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...