Serious Work...

While her daddy and I have been packing boxes, taking care of moving business, and coming up with a plan for Cadie and I to return to this house a few weeks after the move so I can keep working here for a couple months to help with the mortgage until the house sells - the point being we've been busy and a little stressed, she's been working hard on coloring.

Visitors

We've had a busy couple of weeks with packing, making plans for the move, meeting with friends, and visiting with family. We just got back from a long weekend at the beach and I'll post about that soon, but I wanted show some cute pictures from a quick visit from Dassa (Matt's mom) and Meama (Matt's grandmother) a couple weeks ago.

Girls Visit

I was blessed to be friends with a lot of fantastic people in college. Some of them I got to live with. My senior year I lived with 5 other girls in an apartment off campus. We have fond memories of burning taco shells, tuna enchiladas, watching lots of movies when we should have been studying or something, and the upstairs neighbors' too-loud mexican polka music. Anyway, we're still great friends, and even though we don't keep up with each other as much as we'd like to, we do try to get together as often as we can. This year, they came to me and we had 7 extra people in our house for several wonderful days last week. (One of the roomies, Laurie, lives only 25 minutes away, has 3 little guys, 2 dogs, and a big guy who just had shoulder surgery, so we let her stay at her house. Ha!)
You may notice when you look at this picture of the girls that there is one extra. 6 of us lived in the apartment, but Jen came to visit a lot because she was a high school buddy of Anna's soon-to-be husband, Shaun, so we adopted her.

We did lots of fun stuff:
Played games. (Those little guys are Anna's. Cadie LOVED having big boys in the house.)

Colored.

Played the Wii. (Someone has pictures of us doing Disney Dance Dance Revolution - let's just say that some of us were more successful with that than others, and it would be okay with me if those pics never surfaced.)

Swimming at the pool Laurie's family has a membership at. (Aren't these kids adorable? Cadie's the only girl.)

Swinging.

Riding the train at City Lake Park in Jamestown. Cadence took this very seriously.

More Wii.

Lots of big laughing.

And here's everybody in front of Laurie's house on Saturday night - minus the two husbands that weren't on this trip.

I believe, help thou mine unbelief!

20 days until we move! Anyone who reads this knows by now that we hitting the road again. Back when we bought our house, if you had told me we'd be moving again before living here for even 2 years, I would have thought that was crazy. Truth is, I still do. But I also think that God is at work in this, even in the very painful times since Matt resigned from his job in February.

I have not been on board with this plan from the beginning. I was determined that Matt would find a great job here (after a few months, I would have been happy with a so-so job here) so we could stay in the only house Cadie has ever known, I could keep a good paying job that fit our schedule, and we could stay near our precious NC friends. When we felt we should go back to Georgia, I was, honestly, still not on board. I was scared and mad that things didn't work out here in NC, even though it seems like we had done things right.

God really had to deal with me to show me that the life our family will have in Georgia is the best for us. I recognize what we are giving up (Oh, sweet Target, how I shall miss thee and thy clearance racks of sweet, sweet deals), but I am learning to focus on what we get...

Instead of playgrounds, Cadie will have hiking trails and waterfalls.
Instead of two cars and commutes to work, we'll have one car and Matt will usually walk or ride his bike across campus to his office.
Instead of using our extra spending money to go out for treats, I promised Matt we'll have homemade cookies in the house (um...cause there isn't gonna be any extra spending money - Mama ain't working).
Instead of a 5 bedroom, 2.5 bath suburban dream house (with extensive cleaning, upkeep and property tax bills), we'll live in a 2.5 bed, 1 bath farm house that belongs to the school.
Instead of seeing our neighbors' houses when we look out our windows, we'll see trees, mountains, and, probably, cows (and when the wind is right, we'll smell them too - that's when I'll know we need another batch of cookies).

I still have my doubts about these changes. We are wondering how we'll find a church where we will be glad to worship and serve in a rural area where southern gospel music is more popular than it should be and latent racism and sexism rear their ugly heads. As of this weekend, when we looked at our budget more carefully, we're wondering how we will pay the mortgage on only one income if the house doesn't sell quickly. I'm wondering how we can make friends in a rural area where young educated people are few and far between. When I'm reminded we're moving to a school with a faculty of generally young, educated people, I wonder how introverts like us can get those people to like us. I'm wondering why God would call us to move away from this wonderful life we've built so Matt can teach and minister to teenagers.

But that's what gets me. Because as much as "calling" confuses me, I think that's what this is. And I'm excited to see how it turns out. I'm excited to see how our family will change and grow and who we get to share our lives with. I'm pleased that we have made good friends here that I know we won't forget or be forgotten by, even if we only see them, well, not too often.

I'm praying with the father of the afflicted son in Mark 9, who cries out to Jesus, "I believe, help thou mine unbelief." All I can ask is that each day, I believe a little more.