Okay....still trying to figure out how to put multiple pictures up on one post with descriptions etc....

The Kitchen!!! (not pictured: really cool pantry!)

Pictures of the house!

Here is the front of the house. We still have bushes to trim but, at least we got the lawn mowed! Notice the awesome car port that I get to park in!! It is a little different than the on street parking I got used to over the past four years! (oh, and there is a detached garage so don't feel too bad for Dan...he's got his spot too!)

A New House and Thinking About My Home

Dan and I arrived safely in Hershey (well, technically Hummelstown) last Wednesday evening and are happy to report that the move went well--with only two broken dishes. Since then, we have been consumed with the mission to rid our living space of cardboard boxes and to turn this building into our new home.

Even though there have been a few moments where I miss our tiny apartment in Philadelphia, I have to say that I love this new place. Our house sits on a quiet road where the loudest noises are birds chirping and neighbor dogs howling. This is a bit of a change from East Willow Grove Ave! The house also has a large yard, spots to plant flowers, a driveway, and a mailbox. I am especially excited about the latter two seeing as how Dan and I have had "on street parking" for most of our marriage and that, for the past two years, our mail would only sporadically arrive in the correct mailbox due to the number of apartments in the building. So, the ability to walk to the end of our driveway and find our mail, in our box, on a daily basis is quite the luxury! The inside of our house is also refreshing - a Kitchen with a pantry and plenty of counter space; a dining room able to fit a table that sits more than four people; a giant living room (in our standards); three bedrooms; a bathroom with an actual linen closet; and a full basement for storage and, yes, laundry!! Gone are the days of walking outside the house to get to the basement laundry room!!!

But even though we LOVE this new house, I can tell that it may take me a while to feel like we are home. Home, on earth, is place that is familiar, a place with memories, a place with relationships and the support of others, a place where you feel connected in many ways...this process of making a home will continue long after the cardboard boxes are unpacked and the flowers planted. But I know that this feeling of being home will eventually come because I believe that God has called us to make our home here for the time being. Yet, how funny it is that "home" can switch from place to place depending on the times and circumstances of our lives. It is never a fixed point--like on a game board--rather, it is rarely permanent. We can pack up, move cities, states or even countries away and forge new homes because there is a fixed point somewhere else--another home that we are tied to and called to walk towards. Our feeling of being home at a location here on earth is just a taste of what true home is and will never satisfy all our longings for connection and stability. Dan and I are building an earthly home here, for now, and I pray that we find that we are blessed with happy memories, relationships, and overall connections to this place. But, I also know that this is a point on a journey, on a walk; I can not have the expectation that this will satisfy all my longings for home because this isn't the home I was created for...it is the home I have been given for now - a home with Dan and a baby on the way and a house that I really, really like!!

(oh...and pictures are on the way!!)

A bend in the road

I am obviously not an avid blogger yet - seeing as how my last post was almost exactly one month ago. But, at the same time, this month has been busy with so many endings and preparations for new beginnings. Dan graduated from his program on May 20th, 2010 with honors. I can not even express the joy I felt watching him receive his diploma. A sense of relief washed over me as a weight lifted off my shoulders--a weight that I guess I had learned to live with because it surprised me when it came off. All of a sudden I realized that Dan would be done writing papers, done studying til the wee hours of the morning, done being consumed with the non-stop pressures of a program that never allowed a moment's break...and able to finally practice (and get paid for) the discipline that he is so passionate about. I am so proud of the work he has done and so thankful to have a Lord who never sleeps; rather, He takes all our burdens and brings us through the tough times....and these two years have definitely been "stretching" years in so many ways.

I have also ended my time at Interac as a contractor in the Children's outpatient department because we are moving (tomorrow actually) to Hershey so that Dan can start his new job. This has meant a change in work for me. I had to say goodbye to so many families who have let me into the most intimate parts of their lives. I know that I will wonder about some of these children forever - wonder whether they ever finished school; wonder whether they ever find true support and experience genuine love; wonder whether they ever understand how much they are loved and valued by God.... I have had to learn to trust God to save and protect these families and children -- it is not something I could do myself - even if I were to stay.

So Dan and I have packed up the apartment (with a ton of help from my parents) and we are waiting to make the move to Hershey. I have said so many goodbyes but have also left many unsaid. I am so sad to leave Philadelphia because it has been good to us; our church family has been especially good to us. Dan and I still talk about God's faithfulness in bringing us to this little part of Philadelphia and to this family of believers. Yet, instead of finding it easier to trust God to lead us again into a new place, I find myself worried that maybe God won't make it so blatantly clear and easy again because that would be, well, too good to be true. It is sort of like when I was a kid and I would ask my dad on a Sunday afternoon to go to a friend's house (after having had a friend over the day before) and he would tell me, "no, you have had enough fun this weekend." We used to joke about his "fun quota." I mean, I understand his point - you can't let your kids just go from activity to activity without any limits, but in a way, I tend to view God like that - like He will look at Dan and I say, "well, you have been really blessed these past two years, I think I am gonna put the brakes on these blessings and let you figure some things out for yourself right now...you've had enough fun and been happy for long enough." But I have read nothing about this sort of God in scripture and He has done nothing in my life to give any sort of validity to my worry. So, at this HUGE bend in the road, I do what scripture tells me to do...I must "trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding...in all my ways acknowledge Him, and He will make my path straight."