Our new house...a gift from God.

When we moved back to Colorado we moved back into the house we purchased last time we lived here (we rented it out while we were gone).  It was the house we had purchased when we had four kids, and we were done having kids.  Ha! Ha!  Yea, 9 years and 4 MORE kids later it was a bit small.  We were praying, saving and waiting.  We really thought we would be waiting 3 more years in this house.  3 more years active duty Air Force.  3 more years to save so that we could afford the house we were wanting.  3 more years to pray for God's direction.  3 more years being content in the "too small house."

The old house

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.  Proverbs 3:5-6

By December we had gotten back in contact with our realtors.  We were interested in purchasing an investment property, but were not opposed to looking at houses for our family as well.  We looked at several houses, some in each category.  None were right, but the "family" houses we looked at really helped us figure out what we were and were NOT looking for when the time came to buy our "20 year house."   God was working in our hearts in so many ways through so many people and circumstances.   

Then I saw this house on zillow.  It looked great, but I didn't think the land was what Rob wanted.  A few days later he sent me a link to this house.  What did I think?  We looked at the pictures and talked.  There were a couple other homes that interested us as well.  We couldn't look at any of them for another week though.  Science Olympiad was happening in the next week.

We made plans to look at 4 houses.  3 one day and 1 the next.  The first house was nice, but both the house and land were NOT "ours."  We headed on over to that big blue house.  There was trouble getting the key out of the lock box.  We all went to look around the land while our realtors (whom we've known for 9 years) worked on that.  By the time I got back to the door they had already been in and came out saying "this is your house!"  Rob was nowhere in sight.  He was still looking around at the land....

I silently looked through the house.  It puzzled me.  WHO builds a house like this?  It looked like they only had 2 children, but the house was made for a LARGE family.  _I_ would have built this house.....but, what did Rob think?  I kept quiet knowing that he had to know I loved the house.  Sure enough he started asking about making offers etc.

Just to be sure we went on to the next house.  The land was nice, but the house was NOT for us and much farther out than we wanted to live.  The next day we had plans to look at 1 more house.  Most of the kids opted to stay home, they knew it wasn't ours. ;)  We were just going to make sure there were no "what ifs" in the back of our minds.

Those questions I had about WHO would build a house like this?  Yea, a family that adopted 11 children builds a house like this!  They lived here 20 years.  Those 2 littles still in the home?  The grandchildren. :)  This house was built for us long before we knew to start praying for it.  God is good!  There are so many big and small prayers that were answered through this house.  Prayers that were spoken and shared, silent prayers and even those that were just hidden away in my heart.  Some answered in the loud "THIS IS YOUR HOUSE" way, and others in the whispered "I care about even this" sort of way.

We MAY have been at the house for a whole 15 minutes before Mr. M got the lawn mower going.

When we got into the house even the "baby" Miss A seemed to know it was "home" even without any of our stuff in it.  We've been enjoying the space and great floor plan as we've been moving in this past month.

For those that are wondering... We can't know what God has planned in the future, but unless He says otherwise we do intend to settle here.  

HELP!!!!

A few of weeks ago I realized that I had about two months left to do our school planning for next year AND get our house ready for our move.  Oh yea, I also needed to keep up with our basic home life with 8 kids.  Yea, there was some panic there for a bit.  Then I remembered God's faithfulness in the past and that He will be faithful to provide.  Provide, he has!  I've taken a deep breath and rested in His faithfulness.

*This is what my bedroom was looking like a couple of weeks ago.  Stacks of school books covered the floor as I planed out our next school year.  I've been working on job charts as well.   Now I'm really getting into move prep.

This sweet young woman is preparing for a Mission Trip in June.  We count her family among our treasured friends here.  I needed help, and she has a gift with little kids/babies.  We are a great match!  She is sweetly coming over once a week to play with littles so I can work uninterrupted.

"Babysitter J" who goes way above and beyond the title babysitter; is coming over regularly to knock out some jobs for me.  While I'd LOVE to get to work on the embroidery on the kid's new towels; J is more than able to do this job.  Miss E loves helping her.  She is freeing me up to spend time with kids OR get other jobs done that no one else can do.

*Oh, I've also been blessed to have a dear friend down the street offer to take the kids once a week (when needed) in the afternoons so I could get some work done.  What a treasure she is!

So very blessed

Over the last few months it would have been very easy for me to stress and worry about how things were going to work out once Mr. K came along and I would be in need of rest and recovery and my husband would most assuredly NEED to be working on finishing his Phd all while we prepared for our move. I realized early on that I needed to trust God in all of this, that only He could provide for us in this time and worry would only make things worse.

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:32

I will confess that I did find myself slipping into worrying from time to time, but for the most part I was able to take those worries to God and trust Him. I also did what I knew I could do to prepare our family and home for this time.

I just have to Praise God for all of the blessings he has poured out on us through the body of Christ! He has provided above and beyond what I could have imagined, and it has all been OFFERED to us before we could even ask!

A friend came to help for a week before Mr.K was born, helping me both emotionally and physically through those rough last weeks of pregnancy. God had put us on her heart and she offered to do this for us a few months ago. Another young woman came for a few days to help with kids and meals! She had spent a day with us along with a couple of her siblings and it seems she had so much fun that she wanted to come help us after Mr. K was born! What a blessing these two young women are to our family!

Some dear friends of ours were due to move away at the end of July (after having their 5th baby!), but God had other plans for them. Their assignment here was extended by a whole year! They have been such a blessing to us. They offered to watch our kids during labor and delivery, and Mrs. F even made our traditional cupcakes for the kids to take to Mr.K in the hospital! As if that were not enough Mrs. F made us several meals and took the kids for a couple of days so I could rest and Rob could work! Wow! I don't know what other plans God has for their extra year here, but He sure did provide for us by keeping them here longer! We are going to be so sad to move away from these dear friends.

Out of the blue flowers were delivered one day.... From our family at CVP! We are so blessed to be a part of such a wonderful church family and are going to miss them all dearly when we move!

Several other friends have brought or are planning to bring meals, some of them from quite a distance! Just knowing that these meals are taken care of makes the coming weeks look so much easier for me, what a blessing to have friends help me care for my family and allow my husband to work without worry of his wife getting enough rest and recovery time!

My mom came out for a few days too! She always comes when I have a baby to help out. This time the timing is just right to allow Rob to get some extra time at work and to help us out at a local church gathering that the kids were really wanting to go to. Nana's visit is very exciting for the kids too!

God has even provided a family on the other end of our move to help us out! We've never met this family (they are friends of friends), but they have already gone "above and beyond" to help us in our search for a home, and just assuring us of having some friendly faces in town when we get there!

What a blessing it has been to see God providing and protecting in these ways as we start this adventure. I'm looking forward to what he has in store for us in the coming weeks and months as we go through this transition time trusting in HIM!

"If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! " Matthew 7:11

Just two boys

A wonderful, dear, and brave friend has most of my kids today (she has five of her own ages 6yrs-2 months). She took most of them a couple of days ago too (I had a young woman here helping with the two little girls that day). I am so blessed to have such a friend who is able to help me when I'm in need of rest and recovery time and my husband NEEDS to be working.

Mr. R offered to stay at home with me and Mr. K to help out. It is nice to have some time with him, and I'm so blessed to have a son that has such a servants heart!

We're both enjoying some time quiet time with Mr. K too. That was the main reason Mr. R said he wanted to stay, so he could have more time with his baby brother.