...our "house"...

Since we have moved into the "house" two weeks ago the kids refuse to call it home. If we are out and about in town and I say, "Let's go home." They will usually reply with, "Wow! Mom, that's a looooooooong way." or "We will need to pack first." But, even though they're not ready to call it "home," yet, they do like the house.

Surprisingly, Joelle and Erin enjoy sharing a room!

Backdoor, laundry room, kitchen, dining and living rooms,
garage door, and front door.


Basement! So much potential when we finally get everything out of boxes. We planned to do school down there, but changed our minds. More on that in a later post.

Barry's room

This is one of my favorite "rooms" in the house. It's a large linen closet upstairs!

This is mine and Jason's room. It is upstairs. I LOVE the closet as we didn't even have a closet for the past two years. The bathroom is between our room and Barry's room.

...humor gets us through...

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind! Joelle has made the move fun with her cute sayings. For example, as we were driving away from Virginia she was upset and said, "You guys don't understand how hard this is for me. I was BORN in Virginia, so I'm the only American in this family."

Later in the trip, she felt Barry was being impatient with her so she said, "Barry, Patience is a curd." Erin said, "That's not how you say it." And Joelle responded with, "Patience is acquired." She was close. And, yes, patience is acquired through much practice. After we laughed for awhile I explained it to her. She will never forget that "Patience is a virtue." :)

Since we got here, Joelle has turned out to be my accident prone child. The first night we arrived in town we had dinner at the Hazell's home and the Hill family joined us. After dinner, the adults (and older children) played a game upstairs while the young kids played in the basement. We were close to finishing our game when a loud thud boomed through the house. At first I thought it was thunder as it had been raining outside, but within a few seconds a very familiar cry was heard from downstairs. I ran downstairs to find Joelle had run into a support beam face first! She said her neck and back hurt, but, she was okay with only a bruise and scratch in the middle of her forehead and a scratch on her nose.

The next day she scraped her knee on brick and had a quarter size scab on her knee. There's been a couple other scrapes and bruises and for each of these she adds a band-aid. The band-aids she's been using leave "gick." (Joelle's word, of which we had a nice laugh about.)

Lastly, on the list of Joelle's funny phrases, she was sorting out large hangers and small hangers. Barry came into the room to get some hangers and he asked if she was almost finished. She placed her hand flat in the air, shook it a bit and said, "Ifty-bifty." Apparently this one means, Fifty-fifty. :)

*In my last post I said that some friends had "promised" to come visit. Actually, no one promised, but I hope you all plan to visit anyway. :)

...update on the move...

Thank you to EVERYONE that helped us move! We never could have done it without you! Thank you also to Amy Smith for watching a bunch of younger kids at her house.

The drive out took much longer than I had expected. It's a 15-hour drive in a normal vehicle, but when driving a huge moving truck and towing vehicles it's over 20 hours! :) So, we are thankful that God knew this in advance and allowed us enough time to take 3 days to get to Rolla without feeling rushed.

Sunday afternoon Mr. Hazell had about 10 people come over to help us move everything from the truck to the basement and garage - most of them men. We were finished in 35 minutes!! Amazing! The house has been cleaned and painted. We are now waiting for the carpets to dry. We're anxious to start moving everything in either today (Tuesday) or tomorrow.

Jason's first day was exciting and very busy. He'll be working a lot on implementing HR guidelines as well as several other items. Many of which we are very excited about and hope to share with you all in the near future!

The kids seem to be taking the move very well. God has been so gracious in giving them understanding and patience. We went to the MFW Family gathering last night (once a month event) and were able to meet a lot of people. We all have made friends quickly - especially Joelle! Several ladies have told me to not be shy in calling them about anything.

On Sunday night we met the Hill Family. I can see already that they will be a very special family in our lives. On Monday we stopped at Panera Bread for lunch (and free wi-fi) and guess who we saw there!? The Hill family! We were able to have lunch and chat about the community. What a blessing!

