Sweet Life in the City

I want to thank you for your encouraging words after my last post. It was nice to get that off my chest and it was nice to hear some encouragement. I know the discouragement will continue to come from all around, but we are determined to press on to what we know in our heart is God's leading on our life. I know I have been pleading for some concrete confirmation and although I have not gotten it on our side, we have been completely amazed at how God is already working in Albany Park and how many connections we have made with people we have never met that are preparing for us even before we get there. We had our first "snow" day on Friday. It snowed some Thursday night, but the real danger was the wet roads that turned to ice by Friday morning. My birthday was Saturday so I got a great present in the form of a four-day weekend! We got out Friday afternoon and I used some of my Christmas gift cards on a new comforter set for our room. Saturday I got to sleep in and then Jer...

I am very familiar with the concept in the Bible about running a race and finishing the race of life and ministry strong. The New Testament is filled with words from Paul about not giving up and persevering through the hard parts in our life so we can look back at our life and know that with God's strength we made it! All of our lives we have been preparing for the race that our family is about to run. Oh, we have been running small races in our life, but our vision for Chicago is the BIG one and all the other races were just part of the training. As the starting line is beginning to approach we were not prepared for the discouragement we would receive from the ones who actually taught us how to run in the first place. We were not prepared for our trainers to tell us we are not ready for the race.  I do not want to sound unkind and I know that they love us and are concerned with what is a head of us, but THIS is what we have been preparing for. We know the race is going to be hard....

We have had a pretty good week. On Monday I got our garage cleaned out and I have to admit I was pretty impressed with my work. I took 12 bags to a Good Will drop off and on of our sweet teenagers brought his truck by and hauled off 8 bags of trash, a tv and microwave that has been sitting in our garage for over a year, a suitcase, and several empty boxes. I now have about 12 empty tubberware containers that we can use when we finally sell the house. I might actually be able to park the van in the garage this winter. Tuesday was back to reality for us. It was nice to see the sweet faces of my kiddos and I got the cutest owl coffee mug from one of my girls. We were all pretty tired so we all got to bed early last night. I got an automatic coffee maker for Christmas and I do not think I will ever go back to a regular coffee maker! I put my coffee grounds in before bed and it is ready for me when I get up and it is wonderful!! Sam and Emma are happy to be back at school and I think Chloe ...

We have had a great day! We are enjoying our last few days of break. Tomorrow will be our last day and we head back to reality on Tuesday. The kids continue to amaze me at their skills with technology and Sam and Emma have been playing their DSI's while Chloe plays the Ipad like they have been playing all their life. They can figure things our better than I can on some of those games:) They are going to have a rough time once school starts back because their time of the devices will be drastically cut during the week. Sam did play with his cars and leggos most of the day. I love watching him play and use his imagination:) We watched Cars 2 last night and then the kids went to bed. I was not planning on staying up late, but a movie came on that I liked so I was up until midnight. This weekend my heart and mind has been heavy for what this year has for us. I know that I God does not have to give me conformation on our move to Chicago, but I need something very tangible. I think some ...