no it's not fiction

this really is my life and i really have to write a book someday. oh, where to begin...

goodbyes and on our way

it just sucked to say goodbye to kurt and shannon and jason and amory (michele comes later). add on top of that other friends and neighbors. i realized i am weary from goodbyes.

michele rode with me and the kids and we got off on a good start mid-day friday (10th of aug.). we were making good time with plans to get to paducah, ky by dinner. we are chatting away; hit nashville at 5pm and assume we are just in rush-hour traffic. 3 hours later we had gone 8 miles. it was now post-dinner and 102 degrees outside and the kids were nuts. they had the highway shut down and diverted everyone off onto some country road where another accident promptly occurred. we finally made it to paducah at 10 pm. it so sucked!

forest hotel and the bat cave

we made it in to st. joe saturday afternoon and planned to stay one night at the stoney creek inn which is a wilderness decor that my kids dubbed the forest hotel. they malled the stuffed bear, "pumped the well", took the fishing gear from the display etc...every time we came in and out.

michele and i snuck out after church while the kids were in sunday school to go to the house we had been loaned until our house in nc sells. there was so much stuff from the owners there that we just made boxed walls of their boxed up things and corners deemed "off limits" in an effort to clear out the center of key rooms for us to live. to say old and dirty just does not do it justice but i will say (as we repeated often) FREE. we check out of the forest hotel and stay our first night on sunday. i say my awful goodbye to michele the next day and get back to more cloroxing and shifting of stuff to make the house our own for a while.

in case you missed the heat wave in this country for most of august it was 100 even here and unbearable outside so it was me, the kids and the dust bunnies inside this house (while i tried to work). michael starts his job and loves it and already had evening meetings several nights. i decide to take the kids for an after-dinner drive to wear them out and when i return on tues evening i lead the way into the house to see a bat flying in my kitchen. luckily i caught myself before shrieking in terror and got the kids upstairs and to bed before hitting pure disgusting panic. yes you read correctly--at bat in my kitchen.

i call the neighbor who knows to call animal control as they have had this issue as well. i know i have to get this resolved before my husband gets home or it is over as he is already totally freaked by this house sans bat. animal control comes with nets and a coffee can and is stalking the downstairs. just when they come to let me know they can't find the bat michael walks in. they can't find it because there is so much stuff and the house is so wide open (no chimney cover, cracks at the ceiling and no doors to the attic or basement) they assume it is either hiding in the junk or has left. their advice continues (harrison has now joined us to hear the news) that we should shake out our kids blankets and pillows regularly and check them for fever or spider looking bites! michael promptly announces we are "out of here" and wakes the kids up at 10:30 for a return trip to the forest hotel.

regroup from the bunk suite

we stay up into the morning discussing our limited options as michael has now decided we are not returning to the bat cave as it is now affectionately known. i cried harder that night than i can remember in years. i was so exhausted and now homeless. keep in mind that the bat cave was owned by the former senior pastor of the church where michael works and it was FREE. we still have our house in nc sucking our bank account dry. so know we have pr and financial issues to deal with.

if you have some extra cash

invest in rental property in st. joe. we spent the next 3 days looking for a place to rent short term and there is nothing. by thurs night i have now cried more than i can ever remember. we are homeless and still bunking all 6 of us at the forest hotel. we even explored if we could live there for some cut monthly rate and then came to our senses.

taj mahal

we finally find a duplex to rent through some random connection where someone overheard someone else on the phone telling our story and they had a brother in the rental market etc... we see it fri afternoon and it is clean and 3 br so we sign right away. the landlord meets us there on sat with the keys. we feel like we are living in a palace compared to where we have been. we rent a few things and start taking what other people will give us. as we are working to get settled tatiana goes poop in the potty and it won't flush. we realize there is no water turned on in the place. we make all the calls etc.. and if we sign over our life, fax a bunch of documents and get word they will come first thing monday morning so we plan for one final night at the forest hotel.

what have i done to deserve this?

monday we check out of the forest hotel and have the babysitter come to the taj mahal of duplexes so i can work and deal with the water company. the time window comes and goes and no water company. i call and they tell me they don't have any record of my appointment and didn't get my faxes. i sob hysterically when they tell me there is nothing they can do and it will now be tues before we can have water. michael even calls and speaks with a supervisor (he NEVER handles these type of things) and no luck. we check BACK INTO the forest hotel for what is now comic relief for the staff of the hotel as they see us coming. my kids could make their own supersize me flick. they have eaten more happy meals and watched more dvds in the last 3 weeks. i feel sure child protective services would deem this unfit parenting.

i have to leave for business travel to fl on tues morning so the babysitter and michael have to take care of things while i melt into an airplane seat numb from the whole thing. i read about britney spears and lindsey lohan and don't feel so bad about my own life.

saving grace

i truly understand god's grace just to get through a day like never before. the people around us have been awesome. food has come in, furniture, sweet wishes and lots of prayer have sustained us. we are working to get some sense of normal (whatever the hell that is) back into our lives. the kids start school next week and did get into the classes and schools we felt best for our family.

celebrating- wyatt park christian church

our church family has been kind and supportive in all this transition. michael has hit the ground running and is feeling lots of excitement around his missional vision for adult ministries. the team of he, scott (lead pastor) and jessica (youth ministry) are a great compliment and we are really excited to serve here. scott is so confident in fact that he announced on wed night that after 3 years of handling everything he was putting stepping back to focus just on sunday teaching schedule for a while. michael and jessica will take the day to day and some of the teaching as well. it wasn't what we expected for the third week of ministry but scott is so deserving of a break and it will be a good opportunity for the congregation to learn to lean on michael and jessica.

