Change

Living in the same city and the same house for the last 23 years, I forgot how difficult change can be.  Especially to someone like me who loves routine, structure, lists, and schedules.  We were so happy when the POD arrived last Thursday and we picked up our uhaul to move all our items from the POD.  We had rented a storage unit because we knew 23 years of stuff from our house would not fit into a tiny two bedroom, one bath apartment.  Although we donated or got rid of a lot of accumulated stuff, there was still too much.  We went from a 1364 sq.ft. to 880 sq.ft. Saturday morning Zachary and I went to the apartment to clean and Gus started working on moving things from the POD to the uhaul.  He was moving along so nicely, he didn't pay attention to his body and about 1:00 he arrived at the apartment and immediately went to the toilet and threw up for about 10 minutes.  He had gotten heat stroke.  The poor guy laid down on the hard floor and fell asleep.  By the time he woke up it was 3:00 and the uhaul was due back at 4:00.  Obviously, we weren't going to make that deadline.  We started unloading and 15 minutes later a huge storm came with strong, gusty winds, lightening, and pounding rain.  We waited out the storm and began unloading again which was about 9:00 and dark outside and no power inside.  Four seminary students in the apartment complex saw us and starting helping us.  In about 20 minutes there were ten students and wives helping us.  It was wonderful!  They were all so much younger than us and were calling us Sir and Ma'am!

The unpacking is going very slowly because every room is filled with stuff and it is difficult to move around and it is a much smaller space than we are use to living in.  Everything is covered with something!  Needless to say this week I have been very homesick and wishing I was back in Newport News in my house (which hasn't sold yet so please continue to pray for us about that).  

Gus started his job and classes on Monday so he has been very busy and very excited this week.  He has two night classes and one class, Hebrew, that is 7:00 a.m. Tuesday-Friday.  So he goes to class those mornings and then rushes to work his job all day.  I think he is amazing!  Beyond the unpacking and cleaning, Zachary and I started his 7th grade school year this week with only three subjects and we'll kick in with all subjects next week.  Zachary has been wonderful.  We got him up and running online as soon as we could so he can play games online with all his old friends.  He helped a mom that lives under us Wednesday by playing ball with her 4 year old daughter so she could have a break - she has an 8 month also.  Yesterday he went to the gym on campus and played basketball with a girl his age that lives in our building.  We had already made contact with a soccer club before we moved so he practiced with them this week and made the team.  So for Zachary, life is good!

We have met all the families that live right around us and what an interesting group.  We have a very young couple, an Asian couple with two children, and a family from Nigeria with 4 daughters.  In talking with the Nigerian family, we learned that they just moved here too.  We assumed that they came to seminary to learn and take back what they learned to their country to share the gospel with people there.  But they came here to share the gospel in America.  They told us that people in their country see American lifestyle and that people here love money and possessions more than they love Jesus and they do not value families and children like they should.  What a sad commentary on our nation and how wonderful that they would care about us enough to leave everything to come here.  

We covet your prayers and would ask that you pray for Gus to have the stamina (we aren't spring chickens you know!) to work, go to class, and do all his homework - he has had two Hebrew quizzes already the first week of classes.  Pray that my homesickness with pass so I can embrace the mission and work God has for us here.  Pray that Zachary will make friends and embrace the new school year.  Pray for us as we begin trying local churches this Sunday that God will lead us to the place He would have us serve and worship.  Pray for our house to sell.

May we be obedient to God's will and His leading.

Living Quarters

Sitting in this extended stay hotel puts a new perspective on being a "close" family and living in a 2 bedroom, 1 bath apartment will certainly be a huge change for us.  When we were looking for a place to live in Louisville, we didn't really consider the on-campus, married housing because we were being far to picky.  We were use to our 3 bedroom, 2 bath house with my big kitchen and our large great room and we didn't want to settle for anything less than that.  We did really want to live near campus to be close for Gus to get to class, we could all take advantage of the gym, and I would be close for my wives seminary classes.  So we began looking at homes for rent and for sale near the campus - nothing worked out.  We gradually started looking at places a little further from campus - nothing worked out.  We did find a cute little house for rent, but it was 35 minutes away from campus and we really didn't want to go that far.  As our week of looking was coming to an end, we were getting very discouraged and being only two weeks away from moving, we were feeling a little desperate!  So we began looking at townhouses and apartments.  The rent was very expensive and we weren't finding anything available until months after we needed to be here.  Ugh!

One Sunday, a friend mentioned to Gus that we should look at on-campus housing.  This same friend sent me a note on facebook about it.  Even though we knew the on-campus housing fills up very quickly and the chances were slim there would be anything available, Gus gave them a call.  Yippee! They had one 2 bedroom, 1 bath in married with no children available.  Since Zachary is 12 they didn't really consider him a child that needed to be in married with children housing.  What a blessing!  Everything immediately fell into place and it was clear it is what God intended for us all along. If only we hadn't been so intent on what WE wanted, we could have saved ourselves a lot of time and stress.  

So for this week we are in an extended stay place until our apartment is ready at the end of the week.  We are excited about being right around the corner from campus.  There are sooooo  many great things about it that I will have to save it for another post.

God is good all the time!

Finding a Job

So much has happened since the last blog. We were in Kentucky a week ago for two job interviews and to look for places to live.  Zachary spent the week with cousins which made him extremely happy and I am so thankful to them for keeping him at the last minute.  Z would have found it extremely boring to look at houses every day for a week.

I don't remember if I mentioned before that Gus decided not to pursue a job as a lawyer for several reasons.  It would be very mentally demanding and time consuming as he well knows to continue being a lawyer (after hours depositions, meetings, etc.) and try to attend classes, do all the reading/homework, spend time with family, etc. In addition, his Virginia Bar license would not transfer so he would have to spend time studying and spend $1,000 to take the Kentucky bar exam.  So we decided it would not be worth it to do that especially when he strongly feels God will not lead him to be a lawyer again.

So he subscribed to the major Louisville newspaper so we could get the classifieds.  He began to apply for every job he felt he could do.  As he applied for the jobs, it was hilarious to see that he wasn't qualified to do anything but be a lawyer.  Even a janitor job he saw that he would have been willing to do (whatever pays the bills!), he wasn't qualified to do because he had no training in OSHA safety requirements.  But his legal knowledge paid off and he got interviews at two law firms as a paralegal.  He got offers from both interviews 15 minutes after he left their offices! He took the second offer because the work would be more varied and interesting.  Both offered him a salary we felt we could live with and benefits, so we are thankful to God for that! His timing once again was so amazing. The salary is so much less than he has made the last 15 years and we will truly need to rely on God's daily provision and His guidance on living a much more frugal life.  We are excited about it!  We have also paid off every dime of debt we owe (except for our house which is still not sold) and I can't tell you how FREE we feel!

More on housing later. Glory to God for it all!