It's Going to be Quiet Around Here

When I say "here," I just mean on this blog. The rest of the house will be full of noise and commotion and the sound of packing tape running across boxes.

So life has been a little bit of a mystery for some time in this blogosphere. Life is wonderful having four small children. There is always laughter, always energy (for the kids, at least), lots of fun and crazy dance parties. There is also lots of diapers, laundry, cleaning, and on and on. It has been such a challenge to maintain sanity and walk with the Lord when there are constant demands on your very being.

This will also be no surprise to those of you who follow our blog- we have the most AMAZING family. My family (cousin and her husband, aunt and uncle), down here where we live, is awesome. They have blessed Caleb with a wonderful job, thrown birthday parties for my kids, fed us, loved us and have integrated us into a great group of friends. Caleb's family is also wonderful, and they all live in East Texas. Oma and Opa. Aunt Leigh and Uncle Jon. Aunt Margaret. Granny and Gramps. Aunt Gini, Aunt Rebekah, Aunt Nancy, Aunt Sara, Uncle James, Uncle Thomas. Great Nana. And many, many, many cousins.

These are not normal in-laws. They are fantastic. And ever since I was pregnant with Reece, there has been this desire to get closer to them- to get some help for a busy momma. The predicament- Caleb loves his job, but momma's gonna lose it! We have wonderful friends down here, a great church and a house that is dreamy for raising small kids. It has been a really hard decision, but when 4 o'clock rolls around and the kids go nuts, I am all about moving closer to the fam.

As some may know, we put our house on the market to sell. Well, that crazy day that I launched my new part-time job (which is going great, but kind of on hold, thanks for wondering), our house was showed to some perspective buyers and they put an offer in. After countering back and forth, we finally settled and went under contract...

Then, we get a not so fun call from our tenants in Colorado, they were going to break their lease and move out! Now, this was such unfortunate news, as we couldn't possibly try to relocate with a heavy mortgage. So we are under contract on our home and freakin' out about our rental house in Colorado, wondering if we are going to have to move out of our dreamy home into another house down here. The days continue to pass and my mom is showing our house in the Vail Valley again and again, but no buyers.

Finally, this past Wednesday, some perspective tenants came up to the Vail Valley to look at our house. And SIX others. All day long (really for a month now) we were praying that the Lord would bless us with tenants. At 1:30, they looked at our house and really liked it, but had others to look at so they said they would call my mom later that afternoon. That evening, they signed a lease and handed my mom the check for rent and deposit, and on the check it said, "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men (Titus 2:11)."

I love that verse. It was the same verse that I sent out with my graduation announcements from Texas A&M. I love it because it is Truth, God's grace did appear to all men through the person of Jesus Christ. He saves us from the penalty that is due to us for our sin. He makes that payment which we cannot afford because our works will never be enough.

But He also saves us from our very delicate circumstances- a heavy mortgage that we can't afford, a house that is selling and a plan that is foiled, four needy children and not enough energy for me to make it through the day without tears. And on this day, we did receive a full measure of His grace, and that was our salvation from these circumstances.

We are on the move. Caleb gave his notice at work and my uncle and cousin-in-law gave their blessing and understood Caleb's desire to meet his family's needs. Let me just take a minute and acknowledge how awesome my husband is. He really is, he put his marriage and family before his career. He has been carrying an incredible burden of a struggling wife, four needy (but joyful) children, two mortgages and a desire to glorify the Lord in all he does. I am so thankful for him. God works through this man in a really powerful and humble way.

So we are packing up our house. For every two things I put in a box, a little set of hands takes one thing out, it is a slow process. We are moving to East Texas in twelve days. 12. That's not very much time. So it's going to be quiet around here, keep us in your prayers!