A Place to start...at a Thankful heart!

It's been one week since we've returned back from our whirlwind trip to Maine. In that time span we've hit the school books in full force (with my mom's help), searched for a short term job for Roger, made a meal for a mom with a new baby, had dinner at a friends house, went to a ladies get-together with some ladies from church, and have tried to establish some kind of schedule for the weeks we are living at my parents house! 

The boys have been working hard on school work as they are looking forward to Thanksgiving break...me too! My mom has helped out immensely and it's not so overwhelming when we are both tackling the job. I plan to take full advantage of the help while I have it as far too soon I will be back on my own! My sister, Jenn, is coming from South Dakota for Thanksgiving, and Wyatt is excited about his best friend coming while he doesn't have school to do. "She will have all day to play with me!" 

Roger has been diligently searching for a job, and we've been praying fervently! Well, praise the Lord, he starts a job on Monday! The company he will be working for isn't sure exactly how many hours they can offer him, but they are willing to hire him for a short time. We know that God will supply all our needs, and we believe that this will be a good job for right now. He will be working at a wood working shop that makes cabinets. It's also a company where two men from my dad's church family work as well so that is an added bonus. We are thankful for all those who prayed with us, called Roger to offer suggestions, or promised to keep their ears open for work. God answered our prayer, and  we are thankful that He always supplies our needs. 

As for me, Roger has asked me multiple times if I'm excited about moving to Maine. The truth is I'm excited because Roger is excited. We prayed for God to open the doors for another job, and He did just that. I'm delighted to be closer to my sister, but sad about leaving our