Quick Update

I cannot believe FOUR months have gone by since I last updated this blog. Man. Talk about neglect.

But if I told you what the last four months have looked like in our lives, you may understand. In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, I will recap our past year.

Last September, we flew across the world to Central Asia where we lived until this June. During those ten months:

we met a lot of amazing people,

experienced reckless driving, 

hitch hiked often, 

lived in multiple feet of snow,

ate sheep's head for dinner (well, Eric did),

ate horse (again, Eric did. I stuck with chicken),

heard stories about the persecuted Church,

met those from the persecuted Church,

visited London, Italy, Turkey, and Dubai,

was a part of a house church,

hung out with lots of fun teenagers

and all of that doesn't even begin to sum it up, but for sake of space and time, I must wrap it up. 

We got back into the country June 12 and have hit the ground running. We began getting our house ready to be put on the market THE NEXT DAY. As in, June 13. Officially put our house on the Market a few days later. Then, SOLD our house IN SIX DAYS. I can't breathe. Just typing that stressed me out all over again.

We pretty much expected for it to take months to sell our house. So when it sold so quickly, we were very thankful but also like, crap we need another house. Needless to say, we close on both houses this Friday. 

Oh yea, we are moving. If you didn't gather that from anything I just said. WE ARE MOVING. 

Besides the moving-across-the-world-and-back-again craziness, we've got a lot going on. Which I will slowly reveal in the next few weeks as things continue to unfold and settle. In the meanwhile, we appreciate prayers. I know this is a super vague post, but I just wanted to give a quick update and let you know WE ARE ALIVE AND WELL!

A Little More Time

Today is the day. Well, today was the day we were suppose to leave, now it's September, 4th. Instead of sitting here at the kitchen table, sipping on coffee, and awaiting our 12:30 lunch plans, we would be loading up the car and heading to the airport for the longest two travel days of our life. After last night, I believe that God knew my heart was not yet ready and needed just a little more time for my "see you laters."

When we originally thought we were leaving today, I planned a little get together for our family and close friends so I could soak all of them up one last time. I don't know what I was thinking. I mean it was so much fun, but this idea was two different sides of my personality clashing together. I could have never been satisfied saying goodbye this way. Are you kidding me? I am a person that values long heart to hearts with a few people at a time. This makes me feel refreshed and invested in my friendships, BUT to have all the people that I have sweet conversation with in ONE room? Well, that only makes me feel as if I missed out on something by the time the party is over. 

The last few months, I believe God guarded my heart from feeling sad as we prepared to move. I felt nothing but excitement and calm. For once in my life I actually felt as if I did have it all together. I am not someone who covers up feelings of doubt, stress, insecurities, etc.. I share all my junk, so to speak. So when friends would ask how I am feeling, the truth was that I felt great. Not scared or worried at all. But when I would say that, I wondered how that could be...was there any fear or sadness at all? Because I felt nothing of the sort.

God does not give us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind...so when I prayed for my fears to turn to peace, I trusted in His power and the truth of the Bible to do so. Be anxious for nothing but in everything prayer and supplication, making your requests known to God... so I did. Fear and anxiety reveal lack of belief in God's promises, yet God has always kept his promises, so why should I not trust Him? He loves me, and He is good. 

But sadness over leaving friends, family, and everything that is familiar?

When Christ said to deny everything and follow him, and when he commanded his disciples to leave their home and families, I'm sure their was sadness within their hearts. 

But I pray that my heart would be so captivated by the Gospel...by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ...that I would believe that my sole purpose on this earth is to build his Kingdom and not my own...that the urgency and truth of Gospel would spur me on to give up everything that is comfortable. Because He is worth it. 

Last night, for the first time, I was sad. Maybe because we are not in our own home and it felt so much more real. Maybe because I had all my friends and family in one place and couldn't have good time with everyone. Maybe because I caught a glimpse of what I am leaving behind all at once. 

But each day, whether hard or easy, I want the Gospel to reign in my heart. I want the characteristics of God to be engraved in my soul. So I must remind myself every moment...

