On the move again....

One night around November or December, Mark came home after his swing shift and woke me up.  There was a position opening up in Lake Charles, should he put in for it?  (Now you need to know, Mark almost never woke me up when he came home in the middle of the night.  Even if he had something on his mind, it could wait til morning.  For him to wake me up was a big deal.) And for whatever reason, it just 'felt' right.  I jumped up and said, "Yes!!!".
Now, just because Mark put in for a transfer in no way meant he would get it.  Why not put in for it?
So he did.  And we waited.
I never prayed, "God please send us to Lake Charles!", nor did I ever pray, "God please keep us in Kingsville."  What I prayed was "God please put us where we are meant to be.  You have our lives in your hands, guide us where you want us."
And we prayed.  And we waited.
The last Friday in February, Mark got the news.  He  was going to Lake Charles.  Because we owned our home, Mark was given three whole months(!) to sell our home, find a home, buy a home, move and get settled before he was to report to work on May 31.
I started packing that day.
Things got real, and we got busy.
There were a few touch ups around our house Mark wanted to finish before he put the house on the market.
We also had to find a house.  We have seven (7!) animals.... ain't no one renting to us, we had to find a house to buy.  We wanted a bit of land (we have big dogs and we still wanted to have chickens)  We wanted a shop for Mark and his woodworking.  We wanted a house we both liked.  It wasn't that places which fit that criteria were not on the market, but those places, when they did become available, were snatched up quickly.  Anytime we found something we liked, it'd be sold before we could even look at it.  We'd make an appointment, and then get a phone call that the house had an offer pending.  One time we did get to actually keep the appointment and see the house.  As we were driving off, I kid you not, we got the phone call that someone had just put in an offer.  We kept joking and saying, "well, that's not our house.  Our house is still out there."  This happened so many times, it became our running joke.
Mark finished all the touch ups on our house and decided it was time to put ours on the market.  We put our house on the market Saturday morning, and by Sunday night we had a signed contract for our full asking price.
Around this same time, we found yet another house that we liked in Lumberton.  It sat on an acre and had a shop.  It wasn't exactly what we wanted, but we both fell in love with the house.  There was another couple looking at it at the same time. Knowing how things had panned out before, we did not get overly excited about the house.  To be honest, we figured it would sell out from under us as well.  We didn't put in an offer right away.  We talked about it and weighed the pros and cons and were surprised when it remained on the market.  We decided to make an offer and see what happened.  Little by little we allowed ourselves to believe maybe this one was our house.  It was.
Mark was due to be in Lake Charles on May 31st.  We closed on the house we were buying on May 27th.  We closed on the one we were selling on May 28th.  How perfect was that?
Throughout the entire process and all the months, I never doubted everything would work out.  There were times I did wonder how they would work out, but I never doubted that they would.  And, amazingly, all the pieces fell perfectly into place.  I love when we put our lives into God's hands, and He shows us just how perfectly all the pieces will fall and fit.  Even when the houses kept selling out from under us, we never lost hope.  We never gave up.  Some days it may have been easy to do so, but we kept looking to God and knowing ultimately it would all work out.
....and it did.  Perfectly.

Now we had to say our good-byes.  I cried when I told all my friends at work.  Not only did I love my job, I loved the people with whom I worked.  The King Ranch was such a fun and friendly place to work.  It never felt like 'work'.  I truly hated to leave.

I cried when we told our church.  We fell in love with that church from the moment we set our feet in the door.  The people were so kind and welcoming.  They embraced us from the start, and we never felt like the 'new kids on the block';  from the beginning we felt loved and like family.  It was so hard to say good-bye.

And, of course, saying good-bye to dear friends we had made is never easy, but we have hope that friends can visit one another.  Our door is always open.... please come on over.

So here we are.  Starting a new chaper in our old lives.......

Something to remember....

Recently Dustin wanted to take Eden to the movies.  Jenni didn't want to go;  she had a lot of 'fun' things like laundry and cleaning house that she was behind on.
Hoping to get Eden on his side and tug at Jenni's guilt strings, Dustin asked, "Eden, do you want to go to the movies?"
Eden:  YES!!!
Dustin:  Who do you want to take you?
Eden:  Gamma!

Also...

Ila has always been a 'momma's girl'.  Oh, she's happy enough to see me, but from the safety of her momma's arms or at least by her momma's side.  However, recently I went to meet up with Jenni, and as soon as Ila was out of the car, she came running up to me with the biggest smile on her sweet little face.  Melted my heart.  She has done that a couple times now, and I love it.