Christmas with my family was great. It was good to be with my grandparents again, they really needed to see the kids again. It had been 2 ½ years since they had seen the kids. Sarah Rose was 3, and now she will be 6 in Feb.!
We have been here in the ranch for about 2 months now. It has been going fine. We got all the gas and water and stuff hooked up. We have had a deep freeze the past few days, however, and we ran out of propane in the big tank early one morning on Wednesday. (the gauge had shown 20%, but apparently it was “stuck” and not reading properly). Jason also couldn’t get out of our door because the lock had frozen shut. He did finally get out but then it froze open so our last resort to keep the door open was to use the dead bolt. That worked. But as a result of everyone’s inside temperature dropping during the freeze, the kids all lost their water, and I lost my hot water. And… now everyone’s tanks are full and the piping is frozen so Jason can’t dump them. It is supposed to begin warming up, and as much as I don’t want the snow to go away, we have to get our tanks dumped. All three toilets are full and I know the grey water’s must be about full as well.
I sent Kord a package, finally. I sent him some MSM cream, soaps and lip balms and a few snacks. I really appreciated all that he sent for the kids this Christmas, even though he couldn’t be there in person to give them to them. He has turned into an amazing young man. I hope that he continues to make good choices in his life, and finds a girl that deserves him. He is also buying some property about 3 hours south of here, so that when he gets out of the military, he can move here and be closer. He want’s to go to school in Seattle to be an ultra sound technician, and specifically a cardiovascular tech. I think that that is a great field for him. He has a compassionate heart and will do well working with people in sensitive situations.
The Church move will be completed on Sunday, that is our ribbon cutting ceremony. It has been a huge task getting the church moved, and I feel like I wasn’t able to help enough, but between our own move and school and our trip to CA, we were just not able to help that much. We did get Awana all moved and organized and I am working on some projects for that as well, and just that has kept me busy. I think that since our tanks are full, I will pack up the kids and spend the day at the church. I can do a little reading there, and hopefully help with bulletins and getting all my Awana printing done and organized.
Amazingly, even though we have gone through so much, I don’t feel like God was asking too much of us. I can’t say for certain how the kids all feel, but for me, I am at peace with where we are. Things are simpler, I am less distracted (now that we are moved) and I feel like we will all be able to focus on what is ahead of us now, more clearly. Jason and I played cards the weekend before school started, knowing that we probably wouldn’t be able to do that again for a while. But doing that, we were happy. It was simple. And it was warm, and happy. Ttfn…
