Oh my goodness – it’s been 10 months since I’ve posted anything!! A lot has happened since January. And over the last few months I've thought about this blog which started out as kind of a journal for Addison to read one day about her life and all the sweet little moments and milestones we’ve shared. But now I’m thinking of making it a little more than that. So for starters, I’m going to catch up on the last 10 months of our lives…

In March of this year Travis and I felt the Lord leading us to begin the process of moving our family out to Keller, TX. We called up our Realtor and after a month of hard work and a face lift our house was market ready and up went the For Sale sign. Bittersweet. We lived in our cozy home for 7 years. We hosted many a wedding shower, baby shower, Christmas party, birthday party, home group fellowship, family gathering & just good ole times there. It was our first home. The home we first brought our precious pumpkin to. It was a good home.

Four days after listing our house we had an offer and by May 20th we were no longer the proud owners of 1362 Forest Creek Drive. We loaded up the U-Haul and off we went to the other side of the Metroplex to start our brand new lives in our brand new (to us) home.


 

Our Realtor found us a very nice home in a very nice neighborhood in Crawford Farms. But it was a hard adjustment. It was very hard leaving our home group community, most of whom lived 5-10 minutes from us. It was hard on Addison. She was scared in her new room which resulted in many a rough night of nightmares and crying. She had a hard time adjusting to her new class at school & she missed her church and school friends she was used to seeing and playing with on a regular basis. So many changes in her sweet little life.

But we knew this was where God was calling us to be. Our move had many purposes – to put Travis closer to his office, to move to an area with a good school district for Addison and a home with a little more closet space (ok, that one was mostly on my wish list). However, those were our reasons for moving. We knew the eternal purpose God was calling us to had nothing to do with distance, schools or square footage. It was to go reach the unchurched, middle class, everything-looks-perfect-on-the-outside families that need Jesus more than all the big houses, nice cars, boats and toys filling their lives. It’s a tough market. But we felt called to go live in a community in this area to love on, serve and show people their desperate need of a Savior.

One day as we were running some errands, my heart was very heavy and missing fellowship with our close friends and former community. I told Travis that I really wish we could just meet a sweet Christian family who we both connected with that lived near us. A couple much like some friends we had in Lewisville – where the wife and I talked each other’s ears off and the men did just the same. You know what I mean?! A couple who we weren’t actually there to minister to… just to fellowship with.

That afternoon we took Addie to the neighborhood pool – which by the way became the usual weekend venture and one in which the Lord used for us to meet the 6-7 couples we now know in our hood. Fabulous way to meet new people – go hang out at the community center. Genius. We were there for about 15 minutes when in walks an adorable family. They waved at us. Which caught me off guard because at first I thought we knew them! They proceeded to the other side of the pool and I watched as their little girls (8 & 4) played in the water. Something in my heart pulled me towards them, and I got up and went over to sit by them. After a few minutes we began to chat… and I quickly discovered this was a sweet Christian family also new to the neighborhood. Travis and Addie made their way over and the four of us spent a good couple of hours talking and getting to know each other while our girls played. It was fun. It felt good. And it was just what the Lord gave to us on that day to remind us again that He’s got us right where he wants us.

We have since hung out with this family many times and they have grown to become some great friends of ours! We love our new friends Bob, Kelli, Catie and Sarah!

So the summer flew by and our days at the pool were many. We highly enjoyed it. The pool was an awesome place to take Addison and just enjoy some family time together. Another family we met at the pool has a little girl named Peyton who ended up in Addison’s class at her school about a month after we met them. God’s timing. Amazing.

So September brought forth Addison’s 3rd birthday!!! We opted not to have a party this year and take her to Grapevine Mills for some fun instead. We had quite a day indeed. After enjoying some princess cupcakes at school, we picked her up early and headed for McDonald’s. There we played with some friends and cousins that stopped by. Afterwards, we headed out to the mall and spent some fun time at Build-A-Bear making a Hello Kitty. We took Addison and her bestest little friend Chandler to the Aquarium, followed by dinner at Chili’s. The eventful day wore us out! But Addie had a wonderful birthday and she was very grateful for a fun day in her honor.

I hope to begin to use this space more about what’s going on with our family and how the Lord is using us in our new adventure as well as just fun family updates in general. So stay tuned!