So What Now? Home Edition

So now, dear friend or reader or whoever you might be perusing the story of my life, the question is where are we now?

Well, let's start with our physical home.

We are living in a modern-design, brand-new townhouse. We are located near the edge of town, which I love. We are about five minutes from a lovely river-side beach/play area on the Columbia River. We are within walking distance of three separate playgrounds. We are 20 minutes from Chris' work and also from our church, the main highway to Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, etc. About an hour from Vancouver/Portland, two from Seattle. 10 minutes to multiple other parks and places to explore in town. 15 minutes to the library, groceries and the other necessities of life.

I love driving and also looking out my own windows and being able to see hills, mountains, rivers, evergreens. Mount Saint Helens frequently pokes her head over one our surrounding hills--depending on the rain and clouds of course. As an Ash Baby (one born within 9-10 months of Mt St Helen's 1980 eruption), the significance of living in her shadow is not lost on me. And the irony of now living so close is rather entertaining to me. That sound morbid. Not intended. More of a circle-of-life, see how far I've come sort of entertainment.

The neighborhood, since we moved in, has gone from about 10 town homes down a little cul-de-sac off one of the main roads through town to closer to 20! Most are still being built, but they are filling up as rapidly as they can finish building them. This I'm not so keen on. It's been nice knowing most/all of the neighbors as we/they have moved in. It's been a friendly neighborhood so far, and I'm afraid of losing some of that as these other town homes are finished.

Plus the mornings of waking up with my bed shaking or the blaring of the worker's radio has gotten a little old at times!

It's a funny little house. Advertised as being three bedrooms, but given that the third bedroom has a washer and dryer in it and a sliding door to the back, it's kind of hard to qualify it as a bedroom. We have used it primarily as a guest room/family room because otherwise our other main room of the house is the living-kitchen-dining-office-homeschool room! Welcome to a modern house.

The best and possibly worst feature is the HUGE windows that run up the front of the townhome. There are seven in all, plus four more littler ones at the very top. They let in beautiful views of the sky, and glimpses of the mountains around us, and of course--the neighbors! You learn to be extra cautious really quickly because there is absolutely no way to cover the second floor of windows and those look right into the landing/bedrooms! The letting in of the light even on the gloomiest of days (we are in the Pacific Northwest now with it's showers and shower and sprinkles and showers) is fabulous--until it gets hot, and then it simply roasts us. Like I said, the best and possibly worst feature of this home--all rolled into one!

I still have a closet full of boxes that I'm slowly unpacking and dealing with. We've acquired a few extra pieces of furniture (like a couch!) since we got here. And I've shuffled around the arrangement of the living/kitchen/homeschool room at least three times. I've about despaired of making the family room/third bedroom truly workable, but we'll figure it out eventually. Hopefully not just weeks before we move again!

Yes, I did say move. I shall not lie. I am prepared and eager for one more move. This is not our forever home. How long we will be here, I'm not sure. We've looked, but timing and money and prices and goals and other such things are keeping us here for now. So we strive to be content as is, to make the best of this funny little home, and continue to learn the area, settle in, and enjoy life as it is now.

Unfortunately, patience is never my strongest suit. . . .

Mt. St. Helen's

2017 Snippeted: Part 3 - August 22 to December 31

Where: Washington State
Who/What: Being stay-at-home wife, homeschooling mom of two and a newborn


August 22, 2017 - December 31, 2017

How I do I finish summarizing this year? Such craziness as we experienced. Such miracles. Such highs and lows. Such trepidation as we jumped, literally without any knowledge of where we were going to land or how, and found ourselves caught in the palm of His hands and gently placed where we needed to be.

By December, Charlotte and Zander were well ensconced in a great kid's program at church. Friendships were starting to form there. A good friendship with a neighbor had flourished. And we had gotten in contact with and were preparing to start attending in the spring, a well-established, friendly, homeschool co-op.

Madeline grew beautifully. Sweet tempered, generally easy going. An answer to prayer in so many ways, but not least in that for the first of my three babies, she was a good sleeper. A miracle of major proportion for me!

We had been visited by my Mum (immediately post-baby birth), my brother and sister-in-law, and sweet nephew. Two dear friends from college (and before!). Both my parents (for Christmas). We were enjoying being able to have people stay and come and go without reference to the campus schedule and the related rigors.

Homeschooling was going well. Lots of adjustments and figuring things out. For the first time since we started schooling, I haven't felt pulled in multiple directions and like schooling was being crammed in because of the other expectations on our lives. And the breath-ability has been wonderful.

Chris had settled in well at work. He found the job to be fulfilling but not overly taxing. Simply put, a job he can see doing for a very, very long time to come.

And with much wiggling and settling and sighing and a few tears, we had settled down into a new life, new rhythm, new Us!

2017 Snippeted: Part 2 - May 15 to August 21

Where: North Carolina - Children's Home - Girl's Cottage #4
Who/What: House parenting 8 young ladies; parenting Zander (age 3), and Charlotte (age 6 and starting kindergarten at home).


May 15 - June 30, 2017
This month, one year to the day after we started in on the year of insanity, our lives went upside down again. I shall not go into great detail here. All I shall say is that God clearly and definitively showed us that our time at the Children's Home was done. And even more, that, at least for now, our Houseparenting time was done.

