The Weltons are back online!

You may have been wondering if the Weltons had wandered right of the face of the earth on their way to Maryland it's been so long since I blogged, but we in fact were just without Internet :o) But I'm finally up and running again today and thought I'd give you a quick catch up on the last two weeks and hopefully pictures will follow sometime this weekend.

So we packed up in Sanford two weeks ago today with the help of our wonderful friends and home group and were on the road after a quick lunch. Saying goodbye didn't feel like goodbye since we were driving to the beach for a week before getting up to Maryland, it just felt like vacation with a U-Haul :o)

We had a great time with the Pfaller clan at the beach in South Carolina, though the cooler wet weather only allowed for about two days of playing on the beach. We had a blast playing games and of course all us girls went shopping.

Bright and early (actually it was still dark) Friday morning--5:40 AM to be precise--the Weltons and my parents headed for Maryland. According to mapquest, it was a 9 hour 35 minute trek, but mapquest obviously doesn't have small children and a U-Haul :o) we arrived at 5:15 PM with two very wound up kids and some stiff legs. [I just saw a chipmunk in our backyard! How cool is that!!] After a quick walk through with the realtor and a fabulous dinner brought over by Aaron and Crystal, our moving crew arrived and had us unloaded in less than an hour with all of the beds put together! There must have been 20 people here. We were welcomed with bags of groceries to stock our shelves from some friends from Knoxville who are at the PC and a bouquet of flowers from Matt and Siobhan Slack. Jeff (Keith's boss) and Julie Purswell came by with a big basket of goodies and more beautiful flowers to welcome us. Julie brought by some Krispy Kreme doughnuts Sunday evening, just after we finished our second delivered meal. Another family we don't know brought dinner on Tuesday, and another family brought by an apple pie Wednesday! I can't tell you how very welcomed we feel!! We are just overwhelmed at God's kindness to us in all that He has provided in getting us here and now that we are here! And I'm not finished telling you everything :o)
We went to Covenant Life Church Sunday morning for their first service at 9 (which is great b/c we're home in time for naps) and the kids greatly enjoyed class while we greatly enjoyed worshipping without them vying for our attention :o) Jeff Purswell taught and we both were very encouraged and convicted by the message. And they just finished painting the children's minstry hallways with beautiful murals of bible stories. It is really cool!!
And there have been so many little things that I just thank God for b/c He didn't have to give them to us (not that He had to give us any of this!), but He is so kind even in the smallest details! For instance, the kids bathroom is totally wallpapered with jungle animals which is fun and all but I thought sure I would have to buy yet another shower curtain to match something in there, but when I went to put the purple one I have up so my parents could use the shower, I noticed that most of the leaves in the wallpaper are the exact same shade of purple as my curtain! I know it might sound silly, but it was such a reminder to me of how God is caring for me even in the smallest details of my life.

Sorry for being so long, just one more thing for today...I got sick with a flu thing Wednesday afternoon (just a little 24 hour thing). But as I laid in bed with a fever, God brought to mind a word Darin Slack had given us about 5 years ago that has described our journey over the last 6 years to a tee. The Lord reminded me how very precisely He had worked out what He had spoken to us through Darin 5 years ago. It wasn't amazing that Darin had relayed this vision so well (though thank you Darin for being faithful to share it with us!)--no, what amazed me was how God knew the end from the beginning. How He had ordained our steps these last 5 years (well, really our whole lives) when it seemed like our prayers were hitting the ceiling. How tenderly He was caring for us when circumstantially it didn't seem like it. Us desiring to move to Atlanta and putting our house up for sale, us selling our house in this very rough market, then finding out about this job just weeks afterwards was no coincidence. Keith getting a seminary degree then getting a job he really didn't like was no stroke of bad luck. It was all the working of our Sovereign God!! We didn't understand it while we "wandered" about, but God was at work and still is, and I can't wait to see what He does next :o)
Love to all and we miss everyone!