Well, we're moving into the New Year and looking to our future and there are many uncertainties about what it will look like! I feel like there are many things happening at once and who knows what will come of all of them. After we didn't move in the fall, I told myself to settle in into normalcy and not think too much about moving until after New Year. Well, now that time has come.

Several interesting things are happening all at once to make me wonder what will happen in the future. The first thing I found out a little over a month ago was that the manufactured home that we had considered buying last fall that was supposed to have been sold by the end of Nov. ended up not being sold and was taken off the market until this Spring. Is the Lord keeping it around until we're ready to move and want it???? Oh - and the land we looked at and liked is still for sale - not that we'd for sure buy it, but it's still there...

The next thing that happened is a couple of weeks ago, we found out that Leland's mom was diagnosed with uterine cancer. She lives very close to us and is very close with us and our children. We're still waiting to find out what stage of cancer it is but are pretty sure she'll need a hysterectomy soon. She was planning on moving with us when we moved, so obviously this diagnosis defintely will affect things depending on how things go. We're praying and waiting to see on this one.

Then after visiting my parents in Chicago, we got home to a voice mail message from one of my friends' friends who is looking to buy a new house and was interested in finding out about our house. We let them come see our house a little over a week ago and they called us back last night to let us know they're still interested in it and want to come see it again. They know that much depends on Leland's mom, but are still waiting and interested if all goes well and we still move.

There are other little things that make me think that the timing for moving is getting to be at hand - little things like ways the Lord has used me in different friendships that bring kind of a closure to our relationships etc... Not that we need to close the friendships, but that I can see how God wanted me still here to be used in certain ways with certain people. Also, Leland recently had someone hired under him who is a very good employee and could feasibly take over his job so he wouldn't have to leave things a mess if he left.

So where things are heading, I don't know. I want to "be content whatever the circumstances" (Phil. 2:11), so if God leads us to stay here, I need to be content with being here. I don't want to covet the land that I'd love to own, and live wanting something other than what I have. The Lord is Sovereign and knows what's best for me and knows where he's leading me in the right timing.  

Other things that have happened that make life interesting include: Leland's sister in Japan just adopted a 2 1/2 year girl there so we have a new niece! My Grandpa is in the final stages of Pulmonary Fibrosis and could die at any time (at the age of 99). He's a wonderful man of God who will soon meet his maker. So soon we'll take another trip to Chicago for a funeral. My brother is praying about whether he should be moving from Hawaii to a rural area where his wife grew up which is about 1 hour from where we'd move. I so want him to move and be near us, but that's up to the Lord and his timing as well...

So that's the status here! In the meantime, I seek to serve the Lord and deepen my walk with him and look at where he wants me each day and not where I want to be. Submit myself to him and his will, not my own.

Melanie