Packing and Moving

I can't believe that we are moving out our house tomorrow.

Yesterday, we spent all day separating items in our kitchen and packing them.  There is the garage sale pile (which is large), the take to Kenya pile (which is small), and the take to our new house pile (which is smaller than I thought it would be.)

Packing is hard.  When we bought our house 5 1/2 years ago, we imagined ourselves growing old in it.  We imagined ourselves sitting on nice chairs under the shade of our old willow tree, watching the animals graze, while eating a bounty of fresh fruit from the fruit trees that we have planted.  We never thought that in 5 years, we would be selling all of our furniture, most of our kids toys and almost everything in our kitchen, and moving out.

It is hard to part with some of the stuff.  We are leaving a "known" and moving into an "unknown."  We don't know what it will look like.  We aren't quite sure how a family of 8 living in a two bedroom house will be.  We have lots of lingering questions.  Traveling into an unknown is scary.

However, we aren't traveling into an unknown all alone.  We travel with the God who is our Father and loves us and cares for us.  He will never leave us and He has great plans for us.  So, we are taking a large step.  Though scary, we know that this is the way that He is leading us.  We have been down a road similar with our adoption 2 years ago and so we can have confidence that God will continue to provide.

As we have been getting rid of our stuff it has brought so much joy as well.  With everything that we sell, we feel a little bit more freedom, and are tied down a little less.

I never want to acquire all that we once had again.

We have friends coming over in the morning with their trucks and we as a family are excited about moving.  It is a new part of this journey.  We are amazed at the blessing that this new house is for us.  We can't believe that it is fully furnished.  This has allowed us to eliminate so many material items this year, instead of trying to do it next fall when we would rather be hanging out with friends and family before we head to Kenya.  We are also going to be MUCH closer to our church, our family, and our friends.

Tomorrow as we load up our few items into the bed of trucks, looking back on a house that we have enjoyed, I am sure that it will be with sadness, but with a joy and excitement of what lays ahead.

(By the way, we are still looking for renters for our house and would love your prayers as we try to find the right renters for our place.)

Here is the picture that we have mailed out as our prayer card/Christmas card.  If you are not on our mailing list and would like to be, let us know.  We would love to keep you up to date on our journey.  

..Adoption Seasons..

We are moving into a time of year where gloves, coats and beanies are once again brought out and dusted off.  The shorts and flip-flops are put away (mostly) and the leaves have mostly fallen to the ground by now.  Parts of the US are gearing up for or already has lots of snow.  (Not us, but we did get down to 18* yesterday.)  Just as the seasons change each year, the seasons of life constantly change.

I had never really thought about it, or really prepared for it, but post-adoption life has its own seasons as well.

And we are entering the dreary days of Winter.

We have had a bright Summer, full of playing, fun in the sun, smelling the roses.  The Fall has been a season of change for us.  Our lives our changing.  We are moving.  We are selling most of our stuff.  Our lives are hectic and crazy right now.  We look forward to the time of the new-ness that Spring brings with flowers blooming, and the once gloomy looking trees starting to bear green sprouts and leaves again.

The Fall season of change starts to bring some ugly days.  Those days start to run together more and more until you find yourself hunkering down for the rest of the Winter.

It was two years ago, last week, that we met our kids for the first time.  January and February were very stressful for them as well, as they were pulled from their temporary home they had become accustomed to and began to live with us.  It was during this time of year that their birth mother had passed away.  It was during this time of year that there is so much hurt and past history.  The hurt is still there, lingering, waiting for triggers, like a landline hidden in the dirt.  Sometimes, you don't know what you did to trigger it, but it is too late at that point.  The explosion has already started.

Sadly, we are starting to find more of the triggers.  We are once again starting to see the pain that is hidden underneath their beautiful smiles that are all other people see.

I am sure that the stress of moving and the fear of the unknown is a big part of this, but we are approaching certain dates that bring up an unconscious, underlying fear and sadness.

So for now, we are going to hunker down, and prepare for the darkness of the Winter that lays ahead.  Even in the gloominess of the Winter, God is revealing His glory in numerous ways.  He has been providing for us in amazing ways.  May He continue to shine light into our house and reveal himself.

Thank you for your prayers.