Life - 07.03.13
Hi friends! I thought I'd do a little update post considering my one month break turned into two:) Whoopsies! We just moved last month (back to Omaha, my hometown - hooray!) and it is so hard to get back into the swing of everyday work, life, planning, etc. I kind of feel like we've been on an extended vacation!
We are now planted in our new little home and unpacked. (Well, mostly - there's still one room full of boxes that I'm avoiding!) It has been such a blessing for us to have family close by and time to catch up with our friends. If you haven't been following me for long, just a quick catch up - we've spent the last 3 1/2 years in Kansas building a little youth ministry at a church there. That experience and time was just AWESOME! We made it our home and met the most beautiful families there who really became family to us. We loved getting to know the students and getting to use some of our gifts to encourage their hearts. BUT two babies later (one of which needing early intervention for possible autism), we really felt God leading us back to Omaha and both of us felt that this was a good transition time. We still don't know all that is to come for the church there or for our own ministry/work/home life but we are here and thankful.
So back to our little updates! In the last two months...
My daughter Ari turned one! She is the joy of our home - full of sweet smiles and constantly repeating new words in the tiniest little voice. I'm sure she's just like every other curious baby at this age - up in everyone's mix and driving her big brother crazy. But I just adore her and am extra thankful for the way she's growing and developing right on schedule:)
Our Micah boy has been doing really good - picking up a lot more imitation and sounds now that he has so many new playmates to copy. He's been able to go along with his cousins on the weekly "adventures" and always has so much fun. It also gives me the chance to get things done so that I can spend the rest of the week working with him on his speech and social skills. I still need to get around to posting what we've been doing with him but he's coming along really well.
I recently got to take a little "Biz Love" retreat with two of my sisters. We each run an online business so we spent the day downtown getting organized and sharing tips. I cannot even express how nice it was to be able to do that! I'll have to share the fun details of that later too - another day! But if you're interested, you can download the workbook we used for free here.
One of the perks of being in transition with family around is getting to live with Stephen's brother, his wife and their three little girls. (You might remember them from my DIY Photo-Holder Magnets) When we lived in Kansas, it always made our hearts hurt to be so far away, especially seeing pictures of them on Facebook or in the mail. Now all we have to do is just go upstairs:) They are such an awesome and inspiring family!
As nice as it has been to have Stephen around the last few weeks, we were really excited for him to start at a new job. He's into a full-time schedule again and loving what he's learning. We feel like God is definitely using family and friends during this time to encourage us and give us rest. It's hard not to feel like something's missing after being so busy all the time! This last year we had been planning lessons, hanging out with students and in charge of 4-5 youth ministry events a week so this is quite a change:) I'm very excited to see what the rest of the summer brings!
Your turn! How has your summer been so far? Does it feel like vacation?
