About Tiny House Detours And Coffee Date Friendships with Kristin Taibi

A canceled plan can feel like rejection, but sometimes it is the exact turn that gets you where you’re meant to be. We’re talking about godly friendship and the surprising way God orchestrates relationships that bless us, steady us, and help us become brave again. From a tiny house on wheels to an unexpected move to Texas, we share how provision often arrives through ordinary people saying yes and how direction becomes clearer when we keep praying and taking the next right step.

We also get honest about adult friendship: how hard it can be to build trust, how many of us hide our hearts after we’ve been hurt, and why women need women who will “order our lips” and remind us that God is near. A simple church greeting turns into coffee, encouragement, and eventually real partnership as we build a podcast, trade skills like photography and editing, and watch community form around a calling.

Then we go deeper into prayer, hope, and foster parenting. We talk about praying ahead of what you can see, including the wild moment of realizing one of us had prayed for a house years before the other one lived in it. If you’re wrestling with relocation, faith-based community, Christian encouragement, making friends as an adult, or stepping into fostering and adoption, this conversation will give you language, courage, and practical next steps.

Subscribe for more stories like this, share this with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review so more women who feel alone can find their way to faith and friendship.

Transcript

Why Godly Friends Matter

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Hi girls, good morning. We're so excited to be back together again. Kristen and I. And talking to you a little bit about friendship and how God really is faithful to orchestrate our friendships, our godly friendships, uh to bless us and to enlarge our territory. And so today, uh, Kristen, you want to just remind everybody who you are? I'm sure they know because you've been on so many times, but it's our it's how we do things.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

I'm Kristen Tavai, and I just live really close to Wimberly, close to Denise. And yeah, like she said, I've been on a couple times.

Taking Time To Trust People

SPEAKER_00 1:12

And here I am again. Girlfriends are so important in our lives. And you know, I love that. How old are you? Um 39. 39, and I am 67. Like, age gets there's a point where age doesn't even matter. It's like just kindred spirits, those spirits that have the Lord filling their lives, both of us. And um, you know, he just leads us to one another to encourage each other. He said it's not good for man to be alone, and he meant it. Women too don't need to be alone. We need girlfriends, and we need girlfriends that order our lips and remind us that he's with us all the time and encourage us through the hard times. And so I hope today that we do that for you. Um, so Krista, we were gonna talk about like how we met. Tell me what life was like, like right before that. Uh, did you know a lot of people in town?

SPEAKER_01 2:10

No. So we me and my husband are originally from the Northeast, so like uh Pennsylvania, West Virginia. And so then we went on a journey the way God just led us to move uh to Alabama and then eventually to Texas. And so when we moved to Texas, we just really didn't really know that many people. And how'd you end up with in Wimberley? That's a craziest story.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Okay, yeah, well, that craziest story. And I know I might may have heard it already, but I just need to hear it again, Truth.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Yeah, I don't I don't know if I ever did tell you. Okay, good.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Well, I feel still bad that I born you said, Well, I was adopted, you know. And I was like, what? How is that possible? I didn't know.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

No, well, we still haven't known each other for an extremely long time. So it's like, yeah, there's still lots to learn.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Okay, I love that because that's true, y'all. You know, I've been writing a lot lately about um how hurt people hurt people, but it's also that we hide, we hide our hearts from each other because we don't want to be hurt again. And I think that's true about friendships. We just take little steps into friendships. We take big steps to hug each other and say welcome, but then yeah, to really connect with one another, we just really it takes time. Yeah, it takes time. It takes fun to build a great friendship.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Yeah, and like we've both lived like lots of years, and there's just lots of things to catch up on, I guess, as you make a new friend.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

So, really, I found out some wonderful things about her, and she's found out wonderful things about me. And what's so cool is even in the really hard moments of our lives, we can see now how God's using those in our lives to bless other women, right? And it's so cool. I woke up this morning thinking about that, just like how cool it is that at this season in my life, I get to hear stories about God's goodness in the land of the living. And that's in the land of the living. Here where we're living, we get to hear the stories of what God's doing. And it's inspiring.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

Yeah, it really is inspiring.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Okay, so tell us the story.

