Betcha have been wondering where I’ve been and if I was ever going to blog again, huh?? Well I ‘m back and judging from the date on my last post I have a good SEVEN months to catch up on so go grab yourself a cup of coffee, sit back and get comfy. No worries, I promise I won’t try to catch you up on every detail from seven months in this post. I have missed blogging oh so much though, I didn’t realize just how much I loved it until my world got turned upside down and I just haven’t been able to.
So, what has our family been up to over the last seven months? Well what comes to mind is an image of a snow globe. A friend once referred to a difficult time in her life as being like a snow globe that was “all shook up” and that just about sums the last few months up for us so I am borrowing her example. I feel like our family was just like a snow globe sitting on a shelf with a perfect sprinkling of dust on top and someone (that would be God) gently picked us up off that shelf, asked if we were ready for a wild ride and, once we agreed, He shook us all up. Snow was whirling around us in all directions for a while there and I am just now starting to feel as if the flakes are starting to settle. Silly analogy but hopefully that gives you an image of where I have disappeared to. Sammy needed so much more of my time for a while there and on top of that the time I would usually spend blogging went into packing and then unpacking. When you combine that with the extra hours spent driving back and forth to Gville to see Sam and Hannah, there just haven’t been enough hours in our days!
I thought I would catch you up on us via the longest run on sentence ever, so here we go. Since my last post I did lots of dissertation writing, job searching, more dissertation writing, job interviews, the final push of dissertation writing, accepted an amazing job offer, back to dissertation writing, house hunting, preschool shopping, job searching for Sam, successfully defended my dissertation (WHOOT WHOOT!), Sammy turned THREE, started getting our Gville house ready to sell, finalized dissertation post defense and submitted it, celebrated the holidays, Sammy and I moved in with my amazing aunt and uncle so I could start working, Sam stayed in Gville for his job, Sammy started a new preschool, more house hunting, put offer on first house, lost first house.. repeated this process SEVEN times (yep, that’s right. Sadly it is not a typo. We went through all the paperwork for seven contracts on seven houses before we found “the one”), Sammy had a ROUGH transition to his new school, realized issues not just related to transition but rather was a terrible school, back to preschool shopping, found new school (praise GOD it was “the one” as well), I had health issues, health issues resolved and was nothing to worry about (thank you Jesus!), my office at work moved into new building across town, had a few weeks of chaos and packing at office AND home, moved out of aunt and uncle’s house and into new house, settled into new office, gave my first big presentation for my new job at a conference- it was my largest audience ever and I rocked it (that was God coming through again if your keeping count), more job searching for Sam, repairs on Gville house ongoing, Hannah turned TEN, I went to Canada for conference, we CLOSED on new house, decided to rent rather than sell Gainesville house, search for renters began, my car completely died- as in beyond repair dead, FOUND renters for Gville house so began contract work, my amazing hubby somehow traded broken beyond repair car straight up for new vehicle and we ONLY paid tax tag and title (God hooked us up yet AGAIN!), had successful garage sale in Gville and said final goodbye to our home there as we knew it, and that just about brings us to where we are at now, give or take a few minor catastrophes. Pshew!
Still no job for Sam but we know God will come through on that too when the time and job are right (if you doubt, please review previous paragraph). I am finally feeling like I can exhale. I finally have a good rhythm with this parenting on my own thing. Sammy has been extra challenging the last month or so. Our sporadic family time is getting to him and he cries at night for Sam, it is so pitiful. I thought I had a good appreciation for single parents before b/c such is the life of police families but now I really thank God every day that this is only temporary. I don’t know how real single parents do it. If you have a friend who is a single mom or dad, let me tell you. Run to them. Run now and ask them if you can watch their kids so they can sleep. Do it now! ha ha. Anyway, I digressed. The new house feels like home now and we are so very happy in it. We are so very very blessed. Sure our sink faucet doesn’t work and I just washed dishes in the bathroom sink. Our air was out for an entire month but let me tell you, that is nothing to complain about compared to what others in this world are facing, in fact it is a blessing compared to most! I am blown away every day as I sit at my desk doing EXACTLY what I have wanted to do but never thought I would find RIGHT in the city we wanted to be in, with our family. Not in DC or Atlanta where we expected but here, in this amazing house. God really takes care of us in every single way. I got my first paycheck on Christmas Eve and as Sam and I looked at our bank account he asked if I remembered what it was last Christmas Eve. I sure did, we had 13 cents and had gotten an Angel Food box. Times were so so tough and scary then. So much changed between that Christmas and this one. I thank God for unanswered prayers. I am SO thankful the job I so desperately pleaded with Him for earlier last year didn’t work out. I apparently had the position but then there were budget cuts and they decided not to hire anyone. That interview experience though really helped prepare me for the others that were to come. Just like the multiple house offers. We learned so much about what we wanted and didn’t want in a house and all that time that we thought we had “wasted” on the other houses made getting this dream house possible. It wasn’t available when we started looking and the more people in the neighborhood we talk to now we are convinced had the timing been off just slightly we would have never gotten this house. So, yes Sam still is waiting for a job here but we are confident it will happen in HIS timing.
I have so much more to share but this post has grown long enough, you deserve an award if you stuck through this long! Thank you to all who have prayed us through this transition! Just a few pics for you b/c what’s a Teri post without some pics? Gotta keep it real!
