Its hard to believe we've already been here for 4 months! We are settling into life and loving the desert. I still wake up most mornings feeling overwhelmed with gratefulness that we get to live this life. I love sending Matt off in his uniform in the morning, knowing that he has such awesome opportunities each and every day to be an encouragement and light.
Our kids are thriving here as well. Caleb is in 2nd grade, and has a wonderful teacher named Mr. Kenney. He comes home most days with a huge smile on his face and funny stories about how Mr. Kenny teases them. He loves math - to the point that it almost drives me crazy. He can spend an entire car ride quizzing me with multiplication problems, half of which he answers before I do. All I know is that he most definitely did not get that passion from me...
He goes to karate class twice a week for 2 hours and is loving it. His instructors are wonderful, teaching him not just martial arts, but self-confidence and a hard work ethic too. He's still a home body, preferring his bedroom, legos, and imagination over being out and about most of the time. He's made several friends at school and right in our neighborhood, so once he's had his fill of alone time he's usually outside riding his bike and running around the playground with his nerf gun. I think for an 8 year old boy with his personality, he's pretty much living the dream.
Alison is loving 1st grade as well. Although, admittedly, I think for different reasons. She is my social butterfly, and most days comes home talking about her friends. Well, thats if she actually comes home at all. If I'm standing in the yard when she's running from the bus I usually hear her yelling "Mom can I go to Eden's house??" before she's even halfway here. So I'd say most of her time is spent playing with girlfriends.
She goes to tumbling every week and spends countless hours hanging from the monkey bars in our backyard. If she has to be inside, and playing alone, she's usually creating something with her Rainbow Loom or crafting something out of random objects she's brought in from the yard. She's still my animal lover, and I'm fully aware of the fact that sometime in the next decade we're going to have to get a pet of some kind. For now, loving other people's pets seems to do the trick. Thank goodness.
They have both grown up so much in the last 6 months. I was so worried about how they would handle all of the transitions... moving from Wisconsin, spending 3 months in Colorado, settling into a completely different life in California... But they have weathered it all with an incredible amount of confidence and grace.
I still hear about their friends from "when we lived in Oconomowoc," and we get asked on a regular basis about when we'll be heading back for a visit. Its such a blessing to know that they have such happy memories of our time in youth ministry, and that they are thriving and equally blessed in this new life as well.
I guess in some ways it would be hard for a 6 year old and 8 year old not to love California. Its sunny and warm most every day. There are friends to play with in every direction. Two weeks ago I surprised them at school, picking them up at 1 in the afternoon and telling them we were going to visit Daddy at training. We were at the ocean by dinner. We're spending spring break in a cottage on the beach with a visit to LegoLand included.
Its a hard-knocked life for them...
Or not.
At least not right now. I know there are deployments in our future... difficult goodbyes, long nights, and sad little hearts. So for now, I am not going to be shy about embracing every beautiful moment, and enjoying every single blessing.
Praying you are experiencing beautiful moments and blessings wherever you are, too...
