Our big move!

I finally have made time to sit down and share what is going on in our life on my blog! As you all know (I hope!) we are moving to Shell Beach near Pismo Beach in a week and a half! We are so thrilled about having the opportunity to move to such a beautiful place that we have dreamed of moving to for almost a decade! We love, love, love the San Luis Obispo area and have spent a great deal of time there over the years...for business and pleasure! A few months ago or so Gary and I decided to move in another direction professionally which allows us to have Gary work from home! Which we LOVE! Although it is taking adjusting realizing that just because he is home doesn't mean he is at my beck and call to help with the kids! I'm working on it! ;) So we started thinking about where we really want to live "forever" I say "forever" because I'm not even going to begin to challenge God with my plans...He has made it abundantly clear in my life over and over again that my plans really don't matter much...His do! Which is fine by me...most of the time! ;) We prayed and prayed about this decision...We did the old Benjamin Franklin list of pros and cons and it looked a little something like this...

Pros of moving to Shell...
Living closer to the Beach
Living closer to more of our family
More conservative area (our liberal friends tease us!)
Seems like an easier place to raise Godly kids (not so much $$ around)
Less expensive place to live
Healthier lifestyle
We really want to get settled in the area we want to be in before Makenzie starts kindergarten next Fall...wow, time flies!!

Cons of leaving the Bay Area... Leaving our incredible community of friends that mean so much to us...you all have been such a HUGE part of our lives and our babies lives!

So as you can see we had basically 7 pros and 1 con...but that 1 con was a HUGE one! We feel so fortunate and blessed to have made such incredible friends here...I can not describe in words what a blessing they have been. So this move has become bitter/sweet...but as our friends (Herbolds) keep reminding us "we will spend so much more quality time together now!" We already have amazing Walker scheduled for a few days to come visit in October and the sweet Sargents (possibly Olsons too!?) are planning on early November! And we are coming back up mid-December for a few days! And we are waiting on a few more dates from some of you...you know who you are! LOL! ;)

I haven't been really emotional about the move until today...I lost it like 3 times! And I'm not usually the emotional one in our marriage! ;) The message at Church today was basically about the Israelites in Exile and what the true meaning of Shalom is. Shalom means so much more than "good health" it truly means to be complete, perfect and full. I read yesterday "No wonder the Jewish people are so blessed, because every time they say Shalom to one another, they are also allowing the full meaning of SHALOM to be pronounced over them." I'm really probably butchering a great message so bear with me, and feel free to check it out yourself at MPPC.ORG. Nonetheless it struck a cord in me, and I lost it. When we got to MPPC for the most part we were a bit like the Israelites, in Exile. And we found Shalom through our amazing friends at this amazing Church. And we will be forever grateful! After Church we went to lunch with some of our Home Group friends (a tradition I'm going to miss!) and of course someone said "this is probably our last after Church meal all together." and I lost it. again! I love these precious people whom I feel privileged to share a part of their life with and we are going to miss the weekly interactions! But we are going to make every effort for sure to stay connected! God used them tremendously to pour out His Grace and Love.

We have loved living in the Bay Area...it really is an incredible place with such character (and character's!). I know we will be back to visit often!

On to our next phase of our journey...