August 2017

This month was a blur of unpacking, organizing, chiropractor appointments (my back slowly getting better), and settling into our new house, new church, new job, new routine. We were blessed with visitors, getting to host our Iowa pastor and his wife, Jon and Jackie, for dinner one evening and Rijente and Shauna and their family, friends from Italy, for several days as they road-tripped back to Washington state. What a joy to fellowship with these dear friends!

We started homeschooling VERY lightly...mostly we got Charis and Tobin set up in a homeschool co-op, allowing them to have Chemistry (Charis) and Biology (Tobin) with labs in a classroom setting. Tobin is also taking German 1. I am grateful that Charis can drive the two of them each Wednesday morning and that they are getting good instruction that I simply can't provide in these subjects!

We ended the month in the hospital, unfortunately...but thankfully it was only a two-night stay and Verity returned home and recovered well from a UTI we didn't even know she had. Our battles with reflux continued into September, but the hospital visit was the first in a series of much-needed steps to help us find some new solutions to that issue.

Zaden and Lucan made themselves at home on the back deck
with some favorite books after they were unpacked!

Visiting with Jon & Jackie...
Seanin clearly missed his pals from Common Ground Ministries!

The Bible Bee "Proclaim Day" was a beautiful celebration at the end of a summer
studying about God our Creator (Genesis 1-3).

Shauna's visit was such a boost to my spirits!
I am grateful for her and her friendship and influence in my life.

Moving & Mountains

A fairly brief rundown of July 2017...

On July 14, it was time to say goodbye to Iowa/Nebraska, our home of two years, and head west to Colorado Springs for Ted's 10th assignment with the Air Force! We were overjoyed to move "home," since Ted grew up in Denver, and living near mountains has always been a dream of ours. We don't know what God has in our future, but at this point we are hoping we have made our last major move--the house we are in now is nice but definitely a rental as opposed to a "forever home," but hopefully we can stay in this area. This move definitely was the hardest yet: emotionally, physically, mentally...moving with our special needs girl made things more difficult than usual, and even now in October, I am still doing paperwork and getting Verity to appointments that we had hoped to have completed long ago.

But...mountains. :-) We are blessed with an incredible view of the Rockies and the Air Force Academy. It's hard to believe we attended Ted's graduation ceremony there over 20 years ago! Who would have thought we'd be back here two decades later with 9 children in tow?!

Soon after we arrived, my back went out again--the worst episode I've ever had, and I've had some doozies. God tenderly provided through a friend of mine (Glory) from Iowa who had some connections in the Springs: families brought us meals for 2 weeks straight after we moved into our new house and had boxes everywhere! We are now (nearly) members of the church which most of those families attend, and we count many of them as dear friends whom we are getting to know as we fellowship and worship together.

I began a close relationship with a new chiropractor system, lol, and now our whole family goes regularly for adjustments. My treatment plan is intense, but I am making quick progress and am hopeful that not only might I avoid these episodes in the future, but perhaps I may even be able to try running again, a therapy I truly miss.

Charis remained in Iowa a couple of weeks after we drove away so that she could attend camp. It was bittersweet for her, I'm sure...so wonderful to spend extra quality time with dear friends, and so hard to say final goodbyes. Thanks to the wonders of social media and her new phone, she stays in touch much more easily than I did as a teenager plucked from Dallas, Texas, and replanted in rural Wisconsin! She flew to Denver at the end of July. We certainly missed her and were happy to have our family back together again.

Seanin enjoys the view from our back deck

Our first meal in the new dining room

We love our sun room!!

Kitchen...functional and CLEAN! (Rare, lol)

Verity on her 5-month birthday (July 28)

First family movie night in the new house (my office is through the door to the right; the fireplace is on both sides!)

Verity on Daddy's shoulder at our new church