He knit me together in my mothers womb. He created me, he knows my personality and my needs 

He died for me and gave me His righteousness. He loves me, he is for my good, he pursues me

He cares for the broken hearted. He is a caring and comforting God

He left the glory of Heaven to live on earth as man. He has left his home in obedience to God the Father

He is Sovereign. I can trust that He knows best and is in control

All things work together for good for those who love the Lord...so I pray the the Holy Spirit will work within my heart and allow me to love Christ. 

...while remembering that my good is defined by the building of His Kingdom and not by my own selfish desires. 

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy riven side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Save from wrath and make me pure

Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law's demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Savior, or I die.

While I draw this fleeting breath,
When my eyes shall close in death,
When I soar to worlds unknown,
See Thee on Thy judgement throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.

Last night was so much fun, but I am so thankful for another three weeks...now that the reality of moving across the world has finally soaked in. We will be home in just ten short months, but that is the longest and farthest I have ever been away from the comforts of my life. 

I am so thankful God loves me so much that He wants to push me out of my comfort zone so that I may seek Him more, rely on Him more, talk to Him more, crave Him more, worship Him more, and truly feel that I can't live without Him. 

Three of Eric's best friends (Luke, Austin, Eric, Robert)

Thank you so much to everyone who came! It truly meant a lot to us and we ARE SO THANKFUL for each one of you!!

 

Moving update

I haven't forgotten about this blog at all, but I have felt too overwhelmed to write anything. There has been A LOT going on and to think about what to put on here...well, I don't even know where to start!

Last week our life was crazy. Our plane flies out on Monday, however, it will be leaving us behind. But let me not jump ahead, I'll get to that in a minute. It actually started two weeks ago when Eric kept saying, "Kelly, we should really start packing up the house. We have so much to do." Actually we don't. I mean we have to pack our clothes but we get to leave our furniture and decorations so really there isn't that much and when I put my mind to something I work super hard and super fast so really it's not a big deal and I could probably do it in two days and be done. These were my thoughts...they were nothing but calm, cool, and collected run on sentences. I was not one bit of stressed. We decided that it would be best if my MIL kept AG for a few days so we could focus on cleaning and packing so we could be out by our deadline of Aug 1. So once again, I was a not stressed-totally relaxed- fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl. We have so much time and Im really not worried bc your mom is keeping Addie for 3 days so that's plenty of time to do what we need to do so actually we should just play and hangout since we can't really be productive when Addie is here anyways. I am a stupid girl. 

Because I am so optimistic about my ability to work hard and get things done quickly, I decided to make dinner plans with some girlfriends on Wednesday, July 31. I just knew we would be done with our house since we had to be out by the following day. So here we go. We get a little bit done on Satuday, then Carlyne (MIL) gets here on Monday to pick AG up. We still have Monday, Tuesday, AND Wednesday to pack and clean so this will not be that big of a deal and we still have so so much time, thought the stupid girl. Thanks to Carlyne we get a lot done on Monday. We got to take a nice little break during the middle of the day for our church to snap some pictures of us so they can tell our story, but not such a stressful day. Then Tuesday. Oh Tuesday. Four years of marriage and Eric and I still find ways we are different. Me, I wake up and can go. I can go hard til around 4 or 5 then I am exhausted and burnt out. I'm done. DONE. Leave me alone, kind of done. Eric, well he takes a little longer to fully wake up. He really gets going around lunch time or maybe a little after then can work til 10 at night. Nope, not me at all. So lets just say the tension was running a little high in our household. And the meltdowns begin. It's Tuesday evening, I canNOT go anymore. I just can't. You can't make me. And we still have lots to do. But we still have Wednesday and I have my dinner plans so this will be a great day and we will get everything done. 

