Be Home

flowers at the farmer's market

beachwalk arrival

With all our worries behind us {except if you choose to count that every item we own is traveling a decent number of miles unfettered from our care, which we are not} it was time for a bit of relaxation...

There are many places in my life that have been considered a home away from home. A place of ample time spent and daily routines carried forth. We all have them whether they are places we enjoy or those that we would rather not see so much of. Hopefully they are not the office or the doctors waiting room. Quite possibly it is the next door neighbors kitchen or the church campus. Like those, Beachwalk is a place of comfort and joy that is best shared with the excited voices that echo from my mini-van.

"To the beach!" they cry!

Last year we were unable to journey to our spot away from home due to another stop we had to make. That trip was to bring home a precious someone who was just as excited to dig her little feet in the sand as her dear brothers.

After we get settled at the cottage, our first order of business is always to see the pier before dark. We've never been here this early in the year so the evening breeze was perfect. And the smell of fresh water washing up on soft sandy shores...well it would be very hard to have any worries after that.

Yes, it made the 11 hour drive "to the beach" all worth it for everyone. Especially, to witness Annika's first time to see a big body of water of any sort, with sand to run in as hard as you may try, and shouts of joy that will only be drowned out by the crashing waves.

Let the week begin....

the big move

So, I announce a grand move across our fair country and then find absolutely no in between time to keep the conversation fresh? Yep. That about sums it up! Really, it's been as simple as 1-2-3.

  #1 The truck arrives...

#2 Pack up the contents of the interior...a several weeks project actually!

#3 Make a living jigsaw puzzle using all your present possessions on a large metal box with wheels.

But its all out now!

And gone...

Yeah!!!!!

the most {you}

Have you ever believed that there is something inside you that is growing? Something that was given to you in your innermost being that makes you feel most alive. Every once in awhile you taste it or touch its effects on your life. Maybe it's through a conversation that went far deeper then the friendships involved, but yet were somehow intensely wrapped up in them as well. Maybe it was in a moment when nothing on the outside was special per se but on the inside, for an instant, you felt aligned. Maybe it was something that took you altogether by surprise and you knew there was more designed, more created, more birthed in the days ahead for you. Where is the moment when you discover that what is yet ahead of you is more accurately you than what you've lived so far? And how do you make sense of the choices that define how close you get to becoming... {you}

My family and I are making one of those choices. Not the last choice to be made or maybe even the most significant one, but one that marks out quite tangibly fear in the One who created you. Who created us, our family. As Psalms 47:4 says, "He chose our heritage for us..."

We are moving to Portland, Oregon. A place that is many miles from were we are now. In order that it may bring us to a place where we long to journey in the many roads ahead. Beautifully, our children are excited to see what may become of it as well. It probably won't be a long stay, maybe a couple of years. It is an opportunity that, once presented, we just couldn't get it out of our minds and hearts. And mostly because it touched that part of us that has been growing into being the most...{you}

content

 

loving :: fresh air

loving :: sunshine

loving :: falling white petals

loving :: {you}

sold

Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore...