Bye-bye, Sedona

We sold our minivan today.

I'm shockingly sentimental about it...I had a lurchy stomach as I watched someone else drive it away, like I was seeing a friend for the last time. I know, it's dumb. But that sweet Kia has been with us through a lot.

We bought her back in 2006, not long after finding out we were expecting Ian. Our little Ford Focus was failing fast, and we knew it wouldn't be big enough for three car seats.

And now our family has grown to the point that we even max out all the seating in a minivan!

We were planning to look into the Toyota Sienna, but we wanted "practice" haggling with car salesmen, and the Sedona was a close second from all the research we'd done.  The lot already had their prices lowered due to some minor hail damage, but we shot a lowball offer even on that. They refused, so we started getting our things together to leave. "Amazingly," when our salesman talked to his manager, they were willing to accept our offer. Then we noticed they had a deal for either $2000 cash back or 0% financing on a 6 year loan. We only wanted a 5 year loan, but we pressed for both the $2000 AND the 0% (automatically assuming we'd be walking off the lot empty handed.) They let us get almost out the door before calling us back to try to negotiate some more. We held our ground because we weren't really desperate to buy that day, and in the end, we got our way!

In all honesty, it really was a miracle for our little family. I'm still amazed by the deal He handed to us! By His grace and provision, we were even able to pay it off a little early, and it's been a really good car.  We went back and forth on whether to ship it to England or not, but finally its age/mileage and having the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car for English roads clenched our decision.

It makes my heart a little happier seeing that the family that bought 'er is so nice. They have four kids, similarly spaced to our first four. I'm hoping they're as happy with it as we have been.

Bye-bye, Sedona. We've sure enjoyed your reliability, comfort, practicality, and space, and we'll miss you!

A Few Things to Keep in Mind :)

Prov. 19:21
"Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand."

Matt. 6:25-34 
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on [or what you will drive, or where you will live]. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." (Italics mine)

Phil. 4:4-9 
"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you."

Job 42:2
“I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted."

(Also: Is. 40:28-31, Jer. 29:11-13, Ps. 61:1-2, ...)

What are some verses that draw your hearts and minds back to confident peace and trust in the Lord when you are tempted to be overwhelmed? Praise God for the steady truth of His Word!

Six Flags

We made a weekend trip to the St. Louis area to meet up with my brother, sister, and new brother-in-law...basically so we could hang out one last time before we move out of the country.  Even though goodbyes royally stink, we had an AWESOME trip and tons of fun. The highlight was going to Six Flags! Here are some pictures:

Aunt Chrissy with Julia, just before entering Six Flags

"American Thunder," the first roller coaster of the day, and Katy's first ever! She was terrified, but she did it and was a champ, despite some shaking and crying and promising she'd never do anything like that again. (Emily loved it!) And later, after Katy had recovered, she said she thought she'd like to do another roller coaster, now that she knows better what to expect. :)

Can you find us? 

Uncle Ben being chauffeured by Ian

Collin's first driving lesson with Uncle Kevin

My boys with the Flash

All the kids (except Emily) with the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine
(Emily was with with Kevin, Ben, Scott, and me riding Mr. Freeze)

"Mr. Freeze" was easily the most horrifying coaster of the day, and left Emily (my adrenalin junky kid) vowing "Never. Again!"

While everyone else went on Colossus (the giant ferris wheel), I hung out and "chilled" with Julia.  Actually, it was like 100 degrees...
...and soon after I took this, Scott and Collin joined us. Apparently Collin said he had to go potty when they were almost to the front of the line...and when a newly-turned-3-year-old says he has to go, you don't risk making him wait for an entire ferris wheel ride!)

Scott (and Julia) took this one while we waited for "Thunder River," which was awesome. Collin "won," meaning he got drenched...much moreso than anyone else on our raft. He had a huge grin plastered on his face the whole time! At the end, he looked down (he was sitting in a puddle), and said in surprise, "My...my tummy is wet!"

The skinny swing tower ride. (What was it called?)

