My heart has been bursting with thankfulness and gratitude lately. I have been so richly blessed, especially in this season of my life.
We closed on our very first house last Monday! God made it all possible, truly. The whole situation is threaded with His divinity, His plan for us. We have been facing some big questions this year: where do our life, where to plant our roots-deeply, what jobs we are supposed to be doing, how we are to be serving and glorifying Him? You name the question and I swear we have asked it. We asked for light to be shined on our path, for flashing neon lights to show us His plans, well He put a spotlight on this house. There would have been no other time, no other place than this one right, right now, for all these details to fall into place and have this house become our home. 4-walls to call our own. We are planting our roots deep down and can't wait to see the fruit that blossoms!
Our best friends finally brought there son home from Ethiopia, almost two weeks ago. Their family is finally complete! After traveling this long, hard road with them for what seems like a 100 years, the waiting is over and their son is home where he belongs. We have been praying for this little boy since before he was born, asking God to set apart their son, to prepare his heart for his family and boy-oh-boy did He answer all prayers. This little boy is amazing and precious and has the most wonderful giggles! He is faithful and miraculous!
My sister and her husband moved over here to Illinois in February. What a blessing, even though they live in the city! :) Emily has been riding the train out every Wednesday, while Joe is at grad school, to hang out with the kiddos while I go to work. I don't like to call it babysitting because it is more than that. All 4 of them are getting to know each other in an awesome way and Emily is still the only one in the room when she is here, forget about me! Not that, that is a bad thing but I want to talk with her too! We are all fighting for her attention! Em and Joe came out this past Sunday to help us paint, if you need anyone to do detail work, those two are the ones to do it! Emily and I are learning new things about each other and are navigating a new stage in our relationship, one that started out by blood and is now moving to friendship. As Em told me, "there is something about knowing someone from birth," and there is, it is a building block for us as sisters and now friends. I am enjoying getting to know her as who she is, instead of what she is.
I am learning that I can't do it all by myself. I try to, boy do I try. I feel like we have been on our own for so long here, 8 years, since we have been in Illinois, that I am used to only relying on me, not letting other people help. It is hard for me to let go, to let others help, without feeling like a burden. My friend Kara, who has 2 kids of her own and another on the way, took our kids after church Sunday so that we (I should say Tim, since I was at work for the afternoon) could paint and work uninterrupted at the house. When she brought them home, she also brought us a meal. I can't tell you how thankful I was or how much that meal meant. I love serving and helping others. But when somebody just takes charge and says I am taking your kids and then brings you meal when they drop them off...WOW. It was something so simple but left me feeling so loved and important. Obviously I have a few self-worth issues, feeling like a good friend, a good person, someone that others can count on but this one act of grace, left me feeling like I must be some what of good person for someone to want to do that for me. I am learning to let people in, to make new friendships, to take chances on others and I am finding out that I have something to offer others.
My husband has been a rock star lately. Working and then coming home and going to work at the new house, staying late to try and get lots done. I know that he is exhausted but he just keeps plugging along. The other night he asked me how I was doing with all of the house stuff because he knew it has been a dream of mine for a long time, to be able to paint my kids rooms, to have a home that is ours and only ours. I know that a home is where your family is and that it doesn't matter if you own it or rent it or borrow it, that the feeling of home isn't dependent on 4 walls, like the fact that a church isn't a building but a people, home isn't a building, it is a family but I gotta tell you that there is something so wonderful of being able to call 4 walls a home instead of a house. Thank you honey, for working so hard to help make one of my dreams come true. Thank you for letting God be your God and for following Him and His path for us. Thank you for being my home, my soft place to land. Thank you for always putting our family ahead of your job, your dreams. Thank you for being my partner and for always taking care of me.
There is so much to be thankful for in our lives and right now, in this place, in this moment, I can't say thank you enough. I am lifting up my heart, my gratitude, my thankfulness to my Lord and Savior. Thank you for your blessings, no matter what form they come in, thank you for loving us so much that you sent your Son to die for us.
