We moved into our new house exactly two months ago. It has been a whirlwind, and I have wanted to write every single day. Each day my thoughts have gone on a train about what would be a good post, but here we are. Our move out of Waco went pretty smoothly. The evening the truck left was the night of the explosion in West, TX. We received an e-mail about a friend's daughter who had just lost her house, which prompted us to stay the night in Waco. Had we not received the e-mail, we would have been sitting on I-35 right after it all had happened. Our hearts still go out to those families who lost their houses and family/friends when the fertilizer plant caught fire and exploded.
We love our new house; this made it a lot easier to leave our house in Waco behind. But it wasn't until we got the keys that we started learning about all of the underlying problems. We have spent a lot of time cleaning, going without hot water, hot water heater exploding, replacing a hot water heater, fixing a refrigerator 3 times, having the air conditioner worked on 3 times (and still waiting for the evaporative coil to be replaced), work done in our master closet, replacing incredibly stained carpet (when we looked at the house it was pretty clean, but in the month between purchasing and closing, all of the stains reappeared). This has been a mighty test of my endurance--some moments I felt a had reached my breaking point. I know all of these things sound so trivial compared to other life moments people are going through, but I really did feel overwhelmed and discouraged. I did remain thankful for our house and where God had brought us, but amidst the chaos and two young children acting out, it was difficult. I kept reminding myself that when the Israelites crossed into the Promised Land, they still had to conquer Jericho, and God made a way for them--they had to march around the entire city 7 times. I am sure this was a test of endurance as well, just putting one foot in front of the other and seeing no results. Then God told them to blow their horns, and the walls crumbled down! There was one night where I was feeling pretty down, and as I stood and looked at the stars on our back deck, I felt God say "I know all of your troubles." Just knowing that He knew and was not surprised made me feel reassured. Even though we would clean up one flood to turn around and have another one or something else break, I knew God would see us through.
My last
post I put up the link to a sermon from a local pastor here who has terminal cancer. Hearing his sermon really helped me to rise above the discouragement. The next week, after posting his story and perspective of how he is dealing with the prognosis, I got the call that my uncle was diagnosed with acute Leukemia. This was shocking and scary. Some people die within 2 weeks of this diagnosis. He has now been through 2 rounds of chemo and awaiting the results of the second round, hoping that this stronger chemo killed the cancer cells. This particular aunt and uncle helped us move in here, so it was tough to digest after just having been with them. We are now in the waiting period--if the chemo killed most of the cancer, the next step is a bone marrow transplant, and they are hoping my dad will be a perfect match.
We miss our church, our friends, our children's friends, and my heart sinks when I think about gearing up for Baylor football and basketball to start back up. I don't love football, but I LOVE the excitement of new freshmen moving in the dorms and the spirit of the first football games. I am already sad about missing out. Yes, we can watch on TV, but it's not the same as being there. The girls said they wanted to go to a "Go Bears" game this week, and they were very sad to learn that moving away from Waco also meant that we left Baylor behind. Texas feels very far away. . . These were all of the reasons we did not want to leave Waco, but it just kept being confirmed that this was our time to go.
We are truly grateful for where we are. Yes, it has been a difficult 2 months trying to get settled, but I know that things can only get better and eventually, all of the repairs will be done, and things will have found a place. On a daily basis I am so thankful for
1. Every time I look out the front, I see a glimpse of a hillside valley with houses on it, and it makes me nostalgically feel like I'm looking out over a German village. 2. Beginning at dusk there are a hundred fireflies lighting up a surprise chorus that dazzles every night. 3. Most evenings it is cool enough to sit out on the back deck and eat dinner looking out another tree-filled hillside (see above). You can hear many birds chirping and watch the clouds change color as the sun sets. 4. I equally love it when I wake up and there is fog hovering over the hillside--gives me other flashbacks to the hillside we could see from our apartment in Germany. We so look forward to seeing fall and snow on "our" hillside. 5. Scott's phone hardly rings when he is on call and he is home most of the weekend rather than being gone most of a weekend. 6. Anna has prayed many times for a rainbow. God has given us 4 rainbows so far. One time she was praying and asking God for a rainbow right before dinner, and there it was--her first rainbow. She was so excited and exclaimed "God heard me!" Even though she is 4, she has faith, and I am so thankful. 7. Scott is definitely not as stressed as he was at his other job. 8. We were able to find a house that we can still host a lot of people. We thought we would have to downsize, but although this house is larger than our other house, our house payments are actually less because of the difference in taxes. 9. The girls just started a new preschool for a few days this summer, and they love it 10. We have a neighborhood pool and an amazing park across from our neighborhood with playgrounds, walking trails, and lots of opportunity for baseball, soccer, etc.
All that to say, we have been off to a very slow start getting settled, but we are happy here, and we are so thankful for the beauty and opportunity that surrounds us. Both sets of grandparents have come to help, and without them, I would be going crazy, so I am most thankful for them taking their time to be here!
