Photo tour of our new home

Well since the house was relatively clean from having our dear friend Melissa over last night (I'm almost certain she was the reason I cleaned the last time we moved and i finally posted pictures) I took some pictures this morning for all you too far away to come visit us. And I thought I'd give you some commentary with it :)

So some of my very favorite things:
original doors in the bedrooms (including a skeleton key that works, and the fabulous knobs)
the huge mantel (though I don't know what to put on it yet--it is currently home to everything pretty that comes out of a box)
the etched glass doors on the book shelves (so maybe I should just include the entire fireplace wall!)
the molding all over the house--it's so big
the front porch--oh those swings are just wonderful
kitchen cabinets with those pull-out drawers and built in spice rack
the giant exposed wood beams in the basement that are actually holding our house up :)
the many nooks and crannies that come with an old house

We only painted one room so far, the master bedroom, but my head is full of ideas! Those will be taking a backseat to the long list of practical projects.
The basement is currently in shambles (not that it was super nice before) b/c Keith is trying to make sure the floor and walls are all sealed so we can suck the radon out. We're hoping we'll be able to get it fixed up and have someone live with us. We bought a wood-burning stove to replace the very inefficient fire place and heat this big ol' place. We need a new chimney liner anyway. My parents will be up in less than two weeks to help with radon, electrical stuff (don't know if you can see the mess of wires in the basement), and mom will help me with the pretty stuff :)

Oh, so the video store in the basement was from the previous owners. He works for the Boys and Girls Club and spoke at some video distributors or producers thing way back. Someone found out he had kids and started sending him videos. He said they would frequently get movies before they were even in the theaters (we've watched one and it frequently reminds you "This film is for screening and not to be sold or copied" or something like that). There is definitely alot of junk but lots of good films in there too (many still in shrink wrap--like 8 copies of Return of the Jedi).

I didn't make it to the backyard and out buildings, that will have to be another day and another post. Hope you can all come to the "Welton Country Resort" (this is what Melissa has deemed it) and stay a while :)

Settling in

I have quite a few pictures that didn't make it onto the blog since I'm so far behind, but thought I'd toss this in while I play catch up :)  Here's Isaac and Samy having breakfast the morning of our move.  Just too funny.

So I guess I posted about the actual move, now I'll let you into my world post move in.  I'm still feeling so out of the groove of normal life it's hard to sit back and enjoy our new home still.  Plus we've got quite a few projects in the works.  We have radon, which means it's a good idea to get it mitigated by sealing the basement floor and installing pipes and fans to suck it out.  Well, our basement isn't your model citizen for this job.  There are two crawl spaces at opposite ends of the house that open into the basement through big holes in the wall (kind of creepy!), there are also several holes in the floor (not sure where those came from), and can you believe it, we found a well down there!!  I asked the previous owners if they knew that was there, and in all their 28 years here, they never knew that!  It was kind of crazy to remove all these old boards to find an 8-inch pipe that goes 30 feet deep with water at the bottom, especially in your basement. 

A friend of mine told me a few months ago about these really cool tag sales, and I managed to get there just before my brother and his family came last week.  I scored a great table and four chairs for the kitchen that I'm going to repaint and reupholster.  I'll have to be sure to do before and after shots :)

I've loved getting to know our neighbors!  On one side they go to church with us and the kids made fast friends. On the other is Mickey--she's 72 and lifts weights, swims daily, keeps her yard immaculate, and does amazing oil paintings!  Her late husband's family has owned the land she now owns since 1712!  She is so much fun to talk to, and I'm hoping one day to explore all the old stuff she has in her basement :)

So, this no A/C thing has been a little tough in the nice heat wave.  There were a few days we were really wishing we hadn't bought a house with no air conditioning when it was 100 degrees and like 90% humidity.  We got our big window unit into the kitchen just before my brother and fam arrived, and that has helped tremendously.  Most days though I still open the windows even in there until the mid-afternoon.  The house has a great breeze always coming through.  The third floor (where the play room is) is just hot, no way around that, so the kids are usually dragging toys to the kitchen to play on the floor or the hall where it's cool.  Good thing I've got such a big kitchen now!