Tiny House Move And Sudden Detour

Recognizing God’s Guidance In Signs

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Okay. I interrupted you, didn't get to you. That's okay. Um, okay, so when we felt like God called us to move, um, at the time we were buying a tiny house on wheels. So obviously that moves along with you. Um, but when we were building the tiny house, the builder that was building it was in Alabama. So we felt called to go to Alabama first so that Jerry could like monitor the build of it. And after we sold our house, the builder called us and was like, actually, we can't build your house, or we can, but it's gonna take a whole year before we get to you because they had this huge waiting list. So we were like, oh my god, what are we gonna do? But we decided we'd still move because we still had this open door of Jared's friend that offered to that we could stay with because he lived in Alabama and he was about 45 minutes away from the builder. Oh, that's wonderful. And he was like, You can come live with me while in the meantime, and he also was building a tiny house um himself. So we figured we can help him while we were staying there. But then, like I said, we were like, What are we gonna do? Yeah, but we still felt like we should go. So we did, and we at that time to feel like this whole story is like God, this God's all over it. That's that's a good plot. I just feel like there's lots of details I need to share. Um, so at that time we were with his friend, we were helping him build a house, and then amazingly, we found a house, a tiny house that was already built by that builder. Oh wow. So, and and it was in Georgia, so it wasn't far away from Alabama, and we were like, wow, this is amazing because it's a tiny house. Like, yes, this builder built a house, but this house could be in Alaska or something, you know, or I don't know, just somewhere really far away. And it was only 45 minutes away. So we're like, that's God. And so we bought that house, um, that tiny house. We remained in Alabama for I think it was about nine months because we continued to help his friend. And then with our tiny house, we were just, you know, painting it, making it our own at that time. And then during the time in Alabama, we just we kept praying, like, God, where do you want us to move? Because we're just really not sure. Yeah. And we we kept coming across uh the word Austin or the name Austin. And so we're like, I wonder if it's Austin, Texas, because that's Austin's in Texas, and we do feel like it's Texas, but like we don't know where in Texas, Texas is really big. So we decided um we'll just wait on God to for him to confirm it. And sure enough, he confirmed it multiple times. So from there So, how did he confirm it? Tell me. Tell you two of the ways that were really big to us. One was me and Jared went like to the park and we were hiking, and then we decided to stop and take a break. And there was this huge bench. It's like it was really big. Like you could have sat anywhere on that bench, and we decided to sit down at the spot that we sat down, and sure enough, right behind me, someone carved the name Austin into the city.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

Oh wow, oh wow, yeah. So it really was like uh just one after another signs and reminders, basically. Yes, it was because you were asking, and that you know, I feel like that's something that we, you know, if you feel like you don't have connection with God, I feel like that's one of the keys is he gives us choice. Yeah, and so if you don't give him permission in your life to show you where to go, then he pulls his hands back and just says, Okay, walk your own way. Yeah, but and and that's because he loves you, he wants you to have the choice to choose him or the world. Yeah, but in your situation, you were walking every single day, watching for every sign that he could send to you to know where the next step was. Yeah. Isn't that cool? That's like when you look back, it reminds you that's where we need to be walking every day. And I'm not always, you know. Sometimes I'm just running my own way.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

After all these, you can continue.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

I know. It's like you just gotta you just learn. Yeah, well, and you fall and you get back up.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

He's always staying there.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Yes, that's what's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

He's still a very present help when you need him, but he's not pushy at all. Yeah, he loves you and he wants you to turn to him, but you don't you don't have to feel that pressure because he's not gonna do that to you. He's waiting for you to decide. And I hope you have, and I hope you'll continue to.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

Me too. Um, the second way that he confirmed it, so this was interesting. I felt like he confirmed it to me in that unique way, but then with Jared, he also did it with him, and we just kind of felt like in sync with it. Like he put us both on the same page. When the phone rang, he opened his phone, well, before he opened his phone, he's like, This call's from Austin, Texas. He looked at me and said, This call's from Austin, Texas. I was like, uh, how would you know that? But he opened his phone, showed it to me, and then it was, it's like God told him, Yeah, this is from Austin, Texas.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

