This new year brought a completely new life. So I thought that now would be a good time to do what I’ve always said I would do “someday.” So here’s our blog. From massive roots in our pipes (…and I thought these trees in our yard were just so beautiful) to lonely in the middle of the night waiting for Jordan to get home, to all of the happy’s of life with my favorite people ….. This sounded like a good way to keep our far away people (which actually consists of all of our people at the moment — haha) up to date with what’s going on in our lives.We are about a month removed from leaving everything we’ve known…. Family, friends, church, job, school, home, state, weather, schedule….. All of our “normal” is changing. Being in a new place, knowing no one, and having no “circle” does have a way of making you feel far from home. But the truth is that we’ve always been far from home. The Bible talks about believers being strangers and exiles here on earth…. “aliens” even! If our citizenship truly is in heaven we will feel out of place here. God did not ever promise that we would be comfortable. In fact, He promised us the opposite. If I would just believe that and accept that I might just find myself being a little happier.

It has been good for me to be taken out of my comfort zone a bit to see that it’s ok. It’s ok for me to not know what tomorrow holds because I know the One who holds tomorrow. I can trust that God will provide for our needs even before I know what our needs really are. He has totally already been doing just that. I realize more now that I look back on it how crazy it was for us to “leap” here. We had no knowns …. no people…. how are we going to financially sustain life here? How are we going to pay for school? We just came. We came with no answers. We came with a fast food job at Chick-Fil-A and a little money in savings. We rushed our move up here so that Jordan could make it to an interview for a management position in Indiana which, after a series of follow up interviews, he GOT!!! Such an answer to prayer and to a lot of lingering questions about our new life here. We are SO thankful for that and thankful that he is really liking it so far. It has come with a whole new set of adjustments .. the biggest being seeing Jordan a lot less, which is extremely sad for us…. because …. you know… we really like him and like having him around. 😉 He has been keeping up with his job at Chick-Fil-A for the time being in addition to his new job (which is a night job….. big adjustment) so that we can hopefully put some money back in savings this year to help pay for school next year. So for the time being that has meant Jordan working at Chick-Fil-A from 10am-3pm, and then coming home, changing, and heading to his night job in Indiana, which he is working 4pm – midnight. So, our short mornings have become very precious to us and we have become especially thankful for Sunday’s when we can spend our entire day as a family worshipping together and eating all three meals together. So strange how Sunday’s have changed. We used to get home very late and look at each other and say, “Have I really talked to you at all today?” Now Sundays are the day that we have some real communication going on .. Haha.

Some crazy things have happened….. from our house flooding to our house catching on fire…. the crazy thing is that we are actually doing good. If I told you all of the stories in detail you would ask “why?” Because our hope isn’t in life’s circumstances. Because the joy is in the journey. Because we are doing it together. Because I think I remember promising “in sickness and in health / for better and for worse.” And the commitment is not to just endure sickness and worse with him, but to find joy in that with him.

So, maybe we made a risky choice… a leap of faith. But here’s the thing: I don’t want to be comfortable. I want to be faithful.

“A choice is before you: Either waste your life or live with risk.” And the truth is that you don’t even have a choice. You will live with risk either way. … Because the most dangerous thing we can do is waste our lives. So you might as well live the kind of risky life that is actually safe. The worse that can happen to us this way is we die….. and even that is a good thing.

“If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? …in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”