Busy, busy, busy

We have been busy little bees around here this past week, so sorry for the lack of photos still :)  I've actually only taken one picture since we moved in!
We all worked hard this past week to get our new place mostly in order because my brother and his family came up to visit Saturday and are staying until Wednesday.  And I spent all day last Tuesday and Wednesday cleaning our old house (seriously 10 hours total!).  There was a disgusting amount of dirt and grime hiding behind our furniture :)  So while it was a bit stressful last week, we're now all moved in and moved out (with the exception of our satellite dish that's still mounted to the old house--we're regretting that decision to get cable for football season!) and now can just enjoy our home and begin on the long list of things to be fixed and prettied up :) 
Yes, our perfect house is full of problems from serious (like the roof) to just annoying (like the ice maker that always spits ice on the floor).  It's been a wonderful reminder to me that our eternal home will not have a sagging roof or faucets that all turn on in different directions or rotten boards on the porch.  But we are still so very grateful for our new home here!  We are grateful that we could host my brother, his wife and their three kids with plenty of room for all and lots of fun to be had in the yard.  We are grateful for our new neighbors who the kids have made fast friends with and get so excited when they get to go out to play with them.  We are grateful for our front porch swings and tomatoes and cucumbers already growing in the garden.  We are grateful for the apple tree and raspberry bushes and grapes all growing in our yard.  We are grateful to our heavenly Father for providing for our every need but most of all for our greatest need--for providing a Savior from the punishment that we deserve!!  We pray this home would be used to honor and glorify Him everyday! 
Drop by anytime :)  Pictures to come soon, i hope!!

We're in!

We are moved into our new home! Tons of boxes to unpack and lots to explore :) so grateful for all the help we have yesterday, that made it possible to be loaded and unloaded in 3 hours! And the Lord was so merciful to send a one day long cool front yesterday...it's been in the 90s up here for a week or two, yesterday the high was like 79 and today it's back to the 90s. Thank you kind Father! A bit of rain, but everything went fine and it was brief.
Still a few things left at the old house and cleaning to do there. No Internet yet at the new place but I'll get some pictures up as soon as I can :)

it's official!

We are officially home owners again! Closed on the new house yesterday, and to say we are amazed at God's kindness in the whole process is an understatement! From beginning to end buying this home has been a JOY, not a hassle, not stressful, not complicated. The owners are just as wonderful as they come! They were relaying to us on the final walk through how their grown son was crying the last night saying goodbye to his home of 28 years. I would be a mess and the husband was certainly fighting back the tears. I loved hearing our realtor, Wes (who is absolutely the BEST realtor in the world!!) telling the sellers that it is God's grace through them, through their love and care over all those years that would cause their son to be so touched in saying goodbye. It was just such a sweet time signing the papers, talking, and just feeling like a bunch of old friends! I'm confident we will be seeing more of these dear people as the years pass. And to top it all off, they gave us a very generous gift as they left! As if this wonderful house and the many great things they left in it for us weren't enough! Oh, we are amazed as we look at God's perfect timing and order and sovereign hand ruling over our everyday, right down to that haircut that started it all :)

We went straight on over to the new house with our dinner and explored and started painting the master bedroom. Our neighbors even came by to welcome us and introduce themselves. The kids are thrilled and Isaac is just asking all the time when we're going back over. Here are some pictures from last night:

Dinner on the picnic table they left for us :)

Samy finding her room. She laid right down like she was going to bed :)

Isaac enjoying the view from his window.

The adorable package of cookies the settlement attorney gave us, that looks a bit like our house.

And the four of us on the front porch.

Pack 'em up, move 'em out!

Our house is looking like we're moving! Which is a good thing at this point I guess :) It seems like I've packed so much, but as I pack I find more and more that's left. Only 6 days till closing!

Isaac and Samy are eager to be at the new house and ask daily when that's going to happen. Isaac really wants to help me pack, so I've given him a few boxes that he's filled with toys only to lament later that he really wants to play with them :) he's even dug a couple things out after sealing up the box! The little turkey :)

Storing up treasures in Heaven

I see the kindness of the Lord in the fact that I've been reading Randy Alcorn's book "Heaven" for the last month. I've been pondering and imagining what it will be like in the new Heavens and new Earth. What it will be like to look upon my Savior's face and to see the place He has prepared for me. I see it as God's kindness that I've been thinking on these things particularly in light of the amazing house we just signed a contract on. Keith and I had really hoped to one day have an old house with lots of character, little nooks and crannies, a big front porch with a swing, and just a very homey feel. But we never thought we'd be getting it (and truly even more than we had imagined) now while we're young and poor :) Our realtor (he is just the best!!) would take us in a house in our price range and say, "This is the best you're gonna see in your price range" kind of thing and we would think we could certainly make it work with a little elbow grease and sprucing up but not overly excited about it. So here is the story of how we came to get the house of our dreams, it was all the work of our loving sovereign Father:

The story starts less than two weeks ago as I got my hair cut by a girl from our church, Erin. We were chatting about how Keith and I were looking for houses mostly in Damascus. She tells me about this great house next door to some friends (who also go to CLC) that's old but updated, wonderfully cared for, has a good bit of land and is up for sale by owner b/c they want to pick who they sell to. The owners want very much to not just sell it to anyone but to a good family who will love and care for it as they have and who will be good neighbors to their current ones. I'm thinking, "This sounds perfect!" I get home and look it up. Wow, just picturesque! But the price tag...yikes! As Keith puts it, me being the woman of faith that I am, email the owners and explain how I heard about it and ask if they would take less. The very sweet wife of the couple who owns it, Sue, emails me back from her personal account because I'm an acquaintance of their current neighbors. She asks me what our budget is so we aren't wasting each other's time. So I'm trying to figure out how to graciously express that I'm not trying to offend them with our meager budget of only about 2/3 what they're asking (as my sister put it, almost a whole nother house's worth less!), but we just love their house and I had to ask. I seriously thought we wouldn't be hearing from them again. But sure enough, the next day I come home to an email from Sue. She tells me they had discussed it and that while we have significantly less than they're asking, there is more to this than money, they really want the right family in their home. And invites us to come meet them and see the house! I about fell out of my chair!
We went the soonest they could do it. The husband was out of town, but Sue greeted us warmly and showed us around. Isaac and Samy were just running up and down the stairs and all into everything, we kept telling them to settle down and Sue would say, "No, it's fine! This house is used to it." I just love that! She had pulled out coloring books and got them some juice so we could go through the house again without them to distract us. We spent 2 hours there that seemed more like 30 minutes. Sue was just a delight, we all greatly enjoyed ourselves and it just felt comfortable, like a home should. We spoke honestly about the reality of our budget and that we really like the house and she told us honestly to make our best offer and let them decide. So we did. We spent the next day crunching numbers to see what we could do, the very best we could do without foregoing food for the next year :) Sue emailed me to say they would hopefully get back to us that evening, and to tell Isaac and Samantha that their smiling faces would be taken into account. So, I sent her a picture of those two smiling :)
It was a long day of waiting Thursday. Friday morning I got up to find an email from Sue. They had accepted our offer! And she said that the picture of the kids had convinced her husband that accepting the offer was the right thing to do! They are awfully cute :)

We stand amazed at God's LAVISH provision! We knew He would provide perfectly (even if it wasn't our idea of perfect), but this truly goes beyond what we would ask or imagine! It has been to me a reminder of Heaven and that place He is preparing for us, His bride. If He is so lavish in this, wow, I can't wait to see what is waiting for us there!! But even if it has a horrible inspection and the whole thing falls through, we do not doubt God's goodness and kindness and lavish provision!! What more does He need to provide than what He has already provided through the gospel? Jesus came as a man to be like us in every way, lived a perfect life so that we might be clothed with his perfect record, suffered and died as a sinner though sinless and took the wrath of Almighty God for my sin that I would only know mercy and grace. And now Jesus sits at God the Father's right hand, interceding for me! Praying for me! Preparing a place for me that will be my eternal home, one that is beyond all I can think or imagine. As I decorate my new home with our small earthly treasures, my prayer is that with each picture hung and each book put on those beautiful built-in shelves, I would have my heart and mind full of my Savior and the treasures that He has purchased for me through His death that I might live in Him and store up eternal treasures!

In every change, He is faithful

Change seems to be always in the air, though probably all of you who read this already know :) Keith has a new job! Well, he's accepted it, but won't start for another month or so. He's just moving upstairs to Covenant Life Church (Sovereign Grace is in the same building) to work with one of the pastors, Mark Mitchell. We'll let you know more what he's doing once he starts but the part he's most excited about is a ministry called Marketplace Ambassadors, aimed at encouraging folks in the secular workforce, which is most people. He has a real heart to connect theology to this everyday task that often becomes tiresome and a burden. He longs to see folks realize the great privilege and responsibility God has entrusted us with in work! I should let him blog about that sometime :)
Oh, and he'll continue teaching Greek at the Pastors College at least for a while, which he loves doing!

So, now that we know our wanderings in Maryland aren't through yet, we're house hunting!! It's fun but discouraging at times. You would not believe how expensive houses are here (unless you live here, then you know)! Let's just say we're looking at houses that cost TWICE as much as we sold our house in Orlando for!! And they're not that nice :) But we're confident God will provide exactly what we need (even if it's different than what we think we need) at exactly the right time (even if it's not when we'd prefer)! He always has and always will. The Lord's faithfulness has been our confidence throughout the last two years in particular as we made the major move up here (with a job offer we truly only thought would happen in our dreams!) and as we've walked through knowing Keith was going to need to change jobs again at the end of this year. We have seen such particular answers to prayer over the years that it's hard to doubt God's faithfulness. The answers didn't come as quickly as we would have liked, but to look back is to know that God knows much better than we do, and that it was perfect timing. I love to reminisce and recount the many small and great works of His hand in our lives.