Like it was really an open door.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

Yeah, but it was just used as a way to confirm, like, yeah, he's also getting the same message from God about Austin, Texas. Yeah, that's a good thing. So he both could have confidence in moving, yeah, taking that step and starting to look in that area.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

That just reminds me of the difference between uh women and men and in this marriage relationship, uh, that we do need individual and different in different ways. Like with him, it was the job because you know, he's thinking, I need to be the breadwinner. He probably is feeling a lot of press pressure about that. You were just out on a random hike, and he says again to you, don't worry, I'm with you. Yeah, I love that he is so um specific for the need that we have to encourage us. Yeah, I just love that. Thank you, Lord. Yes, thank you, Lord. Seriously. So um, so you both got these signs, and then so what was the final thing that you just said, okay, now we're moving?

SPEAKER_01 10:50

So the final thing was that an open door happens with people, a mutual friend basically, of the friend that we were living with, a mutual friend of his basically reached out to him and heard our story and said, Hey, I heard they're moving to Austin, Texas, and they're not sure where to go. We you can come stay at our house while you figure that out. And also, like they said, you can come free of charge because they knew we didn't have jobs. So we're like, okay, this must be brought opening the door. Like, there's no reason not to go. Like, we literally have a place to stay. Yeah. So we would move in with them, get a storage lot, put our tiny house in the storage lot. And so that's what we did. We moved into with people we never met, we just knew they were Christians. We had a mother-in-law suite. So we were like, okay, that's great because we'll have they'll be in their house, we'll be in our little mother-in-law suite, and we'll figure this out and have that tiny house in the uh storage lot. Now, was that in Wimberly? Yes, but we didn't know about Wimberly at the time. Oh, okay. So, what what's really cool is you know, Wimberly's in the hill country. Yes. And so I believe it's Deuteronomy 8, 10. Um, I think it oh man, I haven't heard told this story in a long time. But there's a scripture that talks about the hill country. Yes, and it talks about like how there's rivers and streets and gushing out.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

Yes, I have it on my refrigerator, and I cannot tell you exactly the whole thing. But it's a very, very powerful one, which felt like a verse for us too as we moved to Wimberley. I know, like yeah, he he draws us, he draws us where he wants us to go. That's awesome that they were willing to let strangers that you were willing to go because you had faith in the Lord, but also that they let strangers that they didn't know move into their house and figure it out. Yeah. And we got to park the tiny home there. No, so we had to find a storage lot.

Storage Lot Detour Leads To Wimberley

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Oh, and that's right, you know, put that on a storage lot for a while. Yes. Um, but that's how we found Wimberly is the storage lot. Okay. We so we made our plans. I think this is what's really cool about like seeing God in our plan is that we moved forward making plans, but then God canceled some of the plans and then rerouted us into Wimberly. Because we found a storage unit like in the city of Austin, because we just didn't know. We just basically Googled Austin storage unit. And when we went there, we're like, oh, this place doesn't seem like a good spot for the tiny house. It's really tight. We had the professional um mover move it from Alabama to Texas, but then Jared was gonna move it from the storage unit to wherever we found. Yeah. And he was like, I don't want to drive in the city with a tiny house. So he's like, let's find another place. And so we were trying to find other places, but I think it was a Sunday, and so everything was closed. Yeah. And we're like, well, what are we gonna do? The house is coming Monday. Like we need a place to put it. And so we called like probably 10 places. The only place that called us back was the Wimberly storage unit. Oh, wow. And that's how we found it. Oh, that's awesome! Yeah.