Toward the end of the day, all of us played a game and won super hero capes.  Collin actually won the whole game, so he got to choose a shiny/shimmery cape instead of a normal one. :)

That's Aunt Chrissy...er...I mean Wonder Woman flying on the left!

Before leaving
(left to right) Katy, Emily, Ian, Collin, me, Chrissy, Julia, Kevin, Ben
Scott was taking the picture

All of us

Breakfast at the hotel the morning we had to leave

Chrissy worked diligently on her artwork

The resulting masterpiece!
(back row, left to right) Hulk (Scott), Captain America (me), Spiderman (Kevin), Mr. Incredible (Ben), Wonder Woman (Chrissy)
(front row, left to right) The Green Lantern (Emily), The Flash (Katy), Superman (Ian), Batman (Collin), and Thor (Julia...in her normal clothes since she hasn't quite grown into Thor's armor and cape) :)

All of us at the front desk

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Funny pictures :

Sovereignly Ordained Poo?

Just yesterday, I was tempted again to start stressing about the future. Will our cars sell? When? What will we do? Can we find a large enough, reliable enough, affordable enough vehicle for our family in the UK? How will we fit 10 suitcases (yes, ten) in our minivan AND every member of our family?!

So, apparently, I needed another reminder that God knows what He's doing and it really all work out in the end in a good and manageable way.

We are supposed to be on our way to St. Louis right now.  We had planned to get started on the drive bright and early because, well, let's face it: traveling with little ones increases your travel time by a magnitude of about 3.  Yesterday, we found out that, even though Scott's leave was approved for today, there was an important meeting/inspection/military-something-or-other taking place in his office that no one else would be able to cover...so he would have to go in at least until that was over.  I was bummed, but kind of had an "it is what it is" mentality. I mean, there's no use getting all upset that the military is changing my plans...it's just part of this life.  And anyway, it's not like they were forcing us to cancel the whole trip or anything.

So, this morning rolled around, and naturally, I left the packing until today. (What? You didn't know I was a procrastinator? Well...now you do.) Julia has been having some...issues...since we transitioned her to regular milk from formula.  I knew this could happen, and given her finicky digestive system, I purposely transitioned her very slowly.  Well, with all our traveling and inconsistent food choices/options, she ended up getting pretty backed up anyway.  After 3 days, and with a very grumpy and uncomfortable baby, I finally decided that prunes, raisins, juice [and other opposites of the foods in the BRAT diet] just weren't working. She would cry and strain, and only a watery little smudge would result. So, I gave her a 1/8 dose of Miralax.

WOWEEEEE!!!

I am SOOOO thankful for our delay in getting started today! Otherwise, our car might have been declared a bio-hazard! I may or may not have taken pictures to document the amazingness of this event, but don't worry, I won't post any.  Just writing that it was epic enough to pictorially document (or even consider doing so), will probably be enough to jog my memory in the future.  God knew, as silly and/or gross as it is, that having this happen the Middleofnowhere, MO could potentially push all of us beyond what our fragile psyches could bear, so I believe this obnoxious meeting at the base was actually a sovereign and benevolent gift from Him.

So now, I am appreciative both of the reminder that He is in charge of all the stinkin' details of our crazy life (har har), and also that we're not trying to scrub off Julia, her clothes, her car seat, the actual van seat, or the van's carpet, ceiling, or any other people or supplies...with wet wipes alone. I know that the content of this post is wild, and a little humorous maybe, but I'm totally serious...this was actually a profound reminder for me.

God's grace and provision. There you have it.

Because Lots of People Need to Know...

We have a new tentative itinerary for the next few weeks. Even though these dates have been confirmed (or in some cases, set) by the Air Force (and moving carriers), they ARE still subject to change...but probably not drastic change.

