Heading Home

I sent out an email today updating family and friends on our move and new address. This was my mom's response:

"YAY, YAY, YAY  And it came to pass that Beck and Maggie got a new home, Chris got a new job and Max got a school where he can make friends and stay for a long time and they lived in the land and grew in wisdom and knowledge and served young and old, near and far alike and added to their riches in Heaven and pleased God and were blessed all the days of their lives."

It read like a blessing, touching my heart, and I just had to share! Let it be so Lord Jesus.

Max in Ohio

Max and Macy

Enjoying some sunshine Easter afternoon

Max and some new school friends

Max at the playground

Unfortunately the transition to a new home and school for Max has been more challenging than for Maggie. He has in the last week missed his teacher and friends and as much as he likes his new friends I think the vulnerability of being the new kid at school has been hard. He does seem content at home and loves Uncle Mike and Aunt Terry and enjoys their grandchildren Caleb and Macy. He enjoys the birds, nearby playground and yard. Thankfully he's an outgoing little guy and I think in the long run he will bounce back, but I know there are still transitions to be made and it will wear on him a bit longer. I'm praying that God protects his heart and I especially need wisdom as a mommy on how to parent my children through transition.

Maggie's adventures in Ohio

Maggie and her new buddy Caleb playing with bubbles on Easter

Maggie bunny

Maggie enjoying a sunny day, she has a new pink tutu and sandles

Maggie filling bird feeders (in her tutu) with Uncle Mike and Max

Enjoying the playground just around the corner on a sunny day

Here are some things Maggie's been up to in Ohio. She has new friends Uncle Mike, Aunt Terry and Caleb. Some of the things she enjoys are 'helping' Uncle Mike and Aunt Terry with their chores around the house, playing with Caleb, playing outside when the sun is shining especially at the playground. She also has enjoyed her new 'class' at church and asks to go often. Thankfully little kids adapt to change pretty well and she's doing okay with the changes we've experienced lately.

The Move

Okay here goes my attempt at an overview of the last couple of weeks. We pulled out of Cody on Saturday, April 2. The process of moving is never any fun and this was no exception. The truck and our household possessions unfortunately weren't exactly compatible. We traveled with a relatively light load, some of it strapped to the car carrier! Oh yeah.

Chris' parents graciously drove to Cody to make the cross country trip with us. It was great to have help with the kids and driving. It took us four looooong days to make the trip. The wind was a problem for a lot of the way and slowed us down. There were some really late nights and tired mornings. All things considered the kids did well and other than being tired the trip didn't have any real problems.
We did do a very little sight seeing along the way. We stopped at Mount Rushmore and Wall drug in South Dakota. By the last day, Tuesday, we were all really done with driving and it was good to get where we were going. Wednesday we unloaded the truck and said goodbye to Chris' parents. Max and Maggie were excited to be at Uncle Mike and Aunt Terry's house and have connected with them very quickly.

Max started school on the follow Tuesday April 12, it was Shoreland Elementary's spring break when we got here. He has done well adapting and seems to have enjoyed these last two days in his new class. He already has made a couple of new friends. Maggie has enjoyed spending time with Mike and Terry's grandson Caleb and she's content and happy in her new home.

Max on his first day of school at Shoreland Elementary

Maggie and Caleb 'washing dishes'

Sadly not long after we got here my cousin Beau, who had been fighting cancer for some time, passed away. He and his family are a beautiful testimony of faith, but I know it's a terribly painful time for all of them. I was sorry not to be able to make the funeral but felt I should stay and get Max settled in school.

Unfortunately in the last week or so the un-diagnosed illness I've been struggling with has raised it's ugly head. After a couple of long days of driving and lack of rest I started to experience a return of the symptoms I have experienced over the last couple of years. I think it was triggered by stress, fatigue and the warmer temperatures we've had in Toledo. I'm hoping to make an appointment soon with a neurologist here in Toledo to perhaps pinpoint a diagnoses.

Overall we are so thankful for God's protection and provision in the last weeks. We are blessed to be loved, fed, cared for, sheltered, protected, etc. The next few weeks will be a time of enjoying old and new friends, as well as searching out what God has for us. Chris will attend the Alliance general council and seek to make possible job contacts there. I have no doubt that God has good planned for our future and he knows already what that looks like.

Max at the play ground in our neighborhood

We would appreciate continued prayer as we seek God's plan for us in the coming weeks and for my health as we seek answers.

Maggie in her pink cowgirl boots

Changes

I've learned that to take hold of something you have to let go of something. I've also learned that joy and sadness aren't a mountaintop and valley, they're parallel roads traveling together and sometimes intersecting.

Today at church Chris and I announced that our journey is changing course. Our time in Cody is winding to an end and we're being led in a new direction. We'll leave at the end of March. Where? Good question. I have a feeling Abraham asked the same question but he learned, as have I, that when God's leading you don't need a map. As of yet we don't know where God will lead us, but God does. We're praying that he will move us to a new place of ministry soon. But if he doesn't we will relocate to be near our family and work while we wait.

As I look back over the last four years I'm amazed at the amount of refining God has done in my heart, I am not who I was. And I'm thankful. I'm thankful for the refining processes. I'm thankful for the people who have invested in me, even at my worst. I'm thankful for the refining, pruning, correcting, healing, etc. Jesus has done in my life.

I don't think I've ever experienced a greater joy in my life than loving the church, Jesus' very own family. It is a privilege to love the people he loves. Hard sometimes but a joy. When you've loved and lived, hurt and hoped with a group of people for four years it's never easy to say goodbye. Even when there is hope and expectation of what God is going to do. Joy and sorrow, always, at least in this world, mingle.