Playing Catch Up

Since Bryce and her team will be in the air for the next fourteen hours on their journey to Ethiopia, I don't expect to have anything new to share - so, I thought I would try to blog a bit about what has been going on the past month.

I try to keep up with my blog, but I have a really hard time writing on my iPad.  It is just not fun or relaxing and that I why I write - as a stress relief.  When I have to type on my iPad, it creates stress, so I don't.  However, I do miss writing when I take a break from it.

The last month has been a whirlwind of activity for our family.  The kids and I decided to drive back to Florida for graduation.  When we found out we were moving right in the middle of Josh and Bryce's senior year, part of their "consolation prize" was going back to Naples to participate in graduation with their friends.  It was as much my consolation as theirs.  I have worked alongside these kids and their moms all these years and I would have felt such a let down to not participate in the culmination of all of that work.  I was very thankful that Stan agreed that it was a good idea.

We decided to go make a vacation of the whole thing and we arrived in Naples on May 4th, after a quick stop in Orlando to check out the Wizardry World of Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure!

  We didn't tell anyone the exact date we were arriving and the kids were able to surprise their friends by showing up at a midnight movie where they knew a group of them would be.  It was great!

We were able to stay in our house all except the last week, when the movers came to clear it out  We caught up with everyone, had countless "spend the nights" as my kids call it, and just generally acted like we were on vacation.  One of my best friends, Jill, who also recently moved out of state came with her family and Graham was in heaven.  Breck is one of his very best buddies!

The weekend before graduation, we had a graduation party for Joshua and Bryce.  All the grandparents, plus my sister and her family came from out of town.  We celebrated with about 150 of our friends, having a cookout and just a wonderful time of fellowship.

Our kids have been blessed with such a wonderful group of friends in Naples.  When we first moved there 17 years ago, I was a young mom from a small, small town in NC.  I admit I was not fond of Naples.  I found the people to be rude and I would have done anything to move back to the south.  As our kids grew and we started home schooling, we begin to meet the most amazing people.  Our kids have grown up with some amazing peers.  Young people who desire to walk with the Lord and grow spiritually.  They hold each other accountable, they have good, clean fun together, and we love them like family.  They will forever be in our hearts.

Monday night, May 21st, Joshua and Bryce walked the aisle to receive their diplomas.  It was a bittersweet moment, full of smiles and tears.  They both gave amazing speeches, which had Stan and I both crying and laughing.  I am so proud of the young adults they have become and can not thank God enough for calling us to home school.  It is a journey that I would not trade a moment of.  Being able to study, learn, and pray alongside them for the past 18 years has been my greatest joy and privilege.  Every stressful moment was overshadowed a million times by the fruit we have reaped.  If any of you are considering home schooling and you think it will be too much trouble, or you won't get your "me" time, or you can't do it - please, please reconsider.  It is like adoption - a commitment that you think might be too hard to bear, but in reality the blessings will shock and amaze you.  God is faithful!!

The week after graduation, we moved to stay with some friends while the moving company came and cleared out the house.  It was harder than I ever dreamed it would be to say good-bye to the place we have lived for the past 17 years (the house for 7).  It wasn't so much the house - though our home has been my very favorite in our neighborhood since we bought it.  It was just that this house holds so many memories - it is basically where our children grew up.  It is where their friends gather in the kitchen to cook and laugh.  It is where at any given moment a dozen or more kids and teenagers are running, playing, laughing, swimming, watching a movie.  It is where everyone feels comfortable.  It is home.

But, times are changing and God is moving - so say good-bye we did.  After one more photo shoot with Joshua and his best friends and seeing that everything was packed on the truck - and believe me, it was an engineering nightmare to finagle all of our paraphinalia onto that semi - we drove out of Naples heading West.

We had a quick and thankfully uneventful cross country drive, making our first stop in Biloxi, Mississippi - spending the night and eating at Mary Mahoney's.  We spent one night in Austin, TX with some dear friends, and then we drove a nice long 15 hour day and made it home before the third night fell.  My kids are amazing travelers and even though it took a day or so to get our "land legs" back (we all felt wobbly after so many hours "flying" down the road) - we were glad to be off the road.  In a whirlwind of packing and running errands, we managed to successfully get Bryce on her early morning flight to Ethiopia on Tuesday.

So, there you have it!  A summarized recap of our last month.  What I didn't really express is how incredibly grateful we are to God for the past seventeen years.  We have so many friends that distance can not separate.  People who we love and who love us like family.  Scripture tells us in Ecclesiastes that "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor. If either of them falls down then one can help the other up.  But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up."  Because of God's great mercy and grace, I know that we have made forever friends.  Friends that will help us up when the need arises and friends for which we would not hesitate to do the same.  We will miss them all, but we know that they are only a plane ride, or a three day drive, away and that Heaven is for all of eternity.  

I am eternally grateful for all that God did in Naples and eagerly await all He plans to do in Arizona.