Planted - Uprooted - Re-Planted
The past three weeks have been an absolute blur. Who knew a house could hold so much stuff! Kid stuff, family stuff, seasonal stuff, treasures and keepsake stuff, but all in all, it is still just “stuff”.
We have reorganized and packed away the “stuff” we want to keep and bring to our next home when we land in Panama after our year in Costa Rica. The rest was sent to donation centers hoping to find their next home. It feels good to say goodbye and let “stuff” go.
It’s difficult to carve out the time and space to do all that, but with putting our house on the market tomorrow, we had to press hard and finish this task. Our bodies and minds are tired!
These weeks made all the feelings rise—nerves, anxious thoughts, fears, doubts and even a bit of “WHY are we doing this to ourselves”?
But all those feelings, even just for a moment, needed to be felt or spoken out loud in order to secure the next step. The step of accepting the reality that this IS happening and we are getting ready to make room for the fun and good and new ahead!
Funny how when we get squeezed a little, the negative stuff still comes out, but I see it as a good thing because this makes more room for the good that you can replace it with. God has more plans for us that are better than what we can imagine.
The kids were also a big part of it. We are very proud of the toys they “let go of” and laughed at a few of the things they were so desperate to keep. We will have to do an update when we arrive in our new home in Panama in nearly two years to see if they still appreciate some of the items they chose to store away.
With a lot of stuff cleared out and the house officially on the market starting tomorrow, we hope all our hard work and updating this house attracts the next home owner. This has been a good home to us. A beautiful spot to call home in so many ways. And not just because our “stuff” is gone, we sense the uprooting has begun.
This is not our home anymore. Our kids feel it, we feel it. Dirty hand prints have been washed away, closets are bare, photos are gone, everything has been simplified for staging for someone else to picture themselves living here.
This house is just a house. The four of us are each others’ ‘home’, wherever we live. Helping our kids talk through that is precious. Stuff is stuff. A house is a house. And we will find another one. But living within the means God has provided, and the calling He is asking of us, that is our real security and the home we get to live out together. We know He is preparing to re-plant us and lay down roots in the next major chapter of life as a family.
Our parent hearts are that we do this well so that our kids have a healthy perspective of where ‘home’ really is. And to remember stuff is just stuff, people matter more, and our life with the Lord matters most!
THANK YOU FOR PRAYING!
In our last update we asked you to pray for our trip to Costa Rica to visit the language school. We will share even more in our May newsletter coming soon, but wanted to send a quick thank you!
It was very good visiting the ILE language school, and ‘seeing’ where we will be learning Spanish this next year as a family! We didn’t get to see the specific house we will live in, but we will be within walking distance from the school and will know more specifics in June.
We had a wonderful time with our friend Jon Fowler as he guided us on this visit. Reminiscing our friendship over the last seventeen years, and to begin dreaming about what we sense the Lord inviting us into in the years to come!
We got to see many amazing, beautiful things, but what was most encouraging was connecting with several of the missionaries there in Costa Rica. It is so good for our hearts to already know folks we will be connecting with over the next year in this little transition and preparation season as a family.
Thank you friends!!! Your relational connection with us means so much knowing we are following Jesus together on this Panama missionary journey!
