Dripping Springs, Texas, here we come!

I can’t believe I’m even writing this post because this is truly such a crazy surprise!! After a lot of thought and prayer, Kenton has accepted job at an incredible church in Dripping Springs, Texas (which is just outside Austin) and we’ll be moving there mid summer! His new career as a youth pastor is something we are very excited about and it is totally a crazy God thing. I’d love to share the story here because, really, it’s just amazing what God’s done and we want Him to get all the glory for this!

So, let’s back it up to when this story really began…

Just over one year ago, in late April of 2018, after a lot of prayer and a nudge from the Lord, Kenton and I moved out of our precious pink house in Navasota, Texas, and I shared all about that move here. After that move we began discussing and dreaming about what God had for us in the future. We thought God could be moving our cloud soon, but had no idea what that looked like. So we lived at Camp Allen for the late spring and summer of 2018 per usual, and basically looked all summer for a rental house to live in in College Station once camp was over, all the while still not really knowing what our long term plans were. We looked a ton. I mean, a lot. Things were really beginning to feel quite hopeless when I got a text from a friend in Austin who needed tenants for a short term lease for a lovely house in south College Station. My first though was, “No way! I’m not moving again in 6 months.” But we went and looked at the house anyway and I’ll never forget the peace we felt standing in that house. Not once had we felt so peaceful since we started looking at rentals earlier in the summer. We were standing in the backyard when Kenton looked over at me and I just knew we were going to say yes to this short term lease, which meant saying yes to moving again in the spring of 2019 – but to where – we still didn’t know. For whatever reason, God had eliminated every other rental option we had, so this house in College Station with the short term lease was the house. So we moved in in September 2018, still not knowing where we’d live or what we’d do once the lease expired in the spring. The fall of 2018 was a really challenging time – lots of waiting on God and trusting him with a million little uncertainties. Where would we live after this lease expired? Should we stay close or was God going to move us away? We had no clue.

In January 2019, we decided to stay in College Station. We’d loved living here, we were plugged into a church, we had friends and a small group we absolutely adored. It all made sense. So we began the search for rentals again and even went so far as to attempt to put a security deposit on another house. But through a series of crazy events, God essentially slammed the  door shut to that rental property. I was on my way to the leasing office with the security deposit in hand when I put their address in Google Maps. Our experiences with the agent so far had been great, but when their office popped up on Google Maps there were a ton of very negative reviews. Just an hour before I had prayed and asked God to close the door on this house if it wasn’t where we were supposed to be, and here I was, starting at my phone in shock at the bad reviews and amazed at how clear God was to say this wasn’t it yet. I knew that was His answer to my prayer. So we tore up the security deposit check, stopped looking, and started praying.. more.

Fast forward to March, and we’re living month to month in our rental property. Our gracious landlords are understanding and kind, and needed to do some work on the house before listing it to sell, so extending our lease month to month worked for them, too. It was mid March when Kenton felt confirmation from the Lord that this would be his last summer at Camp Allen. With a heart filled with sadness to end this beautiful journey with camp, yet a heart simultaneously bursting with gratitude at all camp has done for the Boones, Kenton shared this with our Camp Allen family.

This is where God gets all the glory, because the very same week that Kenton told Camp Allen that this fourth summer there would be his last, we heard from a friend who needed a youth pastor out in Dripping Springs. After a few weeks time filled with prayer, fasting, consulting family and friends, and getting more confirmations from God than I could even recount, we knew this is what God had next for our family.

So, here we are today, after exactly ONE YEAR of knowing God was up to something but not knowing exactly what yet, we’re sharing that we’re moving to Dripping Springs, Texas!! When I’ve been telling friends and family about the move, what I find myself continually saying is that this is a very creative way for God to answer years worth of prayers from me and Kenton. We did not see this coming and it totally makes sense.

