Maternity leave, moving, and all around madness

What in the world have we been doing?!

First, let's start off by saying our hearts had been leaning towards church planting for a year or so but we brushed it aside. Then it came up again when I was 8.5 months pregnant and oddly, it felt like the right time. Ha! So we decided we would take the leap of faith and everything we knew would change... All with a newborn... And a toddler! 

So we had Brooks on April 13th and began considering buying a house within the following weeks. Touring houses with 2 under 2 is not an easy task by any means. Thankfully most houses we looked at had little girls toys all over, praise hands!

late may/early june:

We told our current lead pastor about our change in ministry and arranged to go to training in Orlando for church planting funding. Around the same time we went to tour a house and my parents were luckily pulling into town to visit at the exact time. It was great to have their wisdom when buying our first house! We decided to put an offer down that night. Then spent the weekend counter offering. Meanwhile, we went to midland to celebrate Stephanie's 30th birthday!! 

The next week we sadly told our current church that we would be leaving to prepare to plant a church. With tears in our eyes we hugged everyone. So filled with excitement and sadness. That afternoon we packed up and headed to Codys parents. We did get one day of "fun" in the middle of all this ;) we found out that Evynn LOVES the water! Cody and I left the next morning with Brooks to Orlando, Florida while Evynn spent the week with our parents. I was in Florida with Brooks for 4 days the first week of June and cody stayed in orlando for the whole 8 days.

 I wish I could say we went to Florida for vaca but no way, it was an all day conference. Brooks and I were in tow for 4 days of the training so I took frequent nursing breaks during the classes. Everyone was so sweet about us bringing our (then) 7 week old. 

I flew back (by myself for the first time!!) with Brooks on Saturday and God gave me so much peace during the flight. Ps. I hate flying. I landed, got our car back, and went to my parents to hug Evynn. The next day we went to church then got Evynn ready to be a flower girl in my friend Kylie's wedding! We spent the next few days in Sherman catching up with friends and waiting for Cody to fly back on Tuesday.

By mid June we got home from being gone for a week and a half and started packing.

No joke, I never completely unpacked our suitcases from the trip! I sold everything we hadn't touched, looked at, or thought about in the last 4 years. We finally had it all packed and ready for closing day! 

We signed our life away, got the keys to our house on Friday June 23rd, picked out paint and started painting! We had most of it painted by that evening. Thanks HUGE to our parents who even stayed late while we took the littles home! Our parents helped so much that weekend with painting, moving and unpacking. I had 1 week left of maternity leave at this point and spent every minute free settling in even more.

The following weeks Cody finished his job as youth pastor, I started back to work full time, we repainted our whole kitchen, got new kitchen floors, met our wonderful neighbors, had friends over for my birthday, a birthday party for Evynn and have had family and friends stay the night several times.

Needless to say, we are wiped! We are loving our home and how cozy it is for our busy young family! 

So there's that! We're back in the big city! We're so excited about our new home, new community, and new adventure for our family. The Lord has been faithful through every time and has shown His plan all along. It hasn't all been smooth but whew, we have learned a lot.

Currently Cody is working on his Ministry Team Development and the funding portion. We are looking for people to support us in a variety of ways and excited to see how God provides!

The newborn? He's greaat! I haven't been able to hold and swoon over him like I did with Evynn partly because with a toddler you just can't but also we've been doing a million other things!! But he's been a champ, traveling in the car and on a plane. Sleeping (all night!!!) in hotel rooms and multiple houses. He's cooing and smiling and melting our hearts. He's not a fan of loud noises and doesn't like when he's not getting attention. 

Evynn is miss personality who is talking in little 2-3 work sentences. She cares for brother like nobody's business and has the patience of a gnat. I think all the change/mom and dad always working on something has been hard on her but here soon she'll have our full attention back and a house full of fun to enjoy :) 

Thankfully my recovery this maternity leave has been easier (did I have a choice?!). Would I ever suggest someone to change everything, move, etc. with a newborn? No but I'm glad the Lord aligned it all so I could be 100% present during it all. 

Please join us in prayer for our new chapter! For our new ministry and Cody to grow, learn, and prepare. For our home to be a place to welcome people, disciple our children, and love our family.