Here I sit 4 years later in an office packed with boxes weeping because the time has come for us to go home, and I don't want to leave. God is so faithful to His children. After a few rough months at the beginning, Louisville has become our home. It is all we've known as a married couple. I've learned how to cook, how to roast coffee, how to read a book, how to read the Bible as a whole, how to live in gospel-centered community, how to be a mommy, how to wash cloth diapers, and SO much more. I never dreamed I would be where I am today. Our plan was to come to Louisville, get our two degrees and go home to start a family, get a job, etc… We're leaving louisville with no degrees and two babies! Through all of this, though, we are leaving being more like Jesus than we were. Praise God! God is so good to give us things and take things away in order to make us more like His Son.
Now it's time to move on. It is the grace of God that we are sad to leave. We're leaving the city we've grown to love. The city that has become our home. The city in which our children were born. We're leaving our brothers and sisters at Immanuel who we love so dearly. We're leaving the best friends we've ever had. We're leaving our community group that has ministered so dearly to our souls. We're leaving our tiny little apartment that we've grown to love.
These things make us terribly sad. However, there is a lot to be excited about. I have not posted on here in quite a while, so many of you (if anyone reads this blog) may be unaware of our plans for the next several years. In a nutshell: We are moving back home to Wilmer, Alabama. Both of our families are there, so we are so excited to be able to spend time with them and let them see more of Cooper and Raeleigh. (Not to mention the limitless baby sitters!) The church has so graciously decided to let us live in the parsonage for a while for free in order for us to be able to save some money. Words do not describe how overwhelmingly grateful we are to them. We're saving because we're eventually headed to New Orleans to help with a church plant. Lord willing, in the next couple of years we will be looking to buy a house there and start serving the church while Ben finishes his degree online.
Overall, there are going to be lots of changes in the next few years… The first one will happen next Friday the 21st as we pull out of Louisville onto I-65 headed South.
Please pray for us during this move. It's tiring--emotionally, spiritually, and physically. Pray that the next 4 years of our lives would be just as sanctifying as the last 4 and that we would trust God's faithfulness to keep His children. Pray that God would use these moves in order to help us rest in the fact that our home is not here on earth. Pray that the children (esp. Cooper) transition well. Pray that God would keep us from becoming comfortable and disoriented from the point of our existence. Pray that the Lord will use us to serve our brothers and sisters in AL. Pray that people will be saved by our being in Alabama. Pray that the Brother and Sister who are leading the church plant will be able to adopt their foster son soon. (This is the timing factor as to when we actually head to NOLA.) Pray that we would constantly submerge ourselves in the truths of the Gospel.
To those of you in Louisville, we love you and will miss you more than words can say.
To those of you in Mobile… watch out. We're comin' home!
So long, Louisville. You will be missed.
-The Mrs.
