Home

We have lived in Seattle for 7 years now, longer than I've lived anywhere except for where I grew up.  I've come to realize something though..."Home" is not where I grew up or the place I've lived the longest...


I got this for Norm months ago when we first started talking about feeling God calling us to Michigan.  For a while we were putting a huge effort into finding jobs before moving thinking we had to have "all our ducks in a row" before we went because hey, no one will rent to us if we don't have jobs and it's just too scary to move somewhere like that, I mean "what if"?!  We have had many ups and downs in the whole process and this past week we decided to just go for it, to "step out of the boat" if you will and trust that God will take care of us.  Since we made that decision and gave notice at work, the support we have received from our Michigan community (yes we already have one there) has been amazing.  The friends that Norm has made since starting at Calvin are just that...amazing.  I feel like they're family and I haven't even met them yet!

So much has happened since we moved to Seattle...Zoe was born, Norm graduated from Fuller with his Masters in Theology, we attempted "moving" to Thailand (came back after 2 weeks) and lived in our friends basement.  We got new jobs and moved to West Seattle.  After a while we found a new house and my mom moved back in with us.  One day I got a hole in my right lung, ended up in the hospital for 5 days and had lung surgery (scariest time of my freaking life), which also put a pause on Norm going back to school for his MDiv....eventually he did and not long after that we found out we were having a surprise baby!  Our beautiful Freija was born in our home in West Seattle with my cousin Alyssa (who had just moved from CA) and a whole party in the living room to witness.  Our first baby is now 8!  Zoe has lived in Seattle for 5 years now!  Freija is about to turn 1!  I mean just wow...how did that go so fast?

We have loved our time here, we have made some pretty great friends and enjoyed the amazing beauty that is the "Emerald City".  We have discovered our love of craft beer and desire to open our own brew pub someday.  We have also had some really rough times...that have caused us to question our calling even.  We have been priced out of Seattle...we started to realize that a while ago, even before we had #3 baby.  Now it is time to move on.  I hold the memories and the friendships close to my heart as we follow God's call across the country.  I look ahead with hope and excitement.  I know it will continue to be hard, because such is life but I am blessed to be holding the hand of my best friend and partner in this journey as we step out on faith.

The other day when I told the kids we were just going to "go for it" and move to Michigan whether we have found jobs or not Kieren said, "well that's what you should have done all along!"  I said (laughing), "well...sometimes it's hard for grown ups to just trust and believe God will take care of us, sometimes it's hard to let go of the control".  Dang man...at least our kid has a clue.  :)

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