One Year

It has officially been one year since we uprooted our family from our hometown in Fl., embarked on an adventurous journey across the country, and settled in this rural Nor. Cal. town. Any pre- glamorization of our journey was quickly pummeled when reality hit during our cross country trek. 6 people + a dog in a motorhome for 2 weeks having to make 2 stops at Urgent Care for ear infections, vomiting, and antibiotics was anything but glamorous. However I wouldn't trade a second of that crazy trip. I feel the same way about this past year, living out of our comfort zone; glamorous, no...... do it all over again, yes. If there is one word that I would choose to describe our family in this past year it is,

TEACHABLE

Lessons always come with a price. There have been tears, discouragement, stress, fear, loneliness, and more tears. And the thing about learning is, you never get to know it all; it's an ongoing process. So i can't say, that the tears are over, but through these tears we have received God's comfort, peace, blessings, and faithfulness. We know this season in life is where we are supposed to be right now, and that's enough because God is here.

Lately, it has been exciting for me to grow in my faith by learning more deeply about God's character. What I want to challenge myself with for the second year is to get more involved in serving others. One day in our kitchen, I heard God gently say that my purpose in life is to be a faithful servant. My spiritual gifts are Faith and Service, so this revelation was specific to my soul. For me there is much more purpose than generalization in one day hearing God say, "Well done thou good and faithful servant." The words faithful servant are ever before me as I begin to roll my eyes at the whining kids in front of me, or when my husband disappoints, or when friends are few and far between. When I am gone from this earth, I hope that I have earned the words faithful servant to be engraved on my epitaph. I use "earning" loosely, because what good have I ever done apart from God's extravagant grace? "In the presence of God, one will always lose their footing." Tim Keller. Thankfully Eph. 6:11 tells us, "So put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand..."

Lord, I pray that as a family, we will continue to obey, to be teachable and to let the love, and redemption of Jesus wash over us and compel us to stand firm. AMEN.

"Best day ever"

Today was the "Best day ever," according to Caeden. We spent the afternoon on Lake Shasta, with friends, on their boat. It was a relaxing time and a beautiful day. The water was a little chilly, but the kids loved it. They have spent the last two weeks in swim lessons and have improved so much, it was a joy to watch them. Lake Shasta is enormous and crystal clear, so we found our own cove to swim and tube in. One of the coves we swam in was 80 feet deep. The lake is really full and there is hardly any shoreline, but we found a little spot that the boys could swim to and walk around on. They pretended it was Pirate Island. So glad we went and I hope there will be many more days like this during the summer.