Some Very Hard Work!

Well, it's been quite a big two months. A VERY big two months. But after much hard work, we are moved into our new house!! I sit here in my temporary office in my unfinished basement next to the now wall-less furnace room writing this. We've wrapped up TFC for the year and have been in full blown remodeling mode recently! We have so much we want to do with this house, but for sure needed the kitchen and the bathroom done before moving in! It's been incredibly rewarding to say that we have our own place and have made it IN TO our own place. It's an awesome feeling to be fully moved in and having lived here for a week as I'm writing this now! We agreed to buy this house last August, officially purchased it the end of January, and have been renovating ever since!

That said, we are quite exhausted, ever since TFC wrapped up it's felt like a final lap sprint in a marathon and to be honest, it's actually only the first half! The house is livable and we are so excited about that. The kitchen had been completely gutted and all new everything put in. It was both fun and challenging to watch the stages of things being torn down and slowly built back up. It’s been very fun to hear family remark on how nice the changes were as we installed new walls, cabinets, and countertops. Now, we are able to have meals in our kitchen and sit around our island enjoying food together. Last night we excitedly enjoyed grilled pizza out on our patio! However, there is still lots to do in the kitchen like backsplash, trim, and more before it’s complete!

The main bath had quite the make-over too! We left the walls in place, but moved all the plumbing around and reworked where everything was. It was a lot of work but ended up with a better layout with a lot more space to fit all of our children in whilst getting ready in the morning or during bath time at night. With a new bathtub and moved plumbing you can imagine the possible leaks and stress of getting things right, especially when we are doing everything ourselves, but even that has been all figured out now and we can shower and get ready in our new bathroom. Now if only we could get the linen closet built & wallpaper on. 😆

It's been a lot of work and our family is incredibly grateful for all who've prayed for us and helped in small and big ways, but it isn't quite over yet. We still need to fix up the basement so there is still lots to do and we'll have projects for years probably, but we've enjoyed our new little home for the last week and will surely enjoy it for the years to come!

Now as we breathe a sigh of relief having got in the house, it's only days away until I leave on mission trip! I'm given the incredible honor of getting to go with 14 students from all over TFC-land to Rehoboth Christian Schools in Gallop, New Mexico from May 29-June 10. It's going to be a lot of fun and a good bit of stretching our servant hearts as we do home projects and work for the churches on the reservation and many of the Navajo and Hobi people in the area! It'll be a lot of fun to use some of the experience I've gained working on my own house on these mission trips too!

Please pray for our students going on the trip as a good chunk are new while some have done this many times, so we have quite the mix and are expecting to see a lot of cool growth in the lives of our teens and hopefully are a great blessing to the folks in Gallop, New Mexico! Also, pray for Abbie as she stays home with our boys in our new house!

The last two months have felt like the busiest of our whole lives! But is has had so many sweet moments! One of the most exciting is announcing that we are expecting another baby BOY this fall! Adding 1st trimester morning sickness into our craziness was not awesome, but Abbie is feeling great now and we are excited for this new little one!

We also enjoyed getting to help Abbie’s family with their annual cow working day. Josiah and Luke LOVED “helping”. 🙂 They are loving town life, riding their bikes all over and eating at The Hut. Lastly, can you spot our tipped over chicken coop? They even made the move!

Remember that you can help by donating here! We love how God provides so we can serve this community!!