Let your voice be heard

For those on Facebook, we put a poll of our six baby names in contention. Place your vote and do so quick; we only have two weeks left--maybe!

Monday Reflections

Here I am, my 2nd Monday in Texas. One week and a few days of actually living here. We've had two Sunday services--one outdoors for groundbreaking at the new church property, one indoors with nursery and Children's Church--and A/C! Attended one baby shower for the pastor's wife--who is due on June 15th at the same hospital as me with a boy. We could be there together with our newbies! One playdate invite for sometime this week. One evening with Houston relatives: four fun boy cousins, two fun uncles, two sweet aunts, and good BBQ brisket. One upcoming ladies' Bible study/book club night this evening. (They're discussing the final section of Ginger Plowman's Heaven at Home which I have read and can locate on the shelf!) And a dwindling number of boxes left to unpack.


I've successfully located two grocery stores, Costco, David's office, Target, Home Depot, and a Chick-Fil-A. I have not gotten lost, really, thanks to my Mother's Day gift--a Garmin navigational system, loaded with all the essentials for me (the aforementioned stores and restaurants).


This week will be another adjusting week: there is not as much chaos, grandparents have departed for the other cousins' house. We'll be following Mommy's routine, establishing boundaries in a new house, learning how to two-parent again, and more discipline than last week.


A kind friend inquired if I had cried yet. And the answer is no. Partly because I've been busy, tired, and not by myself. And partly, I think, because I'm done with that part. The grieving is ending and the moving on to the "new normal" is beginning. It doesn't mean I'm not sad or not missing Orlando people or things, but I'm ready to be happy here.

Tuesday morning update: Didn't finish the post yesterday afternoon. Kids melted down in the afternoon. Disciplining made dinner late. Didn't make it to the book club night. Garmin got me confused and almost lost. Cried. Came home. Ate cookies--very good oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. Now, I'm enjoying an unseasonably cool morning. The birds are all over the backyard (we have six birdhouses around the yard. Nana has plans for a bird feeder project when she comes). I can see the zinnias and knockout roses from the breakfast table. Deep breath. Warm coffee. Quiet house still at 7:06 AM. Today is a new day.

One down...

R's girly pink room is pretty much done. Hers is the only room in the entire house that doesn't need painting. Pictures are hung, new bedspread is spread, and lots of cute girly items that haven't been seen since her nursery are back out, including the letters Nana painted for her baby room.

The boy's room has just a bed, a hamper, and some toys. The walls are hot pink but Nana and Granddad said they would take care of that in a few weeks.

How we spent our day (yesterday)

Organizing my closet: Look at all that room! Don't be a hater!

Cleaning outside: What started as "help Mommy clean the sand table" turned into "fun with a bucket of soapy water and brooms." The patio is very clean now!

First Project

Building a soccer goal with Daddy...

Have truck, will travel

I'm sitting in the lobby of the Hampton Inn in Covington, Louisiana. I've been awake since 3:30 Central Time. I finally showered and dressed around 5:00 and am now down here making my grocery list, checking the weather for the day's driving, and smelling the breakfast that should be served soon, I hope!!

Here's the ginormous moving vehicle David is driving. We filled the 26' U-Haul truck completely, tight, no spare inches, and then had to rent a 6'x12' which we then filled, completely though not as tightly packed as the professionals earlier did.

The drive was uneventful for the most part, though I realized around 9:30 at our second stop (the first was about an hour after leaving when we realized that R hadn't peed that morning! MickeyD's here we come!) that I forgot the entire bag of snacks, vitamins, dish soap, and other things I've forgotten about sitting in the living room of my in-law's house. So our snacks for Day 1 came out of the vending machine. Luckily, I had juice boxes in the cooler! Second mishap came around 4ish after our afternoon snack of whatever was in my diaper bag. The DVD player wouldn't work. B is yelling "Lightning! Lightning!" as I am desperately hoping some combination of unplugging and disconnecting will magically jumpstart this crucial piece of technology! (I charged the battery pack overnight. Here's hoping it's good for one movie today.)

Today's drive is shorter though just as boring. I hate driving through Louisiana, especially that stretch over the swamp stuff with the thump, thump, thump every few feet. At least I'm in a minivan with cruise control instead of a monstrous U-haul truck towing a trailer!!!

Sunday, Sunday

Last Sunday...I made it through with mascara intact. My man texted me (in the middle of Sunday School with Dr. K!!!) with an encouraging message, letting me know he was thinking of me on this difficult morning. For some reason, maybe the busyness of getting kids in place, talking calmly with friends, or maybe even a sense of peace finally coming, I didn't totally break down.

I shed a few tears as we worshipped, singing "So I will wait for you to come and rescue me." The songs during worship revolved around the theme of peace, so appropriately. We ended communion with "It Is Well," a hymn we also sang the one Sunday I was in Houston. I made it through that as well. And Jeff's message, from Eph. 2, was on our new life and identity as a family once we have new life and identity in Christ. Upon leaving one church family and looking towards a new church family, that was a good reminder that it is so much bigger than just me and my world.

On the way to lunch, I put it to MC this way: Worship and teaching and preaching will be good wherever we end up. But the hardest part of leaving and starting new is not knowing people's stories and knowing they know your story. From my bleacher seat in a noisy gymnasanctorium, I can see a young man--once bitter and angry--sing Gloria! Peace is coming. To see others who have had such loss and tragedy sing with joy and gratitude. It's being stopped in the hall or hugged at the passing of the peace by women who I've had contact with here and there over the past years who have met needs and given wisdom and God's grace to me at just the right time. It's having people who know my quirky kids and love them anyway.

I know in going to a new church I'm still connected to God's family universal and that the Church doesn't reside in a building. My biggest anxiety or desire is for authenticity. (C'mon, I've been friends with Patti, Marie, and Hilda to name a few. If they won't tell you like it is, no one will!) And that takes time more than anything, but I am grateful for their openness and vulnerability and acceptance.

Being at O-wood for these almost 10 years has been a lesson for us. We've grown up here in many ways, coming as college sweethearts, getting engaged and then married, starting first jobs, having two kids. While our journey here hasn't always been easy, I know we've learned a lot about God, His Word, and His people. And I am so excited about how God is moving already through the church in TX. Good things are coming and I can say that because I have a good, good God.