prayer more. I might never know exactly why, but the great thing is I don’t need to. I just need to live in faith daily. 

I wanted to write this post to update everyone on where we are at the moment – which basically is we have no idea.  We don’t know if anything will even happen with this television show or if traveling full time will be on the radar again soon. For the moment we are enjoying our almost decluttered house, still selling stuff on eBay, working on our blogs, having play dates with friends, and praying to increase faith in God’s timing.

Have you ever struggled with God’s timing for something in your life? Were you able to see the big picture after? Or is it something you are currently going through?

If you would like to stay connected, and stay updated with our decluttering tips and family USA trips, drop us your e-mail. We promise not to spam your inbox- we hate that too! 

*UPDATE* January 2018

We are still under contract with the production company for another two months, so our living situation has remained the same. They have a few interviews lined up next month so we will see where those go. 

This time back at home has made us dive into our Flea Market Flipper brand full-throttle. We probably wouldn’t (or couldn’t) have done so much if we were on the road right now. We even hired a business coach to help us get things really moving and we are excited about what is to come in the next few months with it! 

We aren’t writing so much on this blog at the moment, but if you want to keep up with our story, drop us a line at Flea Market Flipper. 🙂 

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