My next assignment

Selling this house:
Who wouldn't love this house? We sure do!

Listing it?

No problem

I am a neat freak!

. . . Or at least I thought I was until today. How is it possible to spend most of every minute of every day cleaning something and yet today when the realtor came to take pictures I felt like I lived in an episode from "Hoarders"?

Seriously!?!!

It was like spending all night writing a masterpiece for your English lit class in college, you walk ready to snow your teacher with your incredible piece of art, confident that they will recruit you to publish something for their next journal, and instead you get your paper handed back to you with red ink all over it.

Granted... she was extremely gracious. She was ready to start snapping pics without me dashing from room to room grabbing clutter and throwing it in the nearest closet, but once I started, boy there was no stopping!

. . . and to my credit, I did just get back from a 2 month trip three days ago. . . or is that not to my credit seeing as how really the house hasn't been lived in for two months.

Um, regardless, my work is cut out for me, and I thought I was gonna skate through this. Ughh.

The family of God

And the coup de grat . . . Anna accepted Christ as her Savior during a deep theological discussion she and I were having in the drive thru at McDonald's tonight. Well, as deep as a three year old goes. But hey, it's a start, and it was a crowning jewel on a rough day that I would never have relived even if you paid me.

Welcome to the kingdom, Anna!

Leave of Absence

I've been gone a really long time....

I hadn't been home in 2 years. I knew this visit was going to be special from the second we landed.
My heart raced as I showed the kids the view of the mountains from DIA.
There was something about this trip that made it unique.
Maybe it was the fact that we appreciated life more, because of the startling realities of this year: the cancer returned, the crash happened, countless goodbyes were said.
2010 was a rough year.
That made this visit all the richer.
There is nothing like seeing the roots that God planted you in, go deep.
Long conversations over coffee with the people that know you more than you know yourself.
Cousins acting like siblings rough and tumbling and loving like they've never spent a day apart in their lives.
Sitting in the back seat, letting someone else tell you where you're going.
Someone telling you what is for dinner while they prepare it.
I have an incredible family, and I treasure them more than I think I ever have (and I've always cherished them).
God connected dots for me in my relationship with him that have been unconnected for decades (more about that in days to come).

It was an incredible trip!
Now there is work to do:
It was like God used the last two months to strengthen me for the year to come.
It's gonna be a wild ride... a homecoming, a house on the market, a cross country move to Cali and only the Lord knows what else.
I'm encouraged and ready, clinging to the grace of God and all of His promises in a whole new way.