We're moving to...Maryland??!!

Sooooo, we're moving to Maryland. In a week and two days. It's been both fast and slow, a very up and down process...

We started talking to the church back in May. Michael was in the process of sending out his 102 resumes when he told me about the church in Maryland. "Sure, send your resume," I encouraged him, all the while thinking, "That is the LAST church that will call us. It's too far...they'll try to get someone closer who will be cheaper to look at and move." So time went on and we didn't hear anything and we both kind of forgot about the church in Maryland.

Now, I have to confess to you that this weird transition phase has not been a time of amazing spiritual growth and refreshment. The first two months were, but then...time went on...and on...and on...and on...and I started getting really apathetic, bored, complacent, discouraged, etc, etc. (Before you judge picture yourself pregnant with two super active boys living for 6 months with YOUR parents!! :>). Quiet times became less frequent, Bible reading lessened, days ran together...you get the picture.

In the middle of this muck, I found myself alone one night. In a house of 5 adults and 2 children, that's a rarity. I was super excited about a pedicure/movie/pamper night (after all I'd been through, I deserved it!) when, as I was getting ready to pamper, I was overcome with a desire to read the Word. It hadn't happened before and it hasn't happened since (though I have been doing better in that area) and I literally could do nothing except go and get my Bible.

When I opened it, two verses on note cards that I had written during a Bible study in Ruston fell out "at" me. The first was Joshua 3:5 "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you" and the second was Romans 4:23-24 "The words 'it was credited to [Abraham] as righteousness' were not written for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness-for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead."

The first verse almost made my heart stop because I felt so strongly God saying, "I have not forgotten about you, you have not screwed up too badly for me to use you, I DO still have amazing plans for you, and I want to do amazing things through you." The second meant that my believing that God would still use me would be credited to me as righteousness. I also noted the command to "consecrate" myself because if God was to use me fully I would have to get on the ball a bit with my Bible reading/prayer time and stop mucking about with my free time. I didn't take the part about "tomorrow" literally, I just figured that it meant in the (hopefully!) near future. Little did I know that God would fulfill that verse literally for me...

The next, VERY next day, is when the church in Maryland called Michael and said they were interested in talking with him further. I am NOT one of those people who doo doo doo doo (cue Twilight music) see God's hand in every single, itsy, bitsy, teeny, tiny coincidence. I do, however, believe that night and those verses were straight from God as a promise and assurance of what was to come. I think I believed deep down from the beginning that Maryland was going to work out but I was afraid to step out and boldly proclaim it because I've seen so many people boldly step out and proclaim things they KNOW, just KNOW are straight from God that turn out not to be. They, I am sure, were just as convinced as I was about Maryland, yet they turned out wrong. That's another post for another time, though.:>

Like I said earlier, the whole process was very up and down. We would go a long time without hearing from the church, then we'd hear from them, then it looked like they weren't interested, then they invited us up to lead a service, etc, etc, then they finally offered the job, THEN we finally accepted and made it official. The whole process has been VERY faith building for me because everything I felt lead to pray for came to fruition.

We don't know how long we'll be there, but we're going with the mindset of not looking back. The church has been incredibly welcoming and we've had NUMEROUS people offer to help us clean the house before we get there (WOW), help us unload/unpack, watch the boys for us, offer us any baby things that we need, etc, etc. I just had a girl e-mail me a list of OBGYNs/Pediatricians in the area. Super helpful.

We learned a LOT from our time in Ruston. I think that no experience is a wasted experience if you can learn something from it and take it with you into the next stage. We both made mistakes in Ruston, and Michael and I have had several really, really good talks about what we're going to do differently in Maryland. We're nervous, but also really excited about this next phase of life and what it will bring. Life is an adventure, so we are committed to embracing it for whatever and however long Maryland brings it!

Some fun Maryland facts:
Total area 12,407 sq mi
Total population 5,773,552 (2010)
Sits on the Chesapeake Bay and boasts numerous beaches on the East
Includes part of the Appalachian Mountains (and skiing!) on the West
The capital, Annapolis, was actually the temporary capital of the United States from 1783-1784


The church is located in Davidsonville, about 10 or 15 minutes from Annapolis, the state's capital (located in Anne Arundel county...it's the yellow county in the middle-ish of the above map). We'll be living in Edgewater, a beach community, which is in between Davidsonville and Annapolis. God has graciously provided us with a house 3.2 miles from the church!

We'll be about a 40 min drive from Washington D.C., a 30 min drive from Baltimore and a 2 hr drive from all kinds of other great cities. We are opening our home to visitors SO COME ON!!!!!!!!! :>:>