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 :)

Little House in the Big Woods

We've been reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's book "Little House in the Big Woods" to the kids after dinner, and they have loved it! We're always surprised how much they (well particularly Isaac) remembers. Isaac remembers that Pa said he would never go into the woods without his gun, Samy remembers the color of Laura's dress :)

Well, we had our own little adventure in the "big woods" this past weekend--our first camping trip as a family! Aside from the massive amount of work it is ahead of time, we all greatly enjoyed it. And the kids were almost always playing "Little house in the big woods" as they ran around in the tall trees chasing chipmunks and climbing on stumps.

Here's Isaac with his "bear bopping stick". If we saw any bears, he was going to drop it on their head :)

And this is a little friend the kids made almost as soon as he arrived. They had a great time with Ryan!

The campground has a great lake for swimming and we spent most of our time there.

Samy surprised us with how bravely she played in the lake. She was the first one in every time, and was bouncing around as deep as she could without going under.

Isaac is always a water bug!!We took two little hikes, one to see the falls and one to see the Catoctin Iron Furnace. On the first hike we found a family of lesser weasels (according to the ranger we showed them to). There were about 10 babies running around, pretty cute actually :)

For the full photo album you can go here:

camping

Going private

I'm making the switch to invitation only on the blog. If you want to be able to see my blog, please email me or post on my facebook :) thanks all!

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...