Meeting At Church And Saying Yes

SPEAKER_00 14:00

So we found music all and that's how you found me. Yeah, yeah. So let's talk about, let's skip ahead a little bit. I mean, there's so much we could talk about. And there's and all of it is God leading us. Um for sure. So we met. Um, I was at church, and I sit close to the back row all the time. I feel like it's an important spot to just kind of be on watch for those that might need some extra prayer, and I can just pray, you know? Yeah. And so I'm close to the back, and you guys came in and you were in the back, right behind me, right? Um and yeah, I think we were sitting with Sandy and Daryl. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. I don't even remember that. That's so funny because I Sandy and Daryl are also like our kids.

unknown 14:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

Well, they love them. The reason why we went to that church that day is probably because their kids had something going on and they would invite us. Oh, yeah. Maybe the dancers or something.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

If their kids are in it, we'll go go and see. So they're kind of part of how we met. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We really are. I don't think they've ever done that before. Okay, so take it from there. I was sitting basically behind Denise, and you turned around and you said, You I used your I think you were just saying hi and greeting us, and like, hi, you know, if you need prayer for anything, just let us know. And I think you invited us to breakfast.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

Yes, that's right. That's right. Because we go to breakfast after our church service. Yeah. And anybody's welcome. It's a great place to be because you can just eat breakfast together and get to know each other a little bit better. So we go to the cafe, ask for Denise Jackson. Yeah.

unknown 15:36

That's awesome.

Building A Podcast Team Together

SPEAKER_00 15:38

Um, so um, I was asking you to breakfast. You just said, I don't know about breakfast, but maybe we can have coffee. Okay. Okay. Yeah. And so it took a few weeks for us to kind of arrange the coffee. It was probably two or three weeks. But she started talking about her YouTube channel, but she actually gave me the link about this whole tiny house. And I love that. I wanted to know about the tiny house. And um, so again, it was a few more weeks um that I didn't look at the the link. But at the same time, I was, and I think I did tell you there at Coffee that I was I was wanting to get my website going. Yeah. And I wanted to have a podcast, but I hadn't made very much, and that's how you start talking about your podcast that you gave you this time home. And which is cool. But as I started watching it from the beginning, it was like pretty rough. And like I was thinking, uh, I don't even think I could do that good as she's doing. But then I noticed like every episode, it just got better and better, and she started feeling so confident. And it was really, really a strong podcast. I was like, this girl knows how to do a podcast. I don't. And she's got it on YouTube, and I didn't. And so I think it was May of 24 that I reached out and said, would you consider doing helping me do a podcast? And you were like, oh no, I don't know how to do that. I was like, Yes, you do.

SPEAKER_01 17:15

Yeah, I think I was like, I'm not a professional.

Praying For A House Before You Know

SPEAKER_00 17:17

Yeah, I'm not a professional. That's what she said. And yeah, because she did know, but she just that was kind of what she said. But I kept harassing her. And then one day she said, Yeah, she would. And what I found out, I think that first day that we had coffee was that she's a photographer, uh, still photographer. And um so I really needed some headshots for the website, and so we did some. Yeah, you know, we did those together, and then um the uh podcast got set up, but then I hadn't done anything, so then Kristen came over and showed me how to record like this, yeah, and then I hand it off to her and she does the editing. That's how you get the faces. She gets so mad at me because the what? Like I don't keep us facing the camera every once in a while so she can fix this. Or I do all these weird things like my dog tapping in the background. So she's trained me quite a bit since uh 2025 when we started. We actually started the podcast in 2025. Um, but in 2024 she started helping me, and praise God, because you have been such a fun. And then we started learning more about each other, and like my favorite part of this story is the house she lived in.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

