Over 6 years ago, God had me “lay down” my understanding of how my life should be and the path that I had planned. I was faced with a terrifying threat of becoming homeless, and God showed up to save me from the oppositions that I have encountered.

I had nowhere to go, and it looked like I was at the end of anything survivable. He had me take all the money that I had in the world and book a hotel room for me and my two daughters for only 5 days… 

I had no income, no vehicle, and no one that I could ask for help. I was all alone, with only my promises from Jesus to be our support and our home for wherever He would lead. 

I had the biggest fears that anyone could imagine, and when I followed Jesus to that hotel room, I expected to die. I thought in my mind that there was NO WAY that we would make it, and I even secretly planned to find a place to live in the woods if God didn’t show up to keep His promise. 

Yet, God had been visiting me every single night and filling me with blueprints and promises of what would take place. God showed up to be our Hero, and He led us to follow Him from one end of the country to another. 

Not only did God honor His words to carry us and support us, but He made it an experience unlike anything I could have dreamed to take place. We went to little hotels and big ones. 

God took us to live in vacation homes and Airbnb rentals. During the first 3 years of the journey, I wrote a book about the details of that exciting adventure, called “Naked Wings”. It is a very vulnerable book about my lessons of learning to fly by faith and follow God up to places of safety and refuge. If you would like to read it, the link to my book is here: https://diamondsfromthedust.sellfy.store/p/naked-wings-hardcover/

For the most post part of the past 3 years, God gave us plush comforts in a beautiful castle apartment with a breathtaking library that looked exactly like “Beauty and the Beast”. 

But then in February, God told me that He was going to have me start writing my second book of living by faith and dependence on His promise. By writing the book, God meant I was about to go through some big challenges of following Him on another journey of pressing my faith over my fears. 

Then in May of this year, God gave me an outline of what to expect, full of blueprints and promises of what would take place, but it was vaguely. 

He showed me that something big was going to happen that would place us back into a very comfortable place where that we would love even more than the beloved “castle” home. That is hard to compete with! 

I would come out of those encounters so excited that I could barely wait! I thought that what God had showed me would show up right away, and I was eagerly awaiting the “Divine appointment”. Not only that, but I even went to sit at the castle library every day before our room deadline to wait for God to send the “call”. 

However, to my deep disappointment, that is not what happened at all. Instead, God woke me up one morning and said, “Follow me through the Aspen trees to tangible hopes taking place”. 

He then told me to pack up all of our things and drive to another state where I knew NOBODY. Yikes…so I did. I only had enough money for ONE night in a hotel and I thought to myself…’okay here we go again. Is this where I am going to die, or is this where I am going to finally learn to live in the fullness of all God promised us’. 

So I followed Jesus to every place where He led, and I never knew how He would cover our place to stay or where the money would be coming from. It has been so scary and there were many times when the path was so narrow that we almost didn’t get through it. I also have cried many times, because I missed my comfort of the castle. 

We are still in that place of following God through the very narrow path in the “woods of the unknown” in another state. I have had to learn to follow behind God and to take it “one day at a time”, because anything else is overwhelming. 

As of tonight, I have no idea what God has planned to get us through the next morning….let alone the next few days, the next week, or month. However, I have the blueprints of promise and the ever-presence of God to show me where to step and how to get through such a small entranceway. 

I have found during this time that the hardest thing I have ever had to learn was to deny my own understanding and trust God even when it doesn’t make sense. God has had us in the Chicago area since July, and I didn’t even know how we were going to survive more than one day. 

God said that this time was going to be much more challenging than the first time writing the book of testimonies, because He said we are finally going to see the end and get our happy little home. 

Challenging has been an understatement. Just as God slashed Gideon’s army to show His power and to teach Gideon to trust God over his fears, God has made this time more impossible looking than every before. 

Most of those who cared about us and helped during the first journey are no longer with us. I can count on one hand the amount of hearts that God has used to help us during this time around, and that makes the size of the mountain even more terrifying to stand upon. 

It feels like God dropped us in the middle of a forest, and we have to follow Him in total trust and dependence to find our way out. Honestly, the ONLY way we will survive this is by the Glorious Power of God. I have nothing…I just have to surrender to His words. 

I wouldn’t even say that I have trust as much as I should…although I am learning to trust. I have to die to my need to have to control and understand. Not only that, but I have to die to all that I know, and I have to make God’s promises to us the ruler over everything right now. 

Learning to Trust God with all of my heart and not depend on what “makes sense” has proved to be the hardest thing I have ever had to learn to do. I have had to come to the end of myself—in a very life-threatening and terrifying way—-and make Jesus the true King of my heart and emotions. 

It has been very purifying and humbling to go through. There are very few days when I do not need to vent my soul with tears and pour my fears to God. I have had to keep all of my focus on what God has promised, even though it looks and feels utterly impossible. 

This journey has been more refining than anything I have ever known, and yet it has also been very empowering. I have been able to witness the power of God materialize to save us over and over and over again. 

I have seen God’s words manifest for us so many times that I can not even keep track anymore. I don’t even know how I am going to write this book because there is so much goodness pouring out that I cannot keep up with it all. 

As much as I cling to God’s presence and power to hold us up, I am not too proud to admit that I need help, however God delivers it. 

When the skies over my life are raining as the pain of broken china, and it looks like there is no way to survive, then I just have to remember the path of where God started with us. I have to retrace my steps and find my way back to the beginning through the winding trees. 

I have to build an altar to God and declare His peace over myself. Because God has carried us all these years…over 6 years…since the day He took us to the little Florida hotel. 

I thought I was going to die and build my final resting place in the forest. Instead, God revealed His power to us through His tangible promise in ways that I could never describe completely. 

If anything, I hope that my life is proof to someone that miracles can come even in the most impossible time to survive. This whole story is page after page proof of God’s words being fulfilled as His unseen presence is made visible through the fulfillment of His promises.  

No matter how impossible your situation looks, I can confidently tell you that God has a way to get you through it. No matter how alone you may feel, rest assured my beautiful friend, you are not. ♡ May the God of all comfort, comfort you and carry you through whatever you face, and may you see the fulfillment of all your hopes and dreams. 

I love you, 

Dannette 

Trust in and rely confidently on the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways, know and acknowledge and recognize Him, and He will make your paths straight and smooth [removing obstacles that block your way]. Proverbs 3

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