Well, that was fast.

My last post was written from our kitchen in New Mexico. The rest of that week was spent packing up, cleaning late into the night, moving out, enjoying our last few hours with great, great friends and church family, and speeding off to Montana in the earliest dawn.

In high school my goal was to live in Montana. I know now that it was a brilliant goal. The week there was precious and gorgeous, made more so by the exhaustion and shock of the two weeks prior.

We knew we were going to be moving this year, but were not expecting it to happen until mid-september. But when God gave us some renters for our house, we had to say yes...so within a week we were on a plane out of the desert, never to return.

When husband introduced us at a wedding as "people who have no place to live," I knew we were definitely in the middle of something. Now, living at my parents' and having strange high school flashbacks interrupted by the very current, very real demands of my children, I feel even more in the middle, already, and not yet. We received a hodge-podge of signatures via email that seem to indicate a deal is pending on a house for us in Holland, some fifteen days after acceptance. Acceptance of what, you ask? I do not know either.

Yesterday at Elsa's Dr. appointment, the nurse followed me out to the waiting room. "I know how hard this must be for you," she said. "If you need anything, anything at all, just call us." The Dr. had already given me a website for his church and told me all about how hard moving had been for him and his wife, and how I should go and find her at the moms-n-tots group, perhaps immediately. I think he was trying to witness to me. I guess in the land of churches, I need to up my game, testimonially speaking.

"Do I seem really frazzled?" I asked the nurse.
"Yes, actually, you do," she answered. I guess my sweeping entrance with Elsa merely wearing a pamper, complete with tales of carsickness (her cute brand-new outfit was covered in puke), in addition to being ten minutes late minus an insurance card really made a good first impression. And to top it off, we sat in the "sick" waiting room. I didn't notice the sign until after my girls had touched everything within the entire premises. I was deeply touched by the staff's compassion and love, and it dawned on me that yes, I am pretty frazzled right now.

All that to say, I have no reason to be frazzled. We had two beautiful, perfect weeks of vacation with each side of our family, I have full-time childcare and my mom irons our clothes faster than I can notice what needs to be ironed--I hesitate to even write this because I know how many of you reading are deep in the trenches of normal motherhood. Husband made it safe across the land of the free with Una and the rest of our stuff. I need to come up with a new name for my blog since I am definitely back in the land of many waters. The radio is still constantly playing the Edmund Fitzgerald. I'm feeling a desire to get some blond highlights for myself and my children, you know, just to fit in more in Holland, you know, maybe add a Van to our last name somewhere...

All that to say, God is good, faithful, and even though He plucked us out of the desert pretty fast, He provided for our every need along the way and continues to remind us of His nearness and goodness.