Grace

Time is passing.  We have been here for a month now.  God has lavished His grace on us, as He always does.  He has come through, as I knew He would.  We are far from settled.  Living in an apartment has stretched us in ways I couldn't have imagined.  Ways I know we need to be stretched, but still hard.  Hard is not always bad, in fact, most of the time it is necessary.  It strips away your sense of entitlement.  It reminds you that you are not in control and that you do not deserve anything.  We have each other, a roof over our heads, and plenty of food to eat.  Do we truly need any more than that?

No.  I know that we don't.

The area where we live is gorgeous.  Stan surely knows how to pick a city.  From one ritzy retirement area to the next.  We call "home" two of the most gorgeous cities in America.  Places that people from all over the country choose to live after retirement.  Do you want tropics or desert?  Wet heat or dry?  Naples or Scottsdale?

I can't really answer that question yet, to be quite honest.  Wet heat or dry, the choice is EASY.  I have insanely frizzy hair, and being a woman we all know a good hair day is paramount, so give me dry heat any day of the week.  However, Naples holds all the memories of raising my oldest children.  It holds almost seventeen years of friendships.  In Naples, I found a true relationship with Jesus, I started my home school journey, I met women who amaze and challenge me.  In Naples I found out what it means to have a godly marriage and to raise truly godly children.  Naples is much more than a place on the map to me.  I think I will always see it as home.  Not my hometown, I was born and raised in North Carolina, and that doesn't leave you either.  But, in Naples I grew up.  I found out who I was and who I wanted to be.  It is forever etched in my heart.

Now we are making new memories.  As long as we have each other, I can live anywhere in the world.  I mean that.  However, starting over is just plain tough.  Even with our large family, it can be lonely.  Going from being constantly surrounded by people to knowing one other family, who we are trying really hard not to stalk, is tough.  My kids miss their friends and I feel for them because I miss mine.  I miss having someone to call and say "let's go to the park."  I miss having somewhere familiar to go, somewhere I always see someone I know and I miss our favorite places.

God is here, too, though.  And He is moving, just as He always has.  He has great plans for us and slowly He is revealing them.  I think right now He is giving us all time to heal.  Time for a scab to grow over the wound that leaving left on all of us.  Time to live in very close quarters for a couple of months so that our family can knit back together.  We spent the two months before we left in a constant whirlwind.  It was like a two month long going away party.  We are still coming down from it.

The scenery out here in breathtaking.  Just driving to the grocery store has us pulling off the side of the road to take pictures.  We definitely look like a bunch of tourists.  The people we have met have been super friendly as well.  The retirees here don't seem to be trying so hard to avoid children as what we are used to.  No one has moved away from us in a restaurant and Patrick tends to garner more smiles than glares.  That is refreshing.

We have already purchased zoo passes, and used them enough to get our money's worth.  We have been hiking, we have located the lakes in the area and surprisingly there are quite a few and they are gorgeous.  We have seen snow, eaten at some great places, found amazing shopping, and been to the park more times than I can count.

Overall, I can say that I think we're gonna like it here.  We just have to find our "place" and figure out where God is leading.  Meanwhile, we are enjoying the journey.