Our Exciting News...

... we're moving to Miami!

Let me start at the beginning. In August, we received a phone call from our brother-in-law (who lives in Miami) to pray about a maintenance position at the church & school down there and helping out my sis-in-law and brother-in-law with the youth group at the church. (My brother-in-law is the youth pastor). So we prayed about it and decided we should probably visit. So in the end of September we packed up all 3 kids and drove to Miami. I had visited Miami a couple of times, but Mark had never been there. He hated it - the heat, the traffic, the city, pretty much everything. But by the end of the week we both felt that if the Lord was calling us here, we could do it.
Well, we came back and really we just waited. We realized all we would be giving up here (our families, our house that we've worked so hard on and have so many memories in, our church and our youth group...) But that was selfish. These are just things!!
In October, my husband was laid off from work. And we continued waiting. In December, we were really feeling a lean toward moving to Miami. So we decided we needed to visit there one more time to make our decision. So in February Mark, Gabe, and I flew to Miami for a long weekend. While we were there, we were totally comfortable. We got to tour the school, meet more staff and families, see the house that would be ours, etc. Our prayer from the beginning of this whole process was for God to give us peace and that's what He was doing.
We returned and decided to wait a week or two to make our final decision. We can truly say that God has given us peace about this over 1,000 mile move.
We know it's not going to be easy - leaving our family and church (we told our youth group yesterday and I think that was one of the toughest things we've had to do), but we know that this is God's will for our lives and that excites us!
Another change will be that Mj will go to school. The tuition is provided and the school seems amazing. I think he will do well in a school environment and Mark will be working on campus and I'll be able to be involved, too. I must say that I'm nervous, but excited about this whole new transition for Mj as well.
Looking back it's been awesome to see God's work "behind the scenes" in all of this.
We're looking at moving toward the end of May/beginning of June. We have much to do before then so prayer is appreciated!!! It's easy for us to get overwhelmed with all we have to do before then, but God is our strength!!
I feel like I have rambled on and I hope this all made sense. I just want to share what God has been doing in our lives! What an awesome God we serve and we look forward to serving Him in Miami!

Isaiah 55:8 - "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord."

This is a picture of our home in Miami - it's just waiting for it's new family to arrive. (Can I just say that I love the palm trees in the front yard!!!)