So I made my decision on January 1st to blog more... and on January 2nd we flew home from a week in Texas visiting Chad's family, getting the luggage in the door and the kids in bed just moment before I collapse in slumber myself... only to wake up on January 3rd and be slammed in the face by life.... I'm not even sure how to start, so we'll just start with first thing that morning:
Upon waking up, I got a call from Gabe's mom that unfortunately she and his stepdad were splitting and due to scheduling and all the instability and craziness in her life as she walks this out, could Gabe stay with us full time. Um, of course! We always want him full time, whether it's good timing or bad, and I've shared my thoughts on this before, children are HARD to share and I wish there was a way that we could all have him all the time. But alas, that's not the way it is, and that's why divorce sucks and that's one of the reasons that God's plan is for marriage to be forever. (Hello runon sentence!) But thanks to Adam and Eve, sin entered the world way back when, and so we all live in sin now. Thankfully, Jesus already won the battle- we're just waiting for Him to come back and rectify it all and in the meantime, learning to live and love more like Him. Easier said than done, but God is so big and so kind and so caring. He's walking with us every step of the way.
Unfortunately, this terrible news also included a terrible conversation with a little 9 year old boy that was enough to leave us all sobbing and praying for God to heal all the brokenness. I must say, he's a strong little booger though, and does pretty well picking himself up and moving forward. And his story continued to get crazier that day...
A few hours later, Chad headed out to take care of some business stuff and give someone an estimate, and I sat on the couch just processing... I was supposed to be buying bunk beds for Max and Gabe, as we had decided back in November to stay at our little but quaint house, despite our growing numbers, but instead, I was sweating what these changes means for my everyday-- how to get Gabe to and from school, how it effects nap time for Max and Jack, how is effects our teeny tiny house, etc... and so I just ended praying that God would open my eyes and heart to His ways in all this... and I totally forgot to buy the bunk bed!
Once I moved past the details, knowing I wasn't going to find all the answers today, I discovered that I had missed several calls from Chad... who when giving his estimate had discovered the perfect house for us. You know, the one we spent months and months trying to find, and prayed for God to drop it in our laps, but never found it, so decided to stay put? Yeah, that one. Well the homeowner's name is Tracy, and I worked with her for several years at North Metro church, and I loved her, and well, by 7pm on our first day in GA since Christmas, we had also fallen in love with her house and it's floor plan and it's perfection for our family, and had made an awesome deal with her to rent her house as she was embarking on a new journey of her own in CALIFORNIA! The house itself is perfect (pictures to follow) and the location is even better- so near our church and all our wonderful church friends, which I've been yearning for for a long time, and it still keeps Chad close to all the main roads since his work is all over the place.
NOW back to Gabe... this new house was too far from his current school to let him finish the school year there-- so we thought of 2 options, called his mom, Angela, who said she trusted us to make the decision and we had our 2nd major conversation with the 9 year old that day: He could either switch to the elementary right around the corner from our new house or he could homeschool with me through the end of 4th grade and then we'd get our plan together this summer for what's next-- he IMMEDIATELY wanted to homeschool, was in love with the idea, and was excited. Now of course he was also worried about friends and lots of change and such, but loved the idea of being home, doing bible stuff for school work, escaping his dumb bully that was harassing him at school, etc....
SO God gave us this house we weren't looking for, lined up everything, set it up so we got Gabe out of the school and out of the situation without us even knowing it needed to happen or manipulating details, and got us in our ideal area without us even knowing "making" that work either. All of that to say-- we're elated and overwhelmed and as of Saturday, we're officially living and sleeping in said new home-- despite being pregnant and all the other major life changes that struck us on January 3rd, 2013. But let me just say, that during this time of unknown and new and hard and excitement, God's hand and provision has been so evident. We are so blessed and so thankful, and seriously just relishing in joy. I'm tired and achy and hormonal, but to say 2013 is off to a great start is seriously putting it lightly!
So here's to our new wonderful home, all of our boys big and small, our marriage that God continues to bless, the wonderful, beautiful, anticipated baby that's growing in my belly, and all all other things 2013 will hold for us.... now for reaching my goal and blogging consistently.... let's see how this goes :)
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