Transitions...

First and foremost, to those of you who have kept our family in your prayers and are sharing our excitement during this season of life...thank you, thank you, thank you.  Words truly do not suffice!  We are so grateful for all of the support we are receiving as our lives take a big turn.  God has been so good and we are so glad to know that we are in His hands.

As I type, the movers are at our home in the Bay Area packing up our worldly goods.  Todd is working from home, comfortably planted on the couch, and making sure the movers treat our things well.  The kids and I (and my Mom) drove from the Bay Area to my parent's home in Orange County on Monday.  As crazy as it sounds, the day of the drive was the first day in about a month that I wasn't feeling stressed!  Knowing that the "big items" have been checked off (ie: purchase a home, pack up our things) feels so freeing despite the fact that there is more craziness to come! 

The littles and I have so thoroughly enjoyed playing for hours in my parent's backyard.  Really, there is no other place my kids would rather be.  Tomorrow we plan to head to the Orange County Fair and on Friday we will meet Todd at the airport with open arms.  On Saturday we'll have a BBQ with extended family here at my parent's house--both to say goodbye and celebrate Soren's second birthday--and on Sunday our little family of four will head out to the desert with dear friends to soak up the sun for a few days.  Life is good.

The Post In Which I Tell All

I'm just going to put it out there and let the proverbial cat out of the bag.  We're moving across country.  To Georgia.  Soon.  Todd's company has offered him a wonderful opportunity in their Southeast market and we are taking them up on it!  Although we love California--it truly is home to both of us as we are both SoCal born and bred--for the last few years we've been thinking about and praying about the opportunity to carve out a "simpler" family lifestyle elsewhere.  It's no secret that California is exorbitantly expensive and leans much more to the (political) left than we are comfortable with.  It's also crowded and encourages a self-absorbed frenetic lifestyle, which we prefer out kids not fall prey to.  God opened a door and we are excitedly walking through it although we will certainly dearly miss our California friends and family.

So last week, over the course of four days, Todd and I flew to Atlanta and bought a home.  Our first home.  Our dream home.  The boys are thrilled to have a huge yard to play in, a playroom just for their stuff, a "safari room" for Nolan, and an "airplane room" for Soren.  Todd and I will each have our own offices.  There's a large guest suite and a gourmet kitchen to boot.  And land that backs up to a forest and a creek.    And a basement.  Deep breath...there's going to be a lot to clean!  In California four homes would fit on our lot...and they would cost four times the price.  It's crazy crazy crazy.  We are blessed blessed blessed.

Our home is currently under construction and won't be ready til the end of September, yet the movers are coming in 12 days.  The kids and I will stay with my parents in SoCal until the house is complete.  Todd will move in to corporate housing and start his job in early August.  We'll be together for only a weekend or two over the course of the next couple of months, which will be unbelievably difficult, but we know that what we've mapped out is best for our family in the long run.

So, will you pray for us?  We really need it and would greatly appreciate your prayers in this wild season of our lives.  We are overwhelmed with God's abundant favor and pray that we'd be good stewards of what He has put in our hands.