One year and 10 months...
One year and 10 months ago, I wrote my last blog entry. And 1 month after I wrote that entry, we loaded up a giant Uhaul with everything we have, and drove one hour inland from the coast, and one hour up a windy road until we hit 7,000 feet, and landed next to a Lake, in the middle of the woods. We were welcomed with slightly nauseous stomachs (windy roads are an acquired normal!), the smell of Christmas (Pine trees, that is), and most importantly, a whole crew of people welcoming us in immediately and happily going right to work unloading our life and settling us in.
That was a surreal day. What was normal the day before is now completely gone, and without a blink a new normal begins. Anyone who's moved to a new community knows just what I am talking about! Everyone handles it differently and thankfully, I am strangely intrigued by change. To me it feels adventurous and exciting. However I am also an introvert at heart. Strange combination indeed. Having experienced our full first year, and even repeated a season or 2 in this new place, I have been amazed and grateful and how comfortable and familiar this community has been for us, from the start. Not to say their was no adjustment period or LOTS of new faces, but the people we've come to know and live with have been so genuine and inviting and open hearted. That has been a pleasure for Nick, myself, and our boys. To those of you reading this who are in fact some of those welcoming people, thank you.
So aside from all that sappy stuff, small town mountain living has definitely brought some changes to everyday life, and at some point I will share those with you, but for now I think the best way to break my one year and 10 month silence would be to bring you the highlights, and I've got 3 (thanks to my amazing editing skills).
{ O N E } : We had a baby!
This is probably not a surprise to any of you, but was in fact a definite highlight of the last year and a half! We moved to Big Bear at the end of May and found out in mid-July that we were expecting our third little one! We were all thrilled! A few months later we found out it was another boy! I must admit it took me a few moments to mentally and emotionally wrap my mind around being the mother to THREE sons, but I did, and of course they are the best boys there ever were! I just love my little pack of men! Sutter Warren Greenwood was born on March 12th, 2014, and in a few short weeks I can't believe we will be celebrating his first birthday.
{ T W O } : We bought a house!
This was not in the "plan" but after finding out we were expecting another baby, we realized our nice little rental was just about right for our family of 4, but more space would be nice. After keeping an eye out for different rentals we started contemplating actually buying a home and began slowly looking around. After many months and a handful of potential places we came across one house just a few weeks before Sutter's due date, and a couple months later, with a 6 week old newborn we moved in! Home ownership has brought out the handyman in Nick, and we have been having fun sprucing up our home, settling in, and enjoying that extra space!
{ T H R E E } : New Ministry Direction
Moving to Big Bear was the result of Nick accepting a position on staff at a local church here as an Associate Pastor, and that has not changed. We are both truly enjoying being a part of this church and community, and feel like this is exactly where God wants us to be. However, many of you know Nick also founded a ministry a few years ago called RYFO. You can check it out at ryfo.org to find out what that is all about. In these last couple of years, Nick has slowly been transitioning out of his central role in leading the RYFO team, and we have been excited to watch God bring in just the right leadership as that ministry continues to move forward without him. During this transition process, Nick was brought into contact with a ministry called reFocusing. The overall goal of reFocusing is to help pastors and ministry leaders effectively lead their churches and reach their communities through intentional Gospel-centered living, in both word and action. Go check it out at refocusing.org to find out more. Nick struck up a friendship with reFocusing's Team Leader and after many months we began praying about the potential opportunity for Nick to join the reFocusing team (something he can do while simultaneously staying in his role at our church). After much prayer and conversation and wisdom seeking, we are moving forward in the application process with reFocusing. We are trusting God as we pursue this new path, and are excited to see what may come. It is always exciting to watch God orchestrate things together! Your prayers are very welcomed and much appreciated as we take steps in this direction. Thank you so much for praying with us!
And that is the most efficient 22 month wrap up I've ever given! It has been a whirlwind season for us, but a good whirlwind, and I am so happy that my thoughts have finally found their way back to the keyboard again : )