From May 16 until June 30, our lives became a scattered mess of wrapping up the school year for all the children, dealing with major stress in relation to the workplace, making the decision to resign regardless of not even having a job or place to go, packing up our house (still with no job to go to), multiple job interviews for Chris, landing a job (miracle upon miracle there), and leaving on June 30 to travel 4000 miles across-country to Washington State.

The most amazing part of this time was the numerous, countless, overwhelming number of confirmations that flowed in--God's hand moving us. God being with us. It was heartening, amazing, and inspiring. From two separate pastor's preaching directly about and to us to confirmations from individuals with no idea what was going on in our lives to money matters being handled to the penny to our projected needs--it was amazing. God made His presence in every detail so clear. In what should have been the most overwhelming stressful two months, there was such a strong sense of peace for both and Chris and I, it was almost unsettling in itself!

Saying goodbye to the girls who have been a part of my life for years (in many cases) was not easy. My heart is still with them and my prayers cover them daily. I have to trust that as the Lord has guided us, He also has their futures in His hands. And even in that, I have peace.

The hardest goodbye for us was one set of our dear fellow houseparents with whom we had the privilege of working not only in North Carolina but also in Arkansas. They have been our coworkers, mentors, and friends. Their graciousness in our lives, their role in loving on my children has been so special to us. The friendship goes on, and always will. But saying goodbye was hard.

For the 13th time in my life (that is counting only city to city, state to state, or country to country moves--not small moves within a city. If you count all those, it would be for the 24th or 25th move), all my wordly belongings were packed into a truck and we went to settle into a new life.

To really bring the situation into perspective: For my (then) 6 year old daughter, wherever we were going to settle in Washington was going to make her fifth home in six years. For my (then) 4 year old son, it would be his fourth.

One of our prayers is, and was, to settle--truly settle--somewhere. Whether this prayer has been fully answered I know not. We will always follow God's direction in our lives. But for now, we are at rest.

July 2017
Our first stop, upon leaving the children's home for good, was Tennessee where we spent several wonderful days with one of my best friends and family. Resting. Relaxing. Researching where we were going to live. And trying to find a midwife in Washington.

Once again, miracles upon miracles. I landed an amazing midwife whose first order of business (during a phone call I had with her in Tennessee) was to  start us on the right path to figuring out where to live. To be able to find a midwife willing to work with me at such a late date and who had availability in her calendar in August (the most popular baby month of the year) was pretty incredible in and of itself. To find one of the quality of which I did, was a miracle.

From Tennessee we traveled to Missouri where the kids and I spent about 10 days at my brother's house. We saw family and friends. Had a celebration party/baby shower. And continued researching where to live. Chris left about  four days before the kids and I as he drove out to Washington, and the kids and I followed via airplane. I was one week away from not being allowed to fly any more.

July 17 we landed in Portland, OR and drove to our new town about an hour away where we would live in a hotel for the next 6 days.

Our first order of business was to attend church (the day being Sunday after all). My parents (who call Washington state their USA home) happened to know a missionary couple who were Stateside, and they had put us in touch. We went ahead and attended the church finding there a truly caring group of people.

Here was the situation we walked into in terms of house hunting. Due to the town being only an hour from Vancouver/Portland, there is an overflow of people who work in Portland/Vancouver and live here. The rental market was (and is) almost non-existent. After a week of stressful searching and a  bit of connection-making from our pastor, we were able to land a brand new, completely equipped (as in, we are the first people to live here) townhouse on the edge of town. In the lower end of our price range. That would let us get a dog! And, with a little bit of pleading with the rental company, they let us get the keys Friday night (otherwise we would have been out several hundred dollars more on hotel rooms before we could move in). It meant sleeping on the world's most awful air-mattress (for me) and the floor (for Chris and the kids), but the price was right. And we were home.

Monday morning, first thing, our truck came. An awesome houseparent couple with whom we had worked in Arkansas drove down a few hours away and helped us (ahem...Chris) unload everything in one day (please keep in mind, by this point I was 36 weeks pregnant!).

Chris was getting pressure to get started in at his job (basically he needed to start to keep the position secure), and so by Thursday he was learning a new job, and I was deep in the throes of unpacking, settling children, finding banks, libraries, establishing myself with the midwife, figuring out where to go shopping, etc, etc. Not only determining a new house and town but an entirely new rhythm to our lives.

Neither one of my children have ever experienced life with a father who is not around all day but who actually leaves the house to go to work every day. Their understanding of job schedules is a heavy schedule for weeks at a time followed by a play week for everybody. They were also used to having large amounts of kids in their lives constantly. And while they play very well together, not having someone around willing to entertain them at all times was definitely strange.


August 1 - 21, 2017
The early part of August vanished rapidly in the quick unpacking of boxes (you don't move as many times in life as I have and not learn to unpack/settle swiftly) and preparations for baby's arrival. My due date was August 21, the day of the complete solar eclipse, and while everyone kept saying that babies never arrive on their due date, I was pretty sure this one would.

But first came Charlotte's seventh birthday and Chris' birthday. The kids got settled into an awesome Wednesday night program at our church. We made friends with our neighbor's on either side.

And sure enough, around 3:30am on August 21, labor started. That story I will save for another post. But suffice to say that Madeline Ellesse was born in six hours of rapid, extremely hard labor--one hour before the eclipse.