Oh my gosh, yeah, for sure. So tell me how you got that house. So they they left the tiny home, it got sold. We felt like God was um calling us to have kids and with fostering and adopting, so we're like, well, we can't live in a tiny house. So we were like, we need to start looking for a house. And this was during 2020, during COVID, and I think the housing market was just going skyrocketing, just wasn't like your normal. So we were thinking, oh, we're gonna have to move out of Wimberly because we can't find a house that we can afford. And so we I don't know how long we were looking several months, um, and we were thinking we were gonna have to move out, but we actually fired our realtor because he kept finding things that just were not anything that we were interested in. Or could afford. Or could afford, yeah. Yeah, and so we were like, well, how are we gonna find a house without a realtor? So we were like, this isn't possible. What are we gonna do? But something came up on Zillow and I liked it like the heart, but I got a notification that Jared also hearted the same house. I didn't think we were gonna be interested in a house like this because it was partially unfinished. We had talked previously, we want a finished house. Yeah, because you'd already done all this work on 100 years old than that. Yeah, we were. But I'm like, he liked it, I liked it. I was like, let's have a conversation about it. So I did bring it up. I'm like, I saw you like this house. I was like, do you think we should go see it? It doesn't, I mean it's unfinished, but do you think we should go see it? And he's like, Yeah, let's go see it. And you know, it's it's still in Wimberly, so it wasn't far. Oh, and the reason why we were able to go see it without a realtor is because they had an open house. So wow, you know, anyone can go without the without a realtor. So we went and fell in love with the house as we were walking to floor. Yeah, and then it's perfect for kids.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

It is, yeah. So I found out where she lived. It's a dead end road, and you know how I dream. I have big dreams, and so we had been looking at houses just because we wanted all our kids to live here one day, and I had found that house five years before, and I made Lee come with me. We looked in the windows, it was unfinished. We but we loved it, but Lee was like, I'm not building, I'm not gonna do all that work. But I just felt so strongly I needed to pray for that house, so I would go. I go for five years, I would go. It was still open. I would just walk around that house and pray. And then I started just having this vision for that whole street that it would just be redone. And so I'd walk up and down the street, then go pray around that house, and that is the house that Kristen lives in. I couldn't believe it because I had stopped at some point and hadn't gone, and then there it was, and it was all finished, and it was so beautiful, and actually the whole road has like been improved over the years and yeah, so it was just not just that I love that I got to pray for the house that my friend lives in now, and her children, who I love, and her husband that I love, yeah. But that um uh the prayers of righteous women and men avail much, they accomplish what we say that is God's word. And that's the way I prayed around that house was God's word for blessings and peace and prosperity and all of those things I get to see happening in her life. We don't always see what we pray for, you know. Yeah, that the fruition of the fruit. The fruit. Yeah, yeah. You just pray and you trust. But God had put it on my heart to pray for that house. So I did. And now my friend Kristen who really is pouring into my life so much lives in that house.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:39

So I just want to remind you when God prompts you to pray, you may be praying for one of your really good friends. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

And it's a miracle because it's like, when do you usually meet somebody who bought a house? That you can pray for.

SPEAKER_00 22:51

So God knew five years before. And directed her footsteps. And directed my footsteps. Because he knew one day Kristen would be my friend. She would work with me on this project. Guys, he is for us. We have no imagination that is big enough to incorporate everything that he's doing all the time for us. He loves us so much. And he wants us to have good friends. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

Yeah. And Denise has been such a blessing because, like I said, I moved to Texas and didn't really have a lot of friends. And I think as an adult, it's harder to make friends. So he you were like the perfect person for him, like in my life.

Foster Parenting And Living By Hope

SPEAKER_00 23:31

Well, and now, like just recently, and we don't know where this is going to go. And she's still a she's a foster mom right now, but maybe a mom adopting one of these days. Yeah. Yeah. And uh either way, her focus is on raising these kids up and the way that they'll go. And and they've really had rough, the kids that Jared and uh Kristen uh have become foster parents for all along the way, have had rough beginnings, but God has seen them and placed them with Kristen and Jared. Um because they're putting those kids first, they're raising them up to love the Lord so that they won't have to walk alone the rest of their lives. You know, it says um uh faith is the evidence, his word says faith is the evidence of things hoped for. Yeah. And I've really been thinking on that a lot the last few months. That first, y'all, you have to hope. And hope is the and when you take that step to hope, and then he does something, and maybe not even exactly how you expect it, but you know he did it, your faith starts growing. That little mustard seed of faith starts turning into a giant tree. You can't see it, but I'm a giant tree. Because I've seen so much of God's faithfulness in my life. I have uh hoped and hoped and hoped, and I I don't put limits on my uh and encourage all to do that. What is the harm? There's no harm, and God sees it, and then He He makes the impossible possible, He does, and He brings friends around to help it out, but yeah I'm very thankful. Me too, big time. So, like what would you say to those younger women who in their hearts think about maybe I just won't stay here, maybe I'll go on an adventure with God, or maybe I'll be a foster mom, a foster dad. What would you say to them who are 20 years younger than you to just be a little more encouraged in their path?

