I haven't posted in a while because details about the following statement have made for quite the roller coaster ride over the last several months, but it is official:  WE ARE MOVING...AGAIN!  God has once again done something "far above all we could ask or think." 

BW was scheduled to finish seminary this May IF he took a monster load of classes so intense that when he met with the dean of the seminary he questioned who had approved it.  Last semester was very hard on our family and with added duties of ministering at church, leading a Bible study, etc it was a semester where we survived by God's grace, but we really weren't looking forward to doing it again.   Furthermore, the money in our savings has continued to dwindle and we were pretty sure that our funds were not even going to make it until May. 

Other men who were planning to finish seminary in May had begun posting resumes and putting "feelers" out and so BW did the same.  God was so good to close many doors and leave just one open.  Our heart's desire has been to live in a more rural area, a city with a slower pace that had more of a community feel than the greater Los Angeles area.  Even before we had decided to come to seminary we had been looking at properties with acreage, but it never materialized.  Over the course of seminary we had talked about what our wish list might be, while still being open to the fact that God could send us anywhere we wanted.

Well, next month we will be moving to just such a city about 2 hours north of Los Angeles.  BW will be the Pastor of Children's Ministries at a church of about 600 people.  The city is as close as we could ever hope to get in between the two sets of grandparents.  It is a smaller town, but has the basic things we would need to live - a couple stores, a McDonald's and a public library:) 

But BW isn't finished with seminary.  Well, since it's only 2 hours away he has dropped his class load the church has agreed that he will commute in 1-2  days per week until he is done!  And we will not have to go in debt to do it.  Additionally, after 3 moves in 3 years, we will be in a community where we feel very comfortable raising our kids. 

We are planning to rent for the first year to try to determine what neighborhood we'd like to live in as we get to know the community and see what housing prices do.  What's amazing is that if housing prices continue to drop, we may end up owning a house of similar size as we did when we left seminary!  Only God could have come up with a way to make that happen!  Here are some pictures of the house we will be renting:

Back Yard - Yes that is snow!  This So. Cal girl is going to have to learn how to drive in the snow and we are hitting clearance sales now looking for snow items for next winter!  We went up a couple weeks ago for a "snow day" with the kids and they are so excited!

What's not pictured is that we won't have 4 kids sharing one bedroom anymore - we will have a "girls" room and a "boys" room.  The community also has a 9 hole golf course(and boy7 just got a small set of golf clubs for his b-day - he's so excited to learn to play with his Dad!), a swimming pool, equestrian center and parks to play in and make friends!

Like I said, it's so much more than we had asked for and I feel so undeserving of it all.  I pray now that God is preparing our hearts to minister and serve the people, and children, He has entrusted to our family and that He will be glorified. 

I have to admit that it's also bittersweet as we will be (kind of) saying goodbye to many of our seminary friends and the church we've been serving for the past year a little earlier than planned (and won't be able to carry out the plans I had been making for his graduation party just yet!).  But even in that God is gracious as I have been able to attend most of my seminary wives' groups this semester; we will be able to attend the Seminary Banquet and camping trip that we had planned.  There have been moments in the past few weeks when I am just so in awe of His goodness!  Especially because I can be so ungrateful and so bitter and throw temper tantrums when things aren't going just the way I planned and, yet, He remains good all the time and in every way.

"O taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!  O fear the Lord, you His saints; For to those who fear Him there is no want.  The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing." Ps 35:8-10

All right, off to packing!

-J