Our Home, Sweet Home.

We arrived here in Carmel, Indiana towards the end of last week. Moving is kind of a stressful endeavor especially when you are moving states and you are all by yourself with a toddler while your wife is working. But, I made it and we are here safe and sound in our new home. Lindsey and I haven’t had too much time to unpack everything as she has been working a lot of hours as we are in the middle of busy season and I’ve been busy watching Jackson. However, each day this house is becoming more like home. I truly love this house. It has a very welcoming and relaxing vibe to it.

I got here on Saturday and met up with Lindsey after she got off work and we just worked on unpacking as much as we could. The packers used so much paper to pack things that it’s ridiculous.  I don’t know how we are going to get rid of all of these boxes and paper. Once Saturday evening settled down we tried out our first run at church shopping. Unfortunately the first church we picked just wasn’t for us – It was a big church. We knew that going in, but didn’t feel very welcomed. There was practically no where to park or sit, even though we arrived about 15 to 20 minutes early. Also, the sermon, the music, and the overall tone just seemed kind of forced. I won’t name the church as I’m sure it’s a great church for a specific type of person, but we were just not feeling it or connecting well. Though we didn’t expect to find our perfect church on the first try, we left feeling a bit discouraged. With that said, we are looking forward to this weekend where we actually plan on trying to hit two different churches. The first one will be on Saturday night, as they offer a service then, in addition to their two Sunday services. This should allow us time to try another church we were told about the next day on Sunday morning. The church we are trying on Saturday night is a pretty big church though, like the first one. However, I think it might be more of our style. I’m kind of hoping we like this one. Time will tell! I wish church wasn’t only on the weekends. Lindsey and I want to get connected with people so bad, and the longer it takes time to find our new church home, the longer we are without people in our lives who are there daily to support us. But by God’s grace, we will find our church. God would not send us across state borders and not have this under complete control!

Here on the home front I’ve been busy getting things done and set up like tv and internet, etc. However, I’ve also had to spend some time fixing things. Specifically our cars. As I think I’ve noted here before, whenever something big is going on in our lives we have car trouble. This pattern has continued time and time again and this move was no exception to the rule. When Lindsey had left earlier in the week before our move to start working in Indy, she left me with her car as I would have more room to pack stuff. Well, we’ve constantly had issues with her Grand Am, specifically the power windows. While the movers were packing all of our things one of them noticed and informed me that the front passenger side window just fell straight down! We’ve already had two windows break in this car, and now the evening before I’m trying to get out of Ohio our window was broke. Thankfully, I have the best dad in the world who was able to get the window back up, and stay up with a temporary solution.

As soon as that problem was taken care of, Lindsey informed me that my Sunfire got a flat tire! Seriously? The devil has found a creative way to get to us when times are changing. The flat tire reminded me of one of the last times we we were leaving the orphanage in Ukraine after visiting Jackson and our driver Valentino got a flat tire. Thankfully our God is bigger than broken windows and flat tires and we’ve all made it through the first half of the week without any huge hurdles or problems. 

To change gears a bit, I’ve had a strong feeling in my heart that I really need to step up my game in the Jesus relationship category of my life. I’m finding more and more that nothing in this world can give me full satisfaction but Him. Not TV, not the internet, or even my family. Just Him. In my last post I was kind of in a rough spot and I’ve realized the only way I will get out of that is by spending more time with my Creator. I put so much of my time and energy into things that do not matter in this world which include television and the internet. These things are like short highs, but only when I spend time with him do I feel uplifted and full of purpose. Unfortunately at times I rather just drown myself away in the media of the world that is available to me 24 hours a day and it’s depressing. I’m not as busy now in some respects as I’m staying at home with Jackson, but the downtime has just given me more time to fade away into other things and not focus on God’s plan for Lindsey and I. I can’t let that happen as I know deep down I still need to be the spiritual leader in this household. If I bring myself down I’m only going to bring everyone down with me. I’m realizing that “NOW” is a critical time in my life. Back when we were adopting Jackson and going through that process God’s words were so clear that adoption was His plan for us. He spoke it out loud and we listened and obeyed. The feeling was great. Now though he’s quickly called us from that to moving to Indiana. Nobody forced us here. We clearly had a choice to stay in Columbus, but we feel God wants to do something great with us in Carmel. But right now I’m not quite sure what that is. I can not sit here idly by and let God’s word escape my ears. If I do, it will be me who will be held responsible for not hearing His words. God is always speaking, but we are not always ready and willing to pay attention to hear his whispers.

So with that I’m trying to change. The time is now – what other better time? It kills me letting day after day go by and not filling fulfilled. I am thankful and glad to have this opportunity to stay home with Jackson, but that doesn’t mean God doesn’t have time to put a plan in place for my life and the rest of my family. I’m finally back to reading my daily devotions. I know it’s just a start, but hopefully I can start listening again. I can’t wait to learn why we are here!