First Christmas in Texas

31 December 2020

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! 
This was the best we could do for a Christmas card this year.💝 

We went to Dallas to meet up with our dear friends, the Webb's for Christmas Eve service at their church. 
Shannon and I started homeschooling our kids together when they were just 3. 
What were we thinking?!!😝


Oh, the joy of Christmas morning! 
We hadn't even finished unpacking yet but we managed to get the tree up a couple of days before Christmas. 











If you have #allthebatteries in your house like we do, this Battery Daddy is a must! 
It was his favorite man-gift!


Zach's favorite: Elephants! Another soft fluffy elephant to add to his collection. 


What's this??
They're not even sure what it is... LOL!


We got them their first phone! 
It's the Gabb Wireless and they have one to share. It was time y'all. 
No more waiting in my car after youth group or getting texts from their friends.😁
 

He got a new big wheel!


And off he goes! 


Later that day, we went over to the Rehbehn's for a Christmas feast, fellowship and fun games. 
The Lavy family also moved here last month so it was like a reunion with our church family.

This Christmas was definitely different in so many ways. We not only moved half way across the country a week before Christmas, but we missed being with family. Thankfully, we got to celebrate early at my brother's house a few weeks ago. Here are some photos from that day. 









We kept it very simple this year. Mostly because the move forced us to. Maybe that's how things were always meant to be? Amidst all the Christmas chaos, sparkle, and nostalgia, I never want to lose sight of the true meaning of why we celebrate Christmas. God sent down Love (Himself), in the form of a baby, to save me (and you) from our sins. So that we could intimately know Him and have a personal relationship with Him. 
Isn't that incredible??    


If 2020 showed us anything, it showed us the world needs a Savior more than ever.  
I have no idea what kind of craziness 2021 will bring but I know that Jesus is our only Hope, our Joy and our Peace. If you do not already have a personal relationship with Him, I encourage you to pray and receive Him. It will be the best gift you will every receive.
Merry Christmas! May God bless you all in 2021!  

Gift of Lights

A couple of nights before Christmas, we went to check out the Gift of Lights at the Texas Motor Speedway. This was a drive through event where you stayed in your car and listened to Christmas music.


You couldn't miss this enormous American flag at the entrance. 


We loved all of the patriotism. 





And the praying hands.






It was a fun way to witness millions of lights and get into the Christmas spirit after our move. 


Afterwards, Morgan was so excited to spot an In & Out Burger in Texas! 
He made an immediate B-line for the drive thru. This is probably his favorite burger stop so the fact that he didn't have to give that up in Texas made him happy. 


We were coming home, down our street and spotted a different Santa in our community. 
He looked so legit, right?? 

What a fun night! 


CA--->TX

Our dear friends, the Blodgett's showed up bright and early on moving day wearing cowboy hats.
Love them so much!
 

These are just some of the girls' sweet friends who came to help as well. 

Zach was busy supervising the whole operation. 😁
Special shout out to my brother in law, Ben (on the right) who came out from Bakersfield to help us move. 
He not only helped with the move, he also drove the truck most of the way.
He's one in a million, y'all! 

Aww, and our sweet Lyndi stopped by for a final goodbye and prayer. 
We love her so!


Our most precious cargo right here. 💗💗💗


We packed up and time to hit the road.  


Goodbye, California. We're off! 
First stop... Tucson, AZ! 


The boys. 
The kids all took turns riding in the moving truck but Zach was beyond thrilled.


I had no idea I married a cowboy. 🤠


After stopping in Tucson one night and Midland, TX another night, we made it to our rental home in Lantana. Did I mention the fact that we had never seen our rental inside with lights on? 
Our realtor showed us a video of the home but the electricity was off. 😆
Once again, God wanted us to walk by faith, not by sight. 


What's this? Fall?? We're not used to seeing changing seasons. The leaves were beautiful. 




He was having a blast. 

We could sense the freedom as soon as we got here. 


We had our first guests that very night. My friend, Courtney and her kids came bearing gifts and a warm welcome. They moved here last month from CA as well. We're so happy they live in the next town over. 


Not a bad place to call home for the next 6 months while we figure out where we'd like to settle. 


We saw this sweet couple while driving through our community. They were sitting in front of their house with music synched to their Christmas lights. When we stopped to say hi, they came up to the car, wished us a Merry Christmas and handed out candy canes to the kids. They said they do this every year. 💕🎅 
So far, EVERYONE we've met in Texas has been SO NICE!! 

We moved on the 16th and got here on the 18th. The actual move wasn't bad at all. I mean, as far moves halfway across the country go. The kids did wonderfully and again, we had Uncle Ben's help so that was an incredible blessing. He flew home the next morning and I'm sure he slept very well after all his hard work. Words cannot express our gratitude, Ben. You're the BEST!