July 19        Non-temp. (NT) storage survey
[July 20-22 We will be out of town (St. Louis) to see my brother, sister, and brother-in-law]
July 25        Unaccompanied baggage (UB) survey
July 27        Movers take NT storage items
August 1     Movers take UB
August 5     Last Sunday at CBC (it is *possible* that we'll still be there on Wed., Aug. 8)
August 7     Movers pack household goods (I'm sure there will be a survey prior to this)
August 8     Movers take household goods, final cleaning of house, turn in keys, etc.
August 9     Scott's last day at McAFB, final out-processing
August 9(-10) Drive to Los Alamos
August 19   Drive to Odessa
August 25   Drive to Frisco
August 28   Drive back to Wichita
August 29   Fly to England!
August 31   Scott's RNLT

In the meantime: we need to sell our cars (see listings here and here), get luggage for everyone, and make sure to spend as much time with the precious people here (in the States) as we can. :)

It's going to be a busy next few weeks!

Shameless advertising plug:
We're also selling Julia/Collin's jumperoo. :) If you're local (or even in one of the areas we're visiting before our flight), let me know! :)

Darth Vader

I hope I get more pictures of him like this. What a great age!

God's Provision

It seems like each time we/I face an unknown, I fall (somewhere along the way) into worry. I don't think I dwell there as often as I used to, and, by God's grace, I'm learning not to stay there as long when I do fall; but inevitably, it still happens. Many times, it takes verbally, audibly repeating the Truth of God's Word to myself just to make myself think about what is true. (Phil. 4:8)

This move, going overseas especially, is an unknown...or more like a cluster of unknowns. Overall, things are going really well. The government/bureaucracy has been mind-numbingly frustrating at times, but mainly because they have a timeline we are expected to keep whether or not they complete the things we need on time...and despite the fact that the people/offices whose job it is to take care of PCS-type issues don't know basic procedures and don't have answers to very basic questions.  For example, it took until this past Thursday for us to FINALLY get our official orders. These are necessary for nearly every other step we must complete: applying for visas, scheduling shipments and movers, booking flights, putting our names on the list for housing in the UK...  Do you know what the big hold up was? Well, besides the personnel people being able to figure out their computer system sufficiently to update Scott's date of separation (since he had to re-enlist prior to our move)?? The big hold up on our papers was that I hadn't completed my anti-terrorism training! Yup, me. Did you know I had to do that? Because no one ever told us.

Convenient, right? And this was after WEEKS of investigating the whole hold up! Now why couldn't someone have told us that back in, oh, March, when we first found out we would be moving? Or even in April, May, or June? Hmmm...

ANYWAY, I digress...

Although that was frustrating, it wasn't something that really caused a lot of stress. It didn't consume my thoughts or make me worried. It was just something the military would figure out when it finally became their priority, and then I knew things would move forward.

But other little things, things like selling my washer and dryer...DID occupy my thoughts more often than they needed to. I did worry and wonder what we would do and how we would manage and....and, and, and...

Maybe you have things like this in your life, too?

But, I must share with you a specific example of the awesomeness of God's provision.  See, with the washer and dryer, we knew we needed to advertise them because we couldn't afford to wait until the last minute and risk being forced to settle for far too little for them. On the other hand, our family creates a LOT of laundry each week. In order to keep up with it all, I have to do 2-3 loads of it each day. If the machines sold too quickly, I'd be forced to go to the laundromat...for hours...with FIVE kids. The very thought of it makes all my insides groan. And while I know that I'm spoiled by the day and age we live in, and I know that people used to drag all their kids and clothes down to the river to do their washing and had to line dry all of it (a step which I may end up having to do in England), not knowing what was going to happen was driving me a little nuts. I knew even then that it was dumb to worry about something so trivial. I knew it would work out one way or the other. And I knew that, if I had to drag a zillion loads of laundry to the laundromat with all the kids...well, then I'd just do it, and it would be fine.  But for whatever reason, "knowing" all this stuff didn't stop me from thinking about it and attempting to plan for every possible scenario...

