:) We're Moving! :(

We've been doing this fundraising thing for five months now and we hit a huge milestone this week. We have raised enough money to move to Burleson!

Now don't get me wrong -- we are sooo not through with fundraising. We actually have only a little over 1/3 of our goal raised. But, due to the wonderful generosity of our partners and supporters (specifically the one-time gifts and those who have already been giving monthly) we have enough set aside to move and pay the bills for about three months. And, we have some wonderful new friends in Burleson who are graciously allowing us to live rent-free in a home on their property until we get the rest of the money raised. So we are stepping out in faith. The fundraising will continue as we move, and we know that God will provide. He has already shown us that in so many ways.

Wow.

People keep asking me how I feel about this -- am I okay, am I excited, how am I ever going to pack while changing diapers and fishing soccer balls out of toilets at the same time?

To be honest, I don't really know the answers to those questions. To take a stab at it, I'd say I feel excitement, anticipation, thankfulness, and relief -- but those feelings are heavily tainted with sadness, fear, and dread of actually moving/packing. As I thought about writing this post, I struggled with which direction I should go. The excitement should be obvious to our families, supporters, and the Burleson folks. The sadness should be obvious to our friends here. The dread of actually packing up this house and moving -- especially knowing that we will be doing it again soon -- should be obvious to those who are asking how in the world are we going to get it done. But the truth is, they are all very strong, very real emotions. I am nothing if not an emotional basket-case these days. (I often do a pretty good job of hiding this, but I'm sure Bret would second that!) So, I am not going to pretend that I'm feeling one way over another.

Actually, if I'm really going to be honest, I've got so much going on that my defense mechanisms have kicked in and I'm not doing a whole lot of feeling. I'm going through the motions, taking things as they come, letting the emotion of the person I'm talking to guide my own feelings for that conversation. (Unless it's you, Bret -- sorry, babe!)

So, we're moving. We will start packing this week, Bret will be out of town all of next week (I won't even pretend like I'll get much packing done that week!), we'll send the brothers to grandma's for a week, Sunday October 5th will be our last Sunday at our church here, and we'll move the first part of the next week. (The 7th or 8th?)

Wow...