Recap Plus A Charge To Trust God

SPEAKER_01 25:52

Um, if it's something that God, you really feel like God has put on your heart, then take the steps to start pursuing it and see what doors he opens or what people he leads you to. Because I do really feel like if he's leading you with that, then he will he will open the doors or he'll you know lead you to the people that can help you along the way. Like that's what I've seen in our whole story is when we believe that's the way he's leading us. It's like, okay, let's pray about it, see if, see what happens, see if he starts providing. Because if that's the way he's leading you, he will provide. I love that. Yeah.

Scripture, Prayer, And Blessing

SPEAKER_00 26:31

I'm just gonna recap what we've talked about today for you guys, just because I want you to remember. So they were up north, and they were gonna build a tiny house, and they went to Alabama, and they were provided with a place to stay, and then they were provided with an already built house. They were thinking they'd have to wait a year, and they were had an already built house, and they continued to pray for God to move them. And Austin, Texas kept coming up, and then an opportunity to live with a family for a short time came up, and then they had to store their house, and that brought them to Wimberley, and then they went to church, and I was in front of them. Kristen and I got together, and now I have a podcast. And it wasn't just Kristen, because we have a whole team that came around to me. Uh, Preston does my website, Victoria does my social media, Peyton organizes my days so I can be effective. Paisley does my bookkeeping, and my editor is Kristen. And I'm telling you, I could not have imagined having these people surrounding me, but God knew that I needed them. And so I'm just gonna tell you, he doesn't do stuff like that just for Denise Jackson or Kristen. He does it for all of us if we're willing to just lay down what we have in our hands, all of our dreams and visions, and say, we trust you, Lord, with them. You pick up the ones that matter, you lead us, you guide us, and uh he will open doors for you. He will open the doors to friendship, to not being alone. He will open doors to your dreams, having foster kids that you get to take care of and love. Um, he will open the door to business uh and favor, and for me too. Um, he opens those doors. He also opens the hearts of our husbands. We both have such great stories about how God has opened the hearts of our husbands to be so for us in our dreams and visions. Um and just lately, as I'm going over the end-of-the-year finances and going, oh my gosh, I've really invested a lot into this project. And this is different from my husband years and years ago. He said, Denise, this is what you're supposed to be doing. Quit worrying about it. Just keep doing what you're doing. Keep this year's gonna even be better. And and it just is so encouraging to have husbands that remind us of our purpose and how God's leading us and give us that protection to you. Um, there's more to these stories. I hope y'all will continue to watch, and I hope they'll continue to encourage you. I hope you'll share them with your friends because there's a lot of women out there all across the world that don't know who our father really is, how much he loves us, how much he wants for his daughters to be able to be mighty in this land. I want to leave you guys with this verse that um another verse that he's really uh put on my heart since years ago when I wouldn't tell anybody that I was um a pregnant teenager. I was worried about rejection, I was worried about all of that. And he put on put me in a prayer group with a bunch of women that loved me when I told him your story, that story. And he showed me that when women pray, kings of armies flee. They flee. And the women at home divide the spoil. And I'm telling you, girls, that is for all of us when we pray, when we pray his word in power, and we pray together, touching. Yeah, we have what we say, and so I just pray for you right now, Father God. I just thank you for these daughters that are watching. I thank you for covering their lives, Father. I thank you for opening doors that no man can shut. I thank you for the word being uh poured out into their hearts and then coming out of their mouth mightily to conquer our enemy that wants to steal, kill, and destroy from us. I thank you, Father, that they are going to be mighty in the land, that they love their husbands, that they love their children, and that they see the fruit of their labor in their lives. And one day we all will join together face to face in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.