Well, the day after we re-listed them on craigslist, we got an email from a very nice gentleman who is in the process of moving to this area from Oregon.  He was hoping to spend about $500 less than we were asking, but he came to see the machines anyway. He drove over an hour to get here one evening, and...well, as the professor states in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, "Odd things they say--even their looks--will let the secret out," letting you know they have been to Narnia, too. :) That's just how it was with this guy. He talked things over with his wife and made us an offer very close to our asking price, which we accepted...and get this: he paid us, so that we could be confident the matter was settled, BUT HE INSISTED WE KEEP THE WASHER AND DRYER UNTIL WE ARE READY TO MOVE OUT! This means we have no worries about trying to sell them and also no worries about having to do laundry elsewhere for the next few weeks!

What an incredible blessing!!! We are so thankful for this family and their eagerness to be God's tangible providence to us. Words are simply not adequate to communicate the overflow of my heart here.

Moreover, this was a sweet and gentle assurance that God concerns Himself with the details, even details that aren't of particularly lasting importance. I think I have a way of convincing myself (despite my head-knowledge to the contrary) that God is only concerned with eternity, and that the temporal niceties that affect the details of my day-to-day meanderings are too lowly for Him to bother with. Or, maybe, that He much preferred life before our modern conveniences...that maybe He sort of scoffs at my perceived "need" for a washing machine because, after all, people all over the world do without this luxury.  I don't know exactly how to describe my messed up thought patterns, but I am perpetually blown away by the sheer kindness of my Father and His delight in giving good gifts for no other apparent reason than my enjoyment or convenience.

Incredible!

So now, as we attempt to sell our vehicles (you can view the listings here for the Sedona and here for the Civic) and other random accumulations that can't go with us to the UK, and begin to search for housing options, will you pray with me that I will not quickly forget this lesson? That I would not be tempted to doubt and worry and fret? That I would trust Him completely and find my contentment and peace, not in how the circumstances are flowing, but in the knowledge that He is holding it all? That I would take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5) and use my moments wisely? I am unspeakably weak in this area, despite many years of lessons over the same topic, so I truly covet your prayers. And, if you hear me complaining or worrying, would you remind me of this? Or smack* me?

Many thanks. :)

* Disclaimer: This is not recommended if I don't know you semi-well. Haha! (But I won't smack you back.)

Collin's 3rd Birthday!!!

Blast from the past:

07/09/09

late spring 2010...oh, those curls!

July 2010, just days from turning 1

April 2011, almost 2

And now:

07/09/12

Helping me bake his cake

The "green, chocolate, snake cake," as requested. :)

Opening gifts after dinner (tacos)

Squid Boy becomes Sith Boy

Captain America finishes opening his gifts

Darth Julia...or Bad Ju-Ju :)

Captain America brandishes the Green Lantern

Toy Story bike with training wheels :)

Our neighbor saw us all outside and offered to take a picture of our whole family. :) (Thanks, Heather!)

Cake time! 

Blowing out the candles and making a "BIG wish!" 

Dear Collin,

You have grown SO much in the last year! You have developed from being the baby of our family to being a wonderful big brother. I love to watch you explain things to Julia, read to her, stack up blocks or cups (or anything) just to let her knock it all down as you feign surprise, and be so gentle as you let her "tackle" you. I love that you perceive her smallness and desire to be so sweet with her. It pays off...she adores you already!

In so many other ways, you've become so big. You can do many things all by yourself now, including getting yourself dressed, making your bed, brushing your teeth (well, mostly by yourself), and helping with chores around the house...in a way that's truly helpful! You love playing with your big brother and big sisters and hold your own pretty well. Ian is blessed to have another boy around the house, and you are great at helping one another develop "super" talents! :)

I love your sense of humor and how silly you can be. I love how you'll still crawl into my lap and ask me to "tickle" your arms or legs. I love how you come over to give me a hug or a kiss...or a freshly picked flower...seemingly out of nowhere, just because.  I love how adventurous you are, and I love the way you are learning to think about things and understand them.

Oh, Collin, I am so excited to see you grow and watch the Lord mature your heart and gifts. Don't mistake that for me being in a hurry, though. I love that you're still little, and I love that God let me be your mommy. All my love, little man...