several people close to the situation have asked if all this mess is a sign we should be here and i see it as the opposite. we have to be here because these serving these people is what we have waited for and their reception of us has been all confirming.

right in the midst of this ordeal we got an email from our friends who do work in kazakhstan and they shared of extreme hardships and government scrutiny for missions work there. maria and the kids have had to return to the states indefinitely and lars is experiencing difficulties. we have nothing to complain about!

please continue to pray for our adjustment and that our house in nc sells so we can move from the taj mahal to a more permanent place. thank you for your calls and encouragement.

ps. we did take handmade thank you cards and a huge tray of cookies to the stoney creek inn staff yesterday!

the hard stuff--already

i never. how many times have i said that?? you would think i would have learned by now that i am so not in control. i had it all figured out--we would arrive in missouri with big ministry dreams and goals and everything would be happy as can be. but i never could have imagined.

i think i shared in a previous blog about our wonderful new neighbors in missouri. they have been like guardian angels. orchestrating our whole move, plans to clean out the house where we are staying, organizing people to help unload the uhaul, giving us a tv-bed-lamps etc... just angels. i spoke with david friday afternoon and just marveled at how much he was caring for us and working to ensure a smooth transition. david died suddenly on saturday. we got a call mid-day that he had gone to the hospital with potentially two heart attacks. we assumed since he made it to the hospital that he would be fine. he died saturday evening. we were so not prepared for this personally as we were looking so forward to hanging out with them and getting to know them better and we are not equipped at this point with our first ministry endeavor being a death.

we have spoked with michelle and her daughter (who is planned to be our sitter for the first couple of weeks until she leaves for college). she is doing as well as can be expected and says she is looking forward to us being right next door. please pray for them-the millers- and for us that we would be able to be still and just be there.

celebrating

the pain and the joy of this time. this transition is difficult yet we have so much to be excited about. i just want to celebrate god's faithfulness throughout this time and rest in that. i am super sad about leaving friends and family here but this time has been a blessing and a necessary step in our journey. what we have learned here both in terms of relationships and just "church" will help us as we move forward. we have had an amazing time with my family and have made life-long friendships. i love that we have experienced the church as a living, moving body not physically tied to any building. it has been something that i hope stays with us as we move to an established ministry with a nice building.

in many ways this crazy moving we have done over the last 4 years has shown me that god doesn't have to replace the things we move on from rather just adds to them. that gives me reason to celebrate as i anxiously await new additions.

staying connected

we will be crazy for a while with moving, traveling for work and getting the kids in school. thanks for the messages several of you have left and i will call you back--i promise!

WOW WEEEEEEE

is this really my life???

in the last month i have been to florida, california, florida again, st. joe mo and kentucky. it has been really busy with work and home

celebrating

cool people

i was blown away during my visit to st. joe at the people i met from the church where michael will work. they were awesome, helpful, friendly and just cool. i was kind of expecting superficial niceness because we are the "new people" and probably lots of geeky christians. they were just good people who love jesus and truly want us to love it there.

just some examples: people dropped what they were doing when they found out i would be in town to have breakfast, lunch, coffee, someone called the cable company to find out how i could get internet access for my work in the temporary house, one family is cleaning out the house we will be staying in, a team of people are meeting michael when he gets there to help him unload, one woman searched all the houses for sale by owner in the area and made print outs for me, someone from the school administration is helping me with the best teachers for my kids; someone came in on her day off to meet us about preschool. They are just genuinely excited for us to get there and work with them.

housing

my, oh, my--challenges and opportunities. that is the way we will look at this. we will be in temporary housing for a while until our house sells. we did find a great house and they have accepted our offer contingent on our house selling here so PRAY, PRAY, PRAY our house in NC sells quick.

timing

michael will head out first for a leadership meeting next week and the kids and i will follow and all join up together there by august 11th.

praises and prayers

missio dei, our church here, is up to regular attendance of 40+ people. our first meeting was 8 people 8 mos ago and now there is a larger group of people journeying together towards jesus; caring for each other and reaching out to serve this community. that is some exciting stuff! please continue to pray for them and that kurt and shannon will be strengthened for their increased service. we are super sad to leave them in such an exciting time but are sure they are well positioned to further the kingdom.

wyatt park christian church, where we are going, is doing a series on connecting to self, others and god in the next 4 weeks. this will perfectly set up our ministry philosophy of community. please pray that hearts are opened to our ministry and small groups as we arrive and get going in mid-august.

our kids are really excited about the move and that is making the transition fun to anticipate. pray that they remain that way in the chaos of the coming weeks.

michael also is excited and what god has planned but also is nervous. please pray for him that he will maintain his enthusiasm and continue to manage the great family balance we have found.

as always, a move is hardest on me. i have the adjustment of everyone else on my mind, the move itself and the grief of leaving friends and my family. i am a little exhausted at change. i am excited about this change and fully believe it is the perfect timing and position for our family but i am weary of starting over. will i find fun friends? will my kids like school? will my husband finally love his job? will i be able to keep up with my job? i know these are times to draw close to the prince of peace. pray that i will rest in that.

contact info

cell phones and email at this time?! we are going to pray expectantly that this really is temporary housing situation and we will be announcing a new address soon.