So, we'll keep you posted on the house hunt :) We love seeing all the old houses up here and would love to have "an old house with character" but so far the few in our price range haven't worked out.
The kids have been troopers going with us to look. Their favorites are the ones with the best toys or that have playgrounds in the yard :) And the first thing Isaac looks for when we walk into a house is the basement, because that is a must for him :) Samy frequently has her face buried in my shoulder saying, "It's stinky." Many have been stinky, in her defense :)

Graduation for this year's Pastors College class is a week from today! Every time it's mentioned my eyes well up with tears. I'm going to miss these dear ladies! I have learned so much from them during those usually brief interactions at gym day or in the 'hood, but lots through email after email (these gals know how to email!!). Seeing their faith in action as they have had many significant trials (and in the everyday temptations as well) this year has only served to strengthen my faith in the greatness and loving kindness of our God! Thank you gals :)
Wow, I didn't mean to write so much, but it's been a while :) Hopefully more soon...

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!

Trees and hills

Keith and I left early Thursday morning for our 14 hour trek to Gaithersburg in his '91 pick-up truck that has no cruise control. Crystal said, "It's like a 14 hour date night!" It was quite reminiscent of our courting days, not having the children and being in the truck, but not what I would prefer for our dates to look like :o)
The big news of the trip is we found our new home in Maryland! God very kindly and graciously provided an amazing house for us and way more than we ever thought we would get in our price range! The realtor that was helping us up there saw this house (which was out of our price range) and thought it was so perfect for us he called the other realtor and asked the owners to lower the rent $150 a month and amazingly they agreed! They had had some terrible renters and just wanted some people who would care for their house and really enjoy it and after hearing about us they agreed to lower it! It had only been on the market 5 days, so it was really unheard of to lower it so much so quickly except for God giving us favor with them. We saw about 10 other places on Friday and none even came close to this one and most of them had 2-3 other people interested in the place.

So, it has 3 bedrooms, 2 full and 2 half bathrooms, plus a garage, a finished basement, and a sun room! The best part is that its only 5 minutes to where Keith is working (which is also where our church is) and there are like 15 families from the church in the neighborhood and a few of the pastors within a couple minutes walk! There is a huge common area and a couple of playgrounds in the neighborhood, and the grocery store is just around the corner. So, we shouldn't have to be driving too much which is a really good thing because I know I'm going to get lost! As our realtor put it, the roads are like spaghetti just plopped down--all curvy and intertwining and no rhyme or reason to them. Even this traffic engineer can't figure out what they were thinking when they made this city :o)

Gaithersburg is beautiful!! I felt like I was in a neighborhood the whole time we drove around because there are just trees and hills and beautiful parks and lakes everywhere. And it was already so much cooler than Orlando, though that's a reminder of how much colder our winters will be :o)

Did you know?

Keith and I (and the kids were "helping") went through the garage this morning ditching junk we had collected in there and cleaning all the mold off the really important things. I think when tropical storm Fay came through and we had all that rain for so many days the mold just went crazy in there (it's not totally enclosed). So there was furry mold all over any fabric that was exposed, including my single Graco stroller! Did you know you can take the entire cover off and wash it in the washing machine?? I had no idea, but I was determined to try because that seemed the only way to salvage it. I'm not sure I'll be able to get it back on, but it is clean now :o)

We're set to make our trip to Gaithersburg this coming Thursday through Saturday. Keith's dad courageously volunteered to come watch the kids! I think he might be crazy, but we are so grateful!! And I'm sure they will all have a great time! Though I am definitely leaving Meghann's number with him :o)

Goodbye Florida!

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." Proverbs 13:12

It's been a long time coming but I am excited to announce that Keith got a new job!!!! And it's not just any job, it is the exact answer to prayer we never thought could happen! God is so very kind and so very sovereign :o) Keith will be working at the Sovereign Grace Ministries Pastors College in Gaithersburg, Maryland! He'll be teaching New Testament Greek, helping the students with research, administrative stuff for the college, and assisting Jeff Purswell, the dean, with anything else he might need. Jeff was really Keith's inspiration for going to seminary to begin with, so Keith is so excited to get to go work right along side him to help equip men to serve the church!!

We'll be moving to Gaithersburg in just a couple weeks and leaving behind so many friends who have really become our family. I'm not going to start reminiscing now, I'm not ready to cry yet :o) We're going to look for a place to live in the next week, and then possibly moving the next weekend, so this might be our last Sunday at Metro :o( I won't be wearing any make-up Sunday in preparation for all the tears! For now we are just rejoicing in God's great kindness in providing this job, which will be so much more than a job!