One more step

Transition. Yes, this is our living room.

One more step. 

Moving blankets = Crib for baby and Lydia

One step closer to being on "the field". Closer to the unknown and unfamiliar and uncomfortable. Further from comfort, ease and the routine. This week we are moving. Part of my heart is aching for the simple material comforts of what has been our home for six years. This little Cartersville townhouse became "ours" the day we were married. We spent our first summer "setting up house": painting, cleaning and bringing home wares from IKEA.  I love the color of the living room. I miss my chalkboard which I planned the weekly menu on. I look out to my beloved garden and know what will sprout this summer (where, what color it will be, when I planted it...). There are so many things Brian hung up on the now-blank walls "for me". 

Most of that stuff is gone, sold or given away. I am simultaneously saddened and happy. God blessed us with a great "moving sale" last weekend. And let me tell you about it. We sold just about everything. We made a good bit of money. We had numerous friends come over to play with Lydia, to help haggle, to help Brian move out the furniture and boxes of stuff into our yard and even make us lunch!

Making "deviled eggs" 

Empty living room means more room to ride the power wheels!

This Saturday we'll pack up a U-Haul with what remains: books, clothes, our bed, Lydia's furniture and kitchen stuff. We'll move into our temporary home, a house just a bit south of here, owned by our friends and faithful supporters. They are moving out and allowing us to live in the house as they get it ready to sell and put it on the market. It's amazing generosity; the gospel lived out. 

We have been blessed with so many things: selling our house, selling our stuff, having a place to move into, etc! We have been blessed with friends who help us move, clean, love Lydia, make us food and care for us! Yet, why am I so scared? (to quote Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music). 

This step...little compared with moving our family overseas to do ministry...is great, needed, but very real. I'm leaving home. I'm getting closer to leaving friends, family and all the scenery and backdrop I've ever known in being a wife and mother. It's quite scary; I have to admit. 

The reality of God's call on our lives is sinking in a bit more. Oh, how I pray for grace to embrace Him for all the wonder and joy He gives!