Onto the Next Chapter…

As I squinted into the sun, crying tears of exhaustion, relief, loss, and change I realized that it was time to update my blog. A chapter of my life is over. I know, it wasn’t a profound thought by any means, but seriously… I’ve abandoned this blog for far too long. I have posted video updates here and there, but that’s pretty much it. This past season of my life was busy. The move was the hardest, worst one I’ve ever been through (and I’ve seen my fair share of moves – 20 now) and I suppose it isn’t officially over. We still have to (in the future – maybe not so near) move everything into a new place and unpack. Right now I would feel content living in an RV or furnished rental for quite awhile. I DO NOT want to move another box for a very long time. My back aches, my wrist feels damaged, my wrinkles look deeper, and I’ve had laryngitis for about 5 days (maybe more – I’ve lost track with all the busyness). My family has had more colds/flues during this stressful move than we’ve had over the course of the past three years combined. Maybe it’s just a bad year for germs, though, I’m not sure. I really think the stress has something to do with our immune systems having issues fighting off the germs.

There are many things to be thankful for, though. I had friends by my side helping me for many days with packing, cleaning, and filling vehicles with boxes to move. (Thank you, Crystal!) I’ve had friends and family there for all the days I needed to vent. No one is seriously injured, no one got food poisoning in spite of lots of eating out during the past two weeks, and the weather has been spring-like. Rain and warmth. During the end of our move we had a lot of warm days, which I’m very thankful for. Moving things would have been far more difficult there at the end if we had a lot of windy, cold, and/or snowy days. Instead we had a lot of sunshine, temperatures in the 40’s and 50’s (Fahrenheit), and blue skies.

Brad is starting a new job and things are up in the air a bit. We may or may not stay in the U.S. for the summer, but if not we’ll be headed to Nicaragua in the near future.

Well, I guess that’s basically all that is new for now. Things are a bit up in the air, but there are many things to be thankful for!

Happy New Year!

I must say, I'm so very glad 2009 is in the past. The best thing about 2009 was, of course, my baby girl, Elizabeth Rose. There were a lot of struggles that had to be gone through last year, a lot of painful changes that were made, and a lot of things I want to simply leave in 2009. I'm hopeful that 2010 will be a year of growth (hopefully not too painful), healing, and, well... change. That's one thing we can depend on - every year will be filled with change. In one form or another, change seems to enter every year. Sometimes with a bang. Like this year. I should be off to another country within the next couple of months. I'll be learning to live in a place where I'm not even close to fluent in the language spoken there. I will be leaving nearly everything and everyone I know behind. Yes, change is here and I welcome it. Okay, not really. I want to welcome it and to feel adventurous, excited, and trusting; but I don't. I'm working on it, but with change I tend to dig my heals in and fight it a bit. Most folks can't always see that with me, because I say the right things so as to help them (I want them to feel like I'm living my dream and not to worry about me), but inside... I'm a bit afraid. This is big and "secretly" I hope something comes up and it doesn't work out. I'll probably even be a bit disappointed if it doesn't work out (I've focused on it so long) and yet I could live without this big of a change... I think. I want to do what's right and maybe this move is right, but maybe it's not. And maybe it will just be another thing to live through. Another thing to praise God I make it past. None of us know what the future holds and that can be a bit daunting at times. I'm going to try and trust God to take care of directing our paths and taking care of us as we travel no matter where our travels take us.

Happy New Year!