The Family Trip: The dust is settling

Exactly 2 months ago we came here. It is hard enough to understand time when you're not caught in a whirlwind, but I can hardly grasp time at all right now. It feels like we have been here for a lifetime, but yet not at all.

Somedays I've cried about how amazingly perfect we are for this place and this place is for us. Other days I cry because this is so hard. I've shed tears over missed loved ones. And random, unexplained tears when the downtown skyline comes into view... we seriously live here?! Is this a good thing?! I've remained completely calm and had complete meltdowns. I've driven most places without getting lost or stressed (but a fair amount getting lost and stressed, usually with a non-car seat loving baby screaming). When the dust settles, or even when it is still swirling around us, I am in awe of God's faithfulness, goodness, and provision to us.

By grace and with lots of help and support from family and friends from all over, this is a synopsis of the last 2 months:

Thanks Steph for the fun gift of a s'mores kit

Moving a huge 4-bedroom house into a small (to us) 2-bedroom duplex. I love small. I can vacuum the whole place without unplugging the cord once! Chris says he wants to live in a one-room house with dirt floors someday. I think we have a ways to go before we can manage that, but this is a good start. We have both felt a strong urge to simplify our lives by simplifying earthly belongings, and the easiest way we have found so far is try and fit it all in here. We are nowhere near our goals and have been graciously granted some extra storage space in the basement by our amazing landlords while we sort through things some more. BUT, the boxes are out of our living space, which has cut down on my stress levels. The kitchen and I tolerate each other. Some of my most "normal"feeling moments have been doing normal things like cooking dinner, even in my tolerated space. Love that even though we lost so much counter space, a dishwasher and a microwave, we have a quirky old gas stove. It was a secret prayer of mine to at least have a gas stove :).

Moving 3 small children, including a 2 month old baby. Wow. The older kiddos have had some huge life changes that are really sad to them, but at the same time are showing amazing resilience and we are glad to have made the changes now while they are young. I have not been great at communications with family and loved ones (sorry!) to keep everyone updated on their growth and fun here. I'll work on it! They have really begun to adapt well.

Brielle has been fairly fussy and not slept well the first 4 months of her life. But our routines have been non-existent, stress levels higher than normal and her sense that I desperately want or need her to sleep has been met with strong opposition. She would rather be held and snuggled and nursed. And that's what I would rather do too. We're making it work. I've cut dairy from my diet and that seems to be helping with fussiness, although it's hard to tell for sure. She really is a joyful baby and a joy to be with. Her smile pretty much melts my heart each time. She's rolling from tummy to back, grabbing toys in front of her, drooling, and bringing everything to her mouth. We just met (and are very happy with) our new doctor, who noted how strong she is. She has passed the 12 lb mark (still a peanut) coming in at 12th percentile for weight and 63rd percentile for height. She manages to draw a crowd wherever we go with her charm and pure cuteness.
Avdon also draws a crowd with his beard hat. He can't go anywhere without someone commenting on it. He gets some time with just Mommy and Brielle while Shiloh is at school and he loves it. He may have had the hardest transition with giving up Mommy to a new baby and then shortly after moving everything he knows to a new place. He has gone from good to horrible to almost good again with potty training, a sign that he is doing better now! He enjoys going to Splashville (our version of Sunday school) and interacting with kids and exploring wherever we go. Just in the last couple weeks we have noticed a problem that was corrected with a minor surgery last year has reappeared. We have a referral to a new urologist here, but would appreciate prayers for healing. He has had fun exploring a huge indoor park, but really wants to take Shiloh with him. We need to work on finding some friends for him! He'll start preschool back up in the fall when potty and being away from Mommy are easier things.
Shiloh will tell you "icky Spanish" if you ask her about preschool, but it is evident she loves her new school. And she loves learning Spanish in this immersion setting. Her teacher is wonderful and our short walk to school and violin lessons makes us wonder if we really want to leave this place when our lease is up. She has some great people skills in comforting new friends at school and Splashville. She is really excited to do anything we do. Except talk about kindergarten. I suppose one more change is a little too much to handle. We are entering the crunch time to choose schools. We have three tours set up to visit elementary schools (so we've narrowed it down quite a bit already). We'll go to a school fair and have already done a fair amount of research. Then we'll turn in our top 2 choices and be entered into a lottery system. Over 90% of families get one of their top 2 choices. Prayers for our process would be lovely.

A blurry but good idea of Avdon's hat. Taken while learning about public transportation on a bus

Moving right as the holiday season kicked off. In some ways this was one of the hardest things. Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years and everything in between is enough to drive me bonkers any year. But we managed. This season included two trips back to IA, a flood of guests here at our home (we've loved each and every visit!), a beautifully quiet day on Christmas, homemade gifts to cut costs, putting up a tree for the mood of us all but quickly getting it down to make space, and a busier-than-normal season to start a new job at a church, which brings me to...

One of our many guests-my sister Laura. Note the uncontrolled mess in the background, but tasty homemade pizzas and an enthusiastic prayer of thanks to God in the foreground

Starting new jobs. While new jobs always come with a fair amount of stress and learning curves, the way Chris' position at Jacob's Well has gone (at least in our eyes) makes the move worth it. Hopefully they feel the same! He did feel overwhelmed starting out, much due to the busy church season, but has amazing co-workers, good support, healthy challenge, and lots to work on. He's getting to the point now of working ahead rather than playing catch up, which feels really good. We love, love, love being a part of the community and both can't wait to dig in deeper, get to know others better and serve in this unique place. Moving to a job within an established community has made this move so much more manageable. It's pretty amazing to come to a new place and have built-in friends and support. Wow. I didn't have to cook for the first 2 weeks, have had play dates, attended a marriage conference, co-hosted a party for the band, had Brielle baptized, and got 200+ personal tips for living in the Cities all from Jacob's Well.

Chris has his first guitar student, and we're feeling ready to have a few more. They help support our hobby of eating 3 times a day :) and Chris has really discovered joy in teaching.
My new job is starting to seem real, and I'm wishing I could have some training! I've felt fairly inadequate with my role of "homemaker" (seriously? one can hardly call this a home!!) or "stay-at-home-mom" (get me out of here before the kids kill each other!!) and slightly lost without a "skill" or "profession" (I supposedly used to have them...). But it goes to show I have plenty of room to improve. I am extremely thankful for the opportunity to do this for and with my family and can't imagine having to do it another way.