We're excited about this new adventure. I miss all our Virginia friends, but I know you all will be visiting very soon!! I'm holding you to your promises! :) I love you!

...our budding activist...

This afternoon Barry, Joelle and I met some dear friends for lunch at Chick-fil-A. After eating, Joelle and her friends went into the play area and played for quite some time. When it was time to leave, it was brought to my attention that Joelle was up in one of the tubes crying. My friend's son told us Joelle wasn't hurt, but that another child (someone we didn't know) had yelled at her causing her to cry.

Joelle later explained that this young girl had thrown a piece of trash on the floor of the play area in a hard to reach spot. Joelle gently told the girl that she should've thrown the trash in the proper place so as to keep our "environment" clean. The girl disagreed, because it wasn't "her" trash, and she didn't care what Joelle thought about it. Joelle and the girl commenced to arguing about the situation until the girl finally yelled, "You're not the boss of me!" Not only was Joelle upset that the girl had yelled at her, but she was also sad that the girl didn't care about our environment.

After Joelle shared all this with Barry and I, she was quiet for a time and finally said, "I should've told her about Jesus. I'm going to be a Missionary that cleans up our environment and helps animals. I want to help our earth."

I thought it was really neat that Joelle seemed to recognize our spiritual needs in relation to our actions towards our earth. Maybe she didn't actually come to THAT conclusion, but it's what I took from the conversation. :) Isn't it SO true that our relationship with Jesus influences every decision we make!? What we believe about Jesus guides our choices - big choices, small choices, every day choices. If we don't see Jesus as Loving, Caring, All-Knowing, Trustworthy, Creator God, etc... we will not care about others, we will worry in our circumstances, we will fear the unknown, and we will have no care for His precious creations.

And, if we don't see Jesus as needed Savior we will not recognize our sin, turn from it and repent. Jesus says in Matthew 10:32-33, "Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven."

As she matures, Joelle will learn tact and discretion in sharing her opinions with others, but I certainly see the Lord leading her to be bold for Jesus; not just our environment! :)

...a love like Jesus...

This new chapter in our lives began on June 28, 2011. That day Jason had had an interview at a local plastics company. His painting business had been steadily declining since January and the past 6 months had been a literal day-to-day faith in Jesus Christ for provision (I'll share more of those stories later). :) The interview went poorly and Jason was less than optimistic about it. I was voicing my concerns that afternoon to a special friend, Amy S. I was explaining that I was so disappointed that Jason had worked so hard for the past 15 years gaining experience in management and it seemed that none of it mattered. The job at the plastics company was in management, but all they were concerned about was that Jason didn't have plastics experience. It felt absurd to me.

Later that evening Amy forwarded us an email with the job postings for My Father's World, a homeschool curriculum company. More out of desperation than anything, I forwarded it on to Jason. Jason took interest in a couple of the positions and we asked Amy what the next step would be to check it out. She sent an amazing letter of recommendation to the owner, David, and within the next couple of days we were in contact with David; phone interviewing, sending out both our autobiographies, Jason's resume, and a family picture.

The following Saturday, July 2, while we were attending our Life Group's get together, Jason pulled me aside and shared that David had just called and wanted us to come out as soon as possible for interviewing! We were so excited and scared! Thankfully (to our surprise), God had worked it so that Jason had NO work the following week. We left the afternoon of the 3rd and were interviewing by the 5th. The decision was made by the 8th and Jason was offered the position and we accepted.

It turns out that David was looking for an individual that had corporate experience but the willingness to step away from the corporate money - and wouldn't you know - God had prepared all that for us in the past two years! Jason's 15 years experience is exactly what David feels his company needs.

So, back to my awesome friend, Amy! She recently told us that she held onto the job postings for five days, trying to decide if she should send it or not. I personally think this is SO beautiful. Those actions portray that she loved us so much that she couldn't bear for us to leave. But, with an even greater, sweeter, unconditional love she put aside herself, took up her laptop, and showed us Jesus Love by choosing to forward the postings. We are forever thankful to Amy and her obedience. I love you, Amy!