I wanted to share all of this because I’ve been very quiet about our personal plans for the last year, and that’s simply because we knew a change was coming, but weren’t sure what it was yet. But now that we know where God is taking us, I wanted to share how crazy faithful He is! I mean, from starting this journey when we moved out of our house in Navasota a year ago, all the way to today writing this post, I just laugh at how good He is! He said no to all the rentals we looked at in the summer of 2018, He had my friend in Austin send a text about a temporary lease the same day we were going to just end the search and pick a rental we didn’t really like, He provided a house for the exact amount of time we’d need to get where we could confidently say yes to this job in Dripping Springs, He said no when we tried to sign a year lease in the spring to stay in College Station, and He connected us to this job the week we knew Kenton would need a new job.

While I haven’t really shared much during the process of getting us to this point, I’m excited to share that there’s one more piece of the puzzle missing because I want you to get to be part of that story with us. Experiencing God provide the answers to multiple needs just in the nick of time over this past year has grown my faith a lot. It hasn’t always been fun or easy, but I have learned to wait peacefully during all of this. I mean I remember days in October and November when we’d talk about how insane it was that we didn’t know what we’d do when our lease was up and we felt God was moving our cloud soon but we could do nothing about it because we still had no idea what He was up to. Those days were challenging as heck! But in early spring my heart was truly changed by all of that waiting. We still had no answers, but I just had this crazy peace that though time was running out, God would move. And He did.

So, like I mentioned, the final piece of the puzzle is that we now need to find a house in the Dripping Springs area. If we buy, we’ll be first time home buyers (that is a blog post all on it’s own – I have been dreaming of owning our own home since we got married almost 5 years ago) on a crazy timeline with a crazy summer ahead of us… but God has ordained this, has He not? I mean when I look at my calendar and start to get so freaked about all the things going on (which is almost every day if I’m being totally transparent!), I just remember what He’s done to confirm this and I just have to hand it all over to Him because this is truly His perfect timing. And I want you to get to be part of it. It’s actually super vulnerable for me to write about our need for a home and how we need God to provide for us before He has, but I have no reason not to want to celebrate in advance by including you in our housing journey. I share a lot that I like to encourage people in transition. I’ve also written a lot from the other side of transition after I’ve gone through the change and after I’ve seen God meet me with provision. But this time, I wanted to write from within the need. We need a house. When we look at Realtor and Zillow.. we can get pretty discouraged. But I don’t want to be silent about our story because I want other people like you, not just us, to get to benefit from watching Him provide the last piece of the puzzle for us, and in doing so, hopefully hand me one of my lifelong dreams in the process!

So, as best I can, I promise to keep you posted in this Boone Family Update Series on my blog! Kenton is going to be busy with summer camp, I’ve got lots of weddings and fun shoots coming this summer, but this is important and I want to let you in on the journey with us! And if you want to take part in the story too, then one way you can jump in with us is through prayer. We know God’s got the perfect first house picked out for us that will fulfill all our craziest, wildest dreams. But I’d love to have you join us in prayer! We’ll take all the prayer you’ve got. And then, when we find that house that is yet to be determined and most of the time feels like a total long shot, we’ll get to thank you for believing with us that God would finish this crazy, one year long story of our cloud moving in the most beautiful, perfect, creative way that only God could!!!

What does this mean for Emily Boone Photography?

The past couple years, I have really loved serving the Brazos Valley area through my photography business. It’s here that this business got started, so I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for BCS! That said, my family moving to the Austin/Dripping Springs area means my business will be moving there as well! However, that doesn’t mean that I won’t book weddings in Bryan/College Station anymore! So if you’re a bride or soon to be bride in BCS, I’d still love to hear from you and see if we’re a great fit! And if you’re a current EBoone Bride, you already know that this move has no impact on your wedding day at all. 🙂 And to all you brides or soon to be brides in the Austin/Dripping Springs area, I’d love love love to hear from you! I am super pumped to move my business back to my hometown roots and get to serve a whole new community of people!