We made it

Oh my, where do I begin. Our last week has felt like a month. I'm trying to figure out how to share about all the happenings, literally too much to share here, but I'll hit the highlights of our week.

So after our few days of travel to and from Arizona we got started packing up the truck. Daniel and his cousin Paul packed up our 17 foot truck and it was stuffed!!! We couldn't have done it without Paul. He was the mastermind of efficient packing. So late Thursday we finished packing the truck and then Friday we worked our back ends off cleaning the house, carpets and finishing the packing. Wow, we were exhausted!

Early Saturday we headed out. Saying goodbye to Daniel's parents was excruciating and also leaving our neighbors, ones we have poured our lives into. As we drove thru the Valley early that morning for the last time we were feeling a bit numb, quite overwhelmed and totally exhausted. I hadn't slept much the night before and by the time we were an hour up the road I needed a nap! Thankfully caffeine was invented and it was my salvation that day.

Daniel was driving the truck and I was following in the car. We drove up to Redding that day, a drive that normally takes us 7 hours ended up taking us 10 hours. The last hour it poured rain and I had to fight my cars desire to hydroplane. Very scary. As we arrived we had difficulty getting a room at a hotel, so as that drama progressed we slowly felt our patience and peace ebb away. Finally after about an hour of drama we had our room and we have never been that exhausted. 

We went to sleep early but I woke up after 2 hours of peaceful slumber and couldn't go back to sleep the whole night!!! By the time Sunday morning arrived we were still exhausted and the weather was horrible. They had closed the pass if you didn't have chains, unfortunately we didn't have we would have to spend our gas money to get them and the banks were closed because of the extended holiday weekend! We were literally stuck!!!! Thankfully my parents encouraged us to stay put for another day. It was a great place to get stranded. We got to go to our favorite church there and really got ministered to at Bethel. The boys loved the Disney channel at the hotel and it was nice to hunker down and rest for a day.

By the next morning we had had amazing sleep and were ready to take on the roads. The road officials lifted the chain restriction and we were able to slip thru over the pass between storms. We had dry roads the after about 2 hours and no snow. We ended up getting a flat tire about a half hour outside of Bend. It was another blessing though because we were right by a city and were able to change to our spare, get air in it and then limp into Bend. If the tire had blown anywhere else we would have been stranded for another night!

We felt the hand of God all the way thru. Some have said, "wow, are you sure you were supposed to go? maybe this was God's way of telling you you should have stayed put" but I look at it differently. I believe that any change takes some struggle. The Bible says that we will have trials of many kinds but the Lord gives us the ability to overcome them all! We were worshipping him and just so grateful that he guided us here safely. Our gas money was exact, not too much, and not too little. We were safe and we have so much to be grateful for. 

Daniel is going to be doing work with my dad. As much as he can. The boys are so happy to be near cousins and have done a lot of playing with them already. We are getting used to calling this home, something that still seems surreal. 

Thank you all for praying for us as we've made this transition. One thing we've been so grateful about is the Lord has given us divine health, not so much a sniffle or sneeze, we've been totally healthy and that has been amazing for us! 

Crazy week continues

Here we are, it's Thursday morning and we are exhausted, happy and the craziness continues.

Our trip to Arizona went well. We left Monday morning and it was POURING rain the whole way!!!! All except about 3 hours in the middle it rained, even in the desert! There were a few things we noticed about Arizona. 

#1 - the line between California and Arizona is also the line where the cactus's grow! Weird! The terrain looked the same but as soon as passed into Arizona we started seeing cactus, on the cali. side there weren't any!!! 

#2 - Mesa is a lot further away than mapquest says it is. Like 2 hours further.... grrrrrwrwufuid.

#3 - We are praying God never EVER calls us to Arizona! At least not to the Phoenix area! UGLY!

So after a very nice, but short visit with Daniel's grandparents we jumped back in the car for 4 hours on Tuesday to get back to California. On Wednesday we went to Knotts Berry Farm. We had soo much fun. The boys were brave on the first ride, (we kind of tricked them into a roller coaster ride) but that was the last one of the day for Micah. He had fun but he didn't want to do anything even remotely scary after that. Ethan wanted to do that roller coaster again but wouldn't do another one.... despite that fact we had a great day. We felt bad for Ethan because he was 2 inches too tall for some of the rides in the snoopy camp section. Poor guy, so young, but so big. He was a trooper though. We did a lot of "carnival rides" like the bumper cars (3 times) and the little train ride, but we had fun. 

We left the park around 6pm and grabbed some dinner to go and after the boys ate they were instantly aspleep. They slept from about 6:30pm to 5:45am this morning. I suppose that is good, but it came too early this morning. It was soo good to be in our own bed last night, after 2 nights in a hotel! Ugh.

Today we make all the craziness of our house a bit more sane. Daniel gets the truck today at 11am and then we begin the packing. We will try to load everything but the mattresses today and then tomorrow we clean all day! We head out early Saturday. 

So excited, pray for grace for the boys. They are soo excited, they are a great age because they are mostly oblivious to the sad stuff, but totally excited about the fun stuff. They are sleeping great, except for the early mornings. 

Next time we blog will be in Oregon. Thanks for praying for us.

Quick note

It's late and we've had a crazy weekend and are heading to bed soon, but I realized I'm not sure when I'm going to be near a computer or have time to update in the next week so I thought I'd take a second to do that now.

Our weekend was very very wet, but we live among die hard yard salers so we ended up having our moving sale anyway and made over $200! We were thrilled. So we are grateful that is over with, amazed at the junk people buy and the fact that all the "good stuff" that was worth money didn't sell. 

Today was also our last day at church here in Santa Ynez. Wow, what a deal it was to say goodbye to all the dear ones we have stood with, loved on, laughed with, cried with for over 9 years. It was very emotional. Some we have buried their loved ones and cried with them. Others we have prayed for every week for physical healing. Still others we have ministered with, gone on youth trips with. They have let us try out crazy ideas for ministry on them, and they've loved us thru it. It is impossible to put into words the love we have for this tough and feisty group of people. 9 years is a long time and we are thrilled to call them family.

After a quick trip to Santa Barbara (just over the hill) this evening for dinner with Daniel's parents we are home. Daniel's mom Diane had double knee replacement surgery this last week and so they are staying down there for a few days in a rehabilitation place where she is literally having to re-learn  how to walk. She is a tough lady! The doctors are thrilled with her progress though and can't believe how quickly she is healing. Praise the Lord.

We head out to Arizona early in the morning to see Daniel's grandparents. They live in Mesa and we haven't seen them in a while. We are looking forward to that visit. We will head back this way on Tues. night and hit Knott's Berry Farm on Wednesday for some much needed fun time with our boys. They have been major troopers thru this season and are so excited to be going, but we really wanted to play too.

Some great answers to prayer in the last few days! We have a place to live. My parents bought a house so the rental they are in right now (a 2 bedroom approx. 1500 sq. foot home) is available and the landlady said she would gladly rent to us. It is such a blessing because we won't need all the extra money other places need like 2 months of rent or a cleaning deposit etc. Plus the added bonus of a familiar home for the boys is greatly appreciated. Such a relief to know where we will be living once we get there. For those of you who don't have that address it is :

61510 Maid Maria Ct.

Bend, OR 97702

and yes, that is Maid Marian as in Robin Hood. We are living in Nottingham Square housing development :o)

Soo. Here we go. Please pray for us this week. Once we get home on Wed. night we will get the UHaul on Thurs. morning, pack it up, clean on Fri. and then head out early Sat. morning. We plan to stop in Redding on Sat. night and arrive in Bend sometime on Sunday. 

The week promises to be very very busy but exciting. 

Main prayer requests are for safety as we travel, perfect working order of the cars, Health (so far we are all very healthy, please pray that continues), grace for Neal and Diane. They will be coming home to an empty house and that could be quite a shock even though they are prepared for it. Please also pray that they will find someone quickly to rent our part of the house. 

We will update as we can, until then we thank you for your prayers and love.

Here we go!

Everyday

It's like everyday some new information comes in or some "kink" in our plans.... I have to keep reminding myself that God knows the beginning from the end and this is his idea not ours. 

Today is Daniel's last day of work. In fact he's got 2 more hours and I'm sure he is beside himself with excitement. His job has been a blessing for 7+ years, but now it is time to move on and boy is he ready. However, when you quit a job that means no paycheck so the excitement is tempered with a bit of trepedition and wonder.

We planned a garage sale this weekend, but it's raining cats and dogs.... something it rarely does here. So we smile and say, "Wow God, really? rain? go figure!" We are getting our car serviced and of course it is going to cost us more than it ever has because it is in need of replacement parts that just happened to be time to change.... go figure!

More waiting, more wondering, more surprises. Being peaceful in the midst of the storm and letting God navigate us thru..