We are living in Graham now, at my in-laws house. It blows my mind how incredibly generous they are -- to completely give up their home and live with her sister to let us have some "space". That is such a gift, especially for me, because right now NOTHING seems settled in my mind or heart. I am so thankful for God's timing in providing us a way to have temporary housing, but it makes us (me) feel so unsettled. I desperately want to be wherever we are going to be, so that we can get settled into a "normal" daily/weekly routine. Grace keeps telling me that she misses our old house and her old room, and my internal monologue as I comfort her is "ME TOO!" I know that we followed God's direction in taking this new job and moving here, and that He is in control, but it's really hard waiting.
We are scouring this town looking for a house. Everything is frustratingly priced way higher then it should be. Nearly all the homes need massive basic renovations to bring them to the present from the 50's, 60's, or if you're lucky, the 70's. Or, the house has had the renovations, and they want $185,000 or over for a 3 bedroom, 1500 square foot floorplan. Crazy! We've looked into building, but just cannot afford to build what we want to be in, and it seems unwise to build something tiny and acceptable just to get into a house. So for now we just wait and pray a lot, and try to be patient. We are also visiting churches, and have had some positive experiences so far, which is nice.
The girls have adjusted somewhat better than I thought they would. Grace clearly is still confused about why we just don't "go home", but being at Mammaw and Pop's has definitely eased the stress for her in particular I think. And she LOVES being out in the country and feeding the cows, cats, dogs, and digging in any and all dirt she can find. ("I'm a good helper Mommy! Look at how dirty I am! It's okay though, I will wash it off in the bathtub." :) She's working really hard on her numbers and letters, and is getting really good at identifying both in the environment randomly, which makes my teacher's heart so happy!
Lily is STILL not sleeping through the night -- up at least once to eat, but other than that is so easy. She is HUGE (over 20 pounds now) and growing so quickly these days. She is now crawling extremely quickly, and "running away" crawling from you when you "chase" her. She loves to "walk" with you behind her holding her hands. She's cruising around furniture, and her new trick is letting go of whatever she's pulled up on and balancing hands-free for up to about 5 seconds. She is babbling tons, and has said "Da-da, Ma-ma, uh-oh, bye-bye, hi (said with an enormous drawl that is adorable)", and I am pretty sure I have heard "down" and "gray" (for grace) although I haven't been able to get her to repeat those yet, so I'm not sure. She is eating like a little piggy: 3 jars of baby food at a sitting, loves biter biscuits, is consuming copious amounts of cereal puffs, and if sister has a snack, she better have one too!
Lee is busy at work, but even so, is so much happier here, which is an answer to my prayers for him from the last 5 years. He is such an amazing person, and it's fun for me to see him blossom in his workplace, and feel more trusted and fulfilled. He, of course, also loves being out in the country, and has already gotten a turkey this season, which calmed the hunting beast for at least a while.
I'm staying busy trying to keep someone else's house clean, and trying to stay sane getting re-used to my old hometown. It's pretty weird being back here, and running in to people who have known me since I was in diapers, and have known 4 generations of my family. That's a lot to live up to!
It's killing me to not be able to upload pictures, but I'm going to try and get all that hooked up here at my mom and dad's soon . . .
Until the next time I make it to the internet, at least this gets everybody mostly caught up . . .
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