Wednesday. I don't even like to think about you anymore. I started working around 8 am.  Scrubbing refrigerator, vacuuming floors and two flights of steps, cleaning out every drawer that exists in our house, finishing packing bags, categorizing what should be checked, carry on, and/or go with us to the beach. Yikes. Our car won't start. Call AAA. Tow it to Toyota dealership. Oh great, works for them. They have no issue with our car. Kind of like being sick and then you finally go to the doctor and you're all better. Stupid car. And cue meltdown. Back to the house to continue cleaning. It's 5 o'clock. My body and brain is telling me IM DONE. I also realize there is no way I'm going to make dinner with my friends so I sadly have to cancel. It's 6 o'clock. Still working. Cue meltdown. 7 o'clock. I SERIOUSLY CAN'T GO ON.  Another meltdown. This process continues til 10 pm when I finally convince my night owl that we can come back in the morning to finish the last touches since we were FINALLY almost done. We were staying with friends and so we didn't want to roll in at midnight. Thursday morning we roll out of our friends' house by 6:30am. We have to be in Greensboro by a certain time so we needed to leave be 9:30am. When I think I am done, Eric says we should vacuum. AGAIN. Meltown. I am so burnt out. I hate our house. I don't think that is necessary. I think we are done. Since I am on the verge of a mental collapse, my sweet husband tells me that I should go ahead and leave for Greensboro. I agree and sprint to my car before he changes his mind and tells me to power wash the house or something.   

FREEEEEEDOM. Those days were the most stressful days of my life, besides having a newborn. I was so on edge, that it took me a couple of days to get back down of the cliff and truly rest. Lesson: start early! We did way too much in too little of time. 

If you are still reading, I'm impressed because this is long, I know. But now we are homeless and jobless and not leaving on Monday. Our friends the Nances have graciously opened up their home to us until we leave.  The government of where we are going has not yet issued our permission for visas. They are in the process of doing so, but taking a long time. Our international school has even had to postpone their start date to school, in order to give us time to get there. So please be prying for this situation. We believe that Gd is in control and are trusting in His sovereignty. 

Pictures of our car after we packed...bags to the ceiling and all the way up to the front two seats.

To come: our beach trip with both families, Addie's 11 month update, and Addie's "birthday" party with both familes. Who knows...we may still be here for Addie's real birthday party! Nothing wrong with having 3 parties, right?!

Moving Update

Our plane tickets have been purchased! We will be leaving Monday, August 12 for a two day journey to our new country. The week before we leave, we will get to spend that time at the beach with my family, come back to Raleigh on Saturday, be commissioned by our church on Sunday, then leave on Monday. It will be a busy time for our family, so please keep us in your prayers!

Today as we began to clean out our house and think about what to bring with us, this thought occurred to me: We need so little to live yet we think we need so much. As we looked through our possessions, I began to think it silly that we have so much. Why am I keeping several posters that I had in my classroom here in the States? Oh, because I will PACK them and take them with me to my new classroom. Really? I get to take TWO bags, and so of course, I immediately think to bring POSTERS. Toss them. And then I see SO MANY TOYS. Why do I think Addie needs two cruisers, 60 books, 150 teethers, 30 lovies, 500 blankets? We should absolutely keep and store them for when we return because she will USE THEM ALL. Seriously. Pick two from each pile. Toss the rest. Now I should choose which pairs of jeans to take. Well, this pair is my fancy pair. These are the ones I wear with boots. Of course I need my skinny ones. This pair I wear with t-shirts. These are my fancier-casual ones. This pair is my grungy-fancier-skinny-causal-tshirt wearing ones. OMG.  And of course I let Eric know that we are going to need to purchase all of the BOB (stroller) accessories before we leave. Well Eric, Addie is going to need a tray that sits in front of her so we can place her cheerios and sippy cup on it while we stroll through the airport and travel around in our country.  And don't forget about the cup holder that attaches at the handle bar. This is a great place to put my latte so I can have a free hand to powder my nose and instagram a picture of said latte. Of course. 

 The more I think about packing and living overseas, the less stressed I am getting. Because I just don't feel the need for a lot at this moment. Really, I just hate unpacking, so I figure if I only take 3 shirts and 2 pairs of pants, that will take me 5 minutes, maybe 6 to put in a drawer. Then I'm done. DONE. Also, I really dislike doing laundry, and we have to HANG DRY over there. So logically, the less clothing I take, the less I have to hang. Winning. But in all honesty, what REALLY do I actually need? How much do I really need? Not much I think. Not much at all.

So, here's to trying to squeeze everything of mine (not including Eric's or Addie's) into TWO bags. Not sure if I can do it, but I would like to try. I'm excited to get away from excess for a little while. I'll keep ya updated.