Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries

Well, for our anniversary #5 (hard as it is to believe we're at that one already!) we decided to take a little trip to Niagara Falls, since I had never been there, and for some reason my husband likes to do things that I want to do! :) Because of the Phones for You program, however, we had very limited time in which to take our little trip... so we opted to just make it a one-night, one-day thing, and travel through Canada since that would be faster than going all the way down and around. So, Thursday night we left the church at around 9 PM, and despite some heavy rain, made it to the Canadian border by about 10. Now, in our haste to pack up the car and be ready to go before we went to the church for phone calls that night, we had forgotten one little thing that had been riding around in our trunk since we were in Wisconsin last. A chainsaw. And as we pulled up to the border and handed the guy (who appeared to be about 12, by the way) our ID's and birth certificates, unbeknownst to me, Troy decided that it would be better to tell him the truth when he asked us what we were carrying with us in the car, rather than try to cover it up. Which was a swell idea, right?, but for me, with no warning, and no hint of an idea that we actually had a chainsaw in our trunk, it just so happened to strike me as HILARIOUS that we would be attempting to cross the border with a chainsaw in our trunk. Here we are at the border, a young pastor and his wife, headed to Niagara Falls for our anniversary, and we have a chainsaw in our trunk! Maybe it's not as funny as it was to me at the time, but when Troy said the word chainsaw, I started to get the giggles, there was NO stopping it! So this guy thinks that obviously SOMETHING isn't right with us, so he asked us to pull over to the side to be searched. Ugh. So we pull over, get out of the car, and stand in front of it as 3 or 4 guys - trying desperately to be as intimidating as they possibly could - go through our seats, suitcase, my purse, and the entire contents of our trunk as we stood there feeling like criminals!!! Obviously, they didn't find anything else to be questionable, and within 15 minutes we were back on the road again with nothing taken from us but a little bit of our pride. Note to self: next time traveling over the border, take the chainsaw out of the trunk first. Other than that little experience, we had a wonderful time at the Falls, took some BEAUTIFUL pictures, and just enjoyed being able to spend some time together without having to think for a day about the big things coming up! And after a great time of sightseeing, one of the best parts of the day was the less-than-one-minute stop on the way back into the US, where we were very heartily welcomed home, and reminded of what it will be like to be welcomed home by our Father, where we will truly be Home to stay!!!

Certainly not mine!!! My blog wouldn't go neglected for over.... gulp... 4 months??!
Life these days seems to be one crazy twist and turn after another - not that I'm complaining! I'll try and just give a quick update on how we're doing for all of you, my faithful readers (ha!), who I haven't talked to recently...
We have officially found a meeting place for the new church! It will be in a school gym, which the principal is very excited about, believe it or not!, as well as having some of the big essentials right there so that we won't have to haul them in and out every Sunday (like chairs, pulpit, and a piano). So we're very excited about it, since we KNOW that it was from the Lord. It's a bit further south than what we had originally intended, but we know that this is the place that God provided, so He obviously has a reason for the location. And we know that this location, Lord willing, is only temporary, so when we start looking for a permanent place we could potentially go further north at that point. Troy has daily been getting things ready - it seems like there are countless small things to take care of in preparation! It's good, though, because it keeps our focus on the reason we're here, when it could be so easy to just dive into the church here in Warren and get tunnel vision. It still is hard to believe that it is actually going to happen, sometimes, but we have seen the Lord lead thus far, and we know that this is His doing, so He will be faithful to complete it! When we get together for prayer with the families that will be a part of it, we have seen the Lord bringing them and us together, and it's such an awesome thing to know that we will soon be a church family! They had a vision for this long before we did, but it's been so amazing to see God bring their vision together with the calling He gave us and mesh it into one. God is SO good!
I believe everyone who reads my blog knows this already, but just in case you hadn't heard... (and for my own sake of having it "journaled" here) Troy and I have begun the process to adopt domestically! I'd like to chronicle our progress here, but seeing as there really is no news as of yet, it will have to wait until there is! We have chosen to go through a Christian agency here in the Detroit area called Christian Family Services, who several of the families in our church have adopted through, and since it is a smaller agency, they only work in a pool of 10 couples at a time. Since their pool is full right now, we have submitted our application, but now have to wait until they contact us so that we can start the paperwork and get the ball rolling. It's hard sitting back and waiting when we would really love to be able to be DOING something, but we are truly trying to rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him, although it is not easy by any means! We know His timing is perfect, and we're trusting in that, and using our time now without children to be busy in His work!
I was so thankful that we were able to make it back to Hartford for my sister Missy's baby shower - what a special day! And it's always SO good to see our families again! But as we got back to our little apartment and our church here, I realized something. This is our home now. I mean, I  had been saying that for quite some time already, but even though I can't put my finger on exactly when it happened, sometime between our trip back to Wisconsin for Christmas and this last trip, this truly became home to me, and I love it. And I'm so thankful for that. Yes, I do still miss my family, friends, church, old job, and even - dare I say it? - good ole' Hartford! But thankfully, the Lord has allowed this to be our true home now. The driving... well... the driving not so much, but the everything else... :) Now, if we could just figure out how to build a bridge over Lake Michigan...