After selling as much as we could out of our 5 bedroom home, we still managed to barely fit everything into a 26 ft. moving truck. Believe me, there were times when I wanted to burn it all!! 
But praise the Lord, we made it! 
And just in time. One week before Christmas.  
        

Why We Moved

30 December 2020



We did it. We moved to Texas. 
We left the only place we've ever called home. 
We left our family, our friends, and the church we loved. 
Why? 

Because for a while now, we have felt this nudging from the Lord. In fact, a couple of years ago, we started to think about our 5 year plan and how that would most likely involve moving out of state when the girls graduated from high school. Texas was tops on our list (for various reasons) but we had never been there before. Then, this spring, the pandemic hit. And for many of us, it brought some things into laser focus. 
We began to prioritize what was most important to our family. Morgan and I began to seriously talk about what the future might look like for our children, how we wanted to parent them during what we believe to be the end times, and our legacy going forward. As Christians who have read the bible and believe it to be God's Holy Word, we already know how this story ends. Praise God, we know Jesus will return to defeat evil once and for all (Revelation). Despite its breathtaking beauty, California was beginning to feel very oppressive in many ways and therefore, our freedom was at stake. 
And for us, freedom is everything. 


    And so, we made the very difficult decision to move. But where?  
We vacationed in North & South Carolina this summer and although we REALLY liked North Carolina, we ultimately decided it was too far away from our families. Next, we took a whirlwind trip to Texas in early October and truth be told, I wasn't all that impressed. It was actually a terrible trip because all we did was drag the kids around to look at houses for 4 days straight. NO FUN! It wasn't until the very last day that God was gracious in showing us a town that we could see ourselves in. Still, we came back from Texas and didn't feel compelled to move right away. I kept saying things like,"Let's just wait until the New Year and re-evaluate." And, "Maybe Springtime would be better?" Honestly, it was such a big and scary move that although I wanted to move, it was just plain hard to think about us actually doing it!



 One thing was for certain. When we were in Texas visiting, even though we were discouraged with what we saw (we were looking in the wrong area), the Lord clearly told me I needed to step down from ministry when I got home. I thought maybe it was because He wanted me to be more available and present for my kids going forward. Leading a ministry was time consuming. I wanted to be able to pour more of myself into the girls in their high school years and goodness knows, Zach requires much of my energy. So, as soon as we returned, 
I obeyed the Lord and scheduled a meeting with my pastor. After 3 years of leading the Orphan Care ministry I had founded, I told him I needed to step down. I didn't know it yet but God was using this act of obedience to prepare us for the move. He was asking us to trust Him (even when we didn't find the perfect house or location in Texas 😱). And so, after much prayer, much delay, and much wrestling, we surrendered and decided to walk by faith, even though we could not see. After all, that's what faith is, right? I'll be honest, the task was OVERWHELMING at times but we took one step at a time and watched in AWE as God matched our step for step. He kept revealing Himself to us in ways that only He can. We started selling much of our possessions and wanted to downsize as much as possible before the move. We put our home on the market and after only 5 showings, we ended up selling our home in just 10 days. God brought us the right buyer and we just stood in amazement of what the Lord did during those crazy months of October and November. 
He just kept confirming everything we did! Isn't that just like Him?
I don't know about you but for me, it seems like He always waits for me to take the first step.  
I kept telling people that this move reminded me a lot about the time we decided to go half way around the world to adopt 2 babies from Korea and bring them home to make them our daughters. It required an enormous amount of trust and faith but the Lord was so gracious to us then, too! We knew without a doubt that that was what we were supposed to do and even though it was difficult, terrifying, and something we couldn't have done on our own, God was with us every step of the way and blessed us beyond anything we could ever imagine for our willingness to trust in Him. 
He is so faithful, y'all! 

So, that's it, in a nutshell. Sure, there are countless other reasons why we moved and I'm sure I'll be sharing them from time to time, but for now, we're just so happy the move is behind us. As I write this today, we've been in Texas for the last 11 days. We're getting settled more each day. We celebrated Christmas here, met up with some friends, and explored a little bit. We couldn't be more thankful to the Lord for getting us here--for His protection, His provision, and His providence.
  

Before we left, I tried to get together with some of my sweetest girlfriends. Although it didn't work out for us to meet all together, I'm so glad I got to see most of them for one last hug and prayer. 
They brought over some great gifts.

 
This book was not only hilarious, it was also super informational. 


The girls got these cute t-shirts from Lyndi before we left. So stinkin' sweet!

Next up... our actual move! 

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