Settling In

We're approaching four months since returning to the U.S., and in many ways, it seems like we've been here much longer than that and much shorter than that, all at the same time.

Our days have been full since our return, both as a family of seven and as first-time homeowners.

We put an offer in on a house while we were in Africa, and it was accepted. We'd spent weeks searching for  a home in Mississippi, where James was transferred to, and finally found the one we were looking for. While we'd never seen it in person ourselves, our realtor sent us more photos from her visit, and a friend came to look at it with the inspector. That, coupled with the virtual tour on the listing, gave us the confidence to move forward.

And...we love it. It's better than we'd imagined and has been such a great place of rest, and life, and togetherness for our family. We closed on it and moved in just two days after landing in the U.S. What timing! We're learning a lot as we learn this new area and this new home, and we're steadily making it our own.

Here's a peek at what it looked like last month. The bushes had been trimmed and the cracked doorbell had been replaced, but otherwise the front looked the same as it did when we moved in. Since this photo was taken, we've taken care of a few more things, the most noticeable of which was replacing the broken vertical blinds in the big window. I'm glad and thankful every time I see that big empty spot isn't there anymore and see the wide, horizontal wood blinds that are in their place.

This house has a wonderful backyard, which we'd been enjoying daily - until the boys' bikes got fixed, and the big boys taught themselves how to ride without training wheels (in about two days!). Now they spend most of their outdoor time racing around the cul-de-sac.

Life is feeling normal now, as we settle into new routines and learn what works best for each of us. There are, of course, plenty of hard at times, but so much more beauty and kindness and grace and growing.

What a story we're living... Thanks be to the Author of it all!

In the photograph below, James and the kids are checking out a box turtle that frequents our backyard after a heavy rain (and subsequent yard flooding, which you'll see in the following photo).