The Fury of February!!

As my mom's cousin Charlotte would say "HOLY MAN!"

We started the month with travels. Gary had a tech conference in Columbus to attend with his co-workers and I went to the Kellogg's to help them out with babysitting Faith. Her mom usually does it and got stuck in North Carolina with family when they got almost of a foot of snow! It was a great time and it was good for me to get away and not sit at home. Of course I lost 4 days of packing!! Yikes! We got our keys when we got back (Wednesday) and spent the evening checking the place out. The previous owners left us a sweet letter letting us know a little bit about the history of the home. We are excited to make it our own and build years of sweet memories just as they did. The past week is a bit of a blurr, however I do know we got almost 2 feet of snow and have taken at least 20 van loads of belongings to the new house! My mom came for a couple days to help clean and also paint the girls room purple. The Bush's have also been a huge help getting the drive shoveled, cleaning, and moving things. The whole house is now clean (it was in GREAT shape but empty 6+ months and so we gave it a good scrubbing) and ready for us to move on Saturday. We had some panic with the snow about not getting enough help, but I think with some additional help from some of Gary's co-workers we'll be set. If we can get the furniture over, I know Gary and I can finish the rest.

In the midst of the madness we had the tremendous privilege of traveling to my mom's house for my brother's wedding! It was a sweet ceremony with immediate family at my mom's house with dinner afterwards. It was pretty quickly planned (probably not to them!) and I told Joshua "It's like you are eloping and we get to come!" I'm so thankful to have gotten to be a part of such a special day. Marriage is one of the greatest gifts God has given us and it's such an amazing way for people to be in relationship and grow closer to Him. We pray God's richest blessings of happiness, love, grace and mercy for them!

The kids are still awesome. Tyler and Grace are suffering from lack of attention and structure but other than some minor behavioral changes (which I hope to quickly correct in the next month!) they are doing well and very excited about the move. Getting to spend so much time at the house has really helped them get excited about and, hopefully, will make for a smoother transition. Esther is also doing well and we're thankful beyond words that she's so easygoing. We've only been able to pull this off so quickly because of help from others, and Esther's willingness to just sit and watch the action.

To close I want to mention Gary's grandma, Evelyn. She passed away a year ago today and we miss her dearly. We're blessed to know she had a personal relationship with Jesus and knew him as her Savior. Because of that we have assurance that she is in heaven, and because of our own salvation, we will be with her again someday. As we've gone through this process with the house, I've thought a lot about the promise Gary and I made on our wedding day to build a "household of faith". We're both blessed to have people in our lives who've gone before us to show us how, and to show us that persevering and not giving up on each other, leads to great rewards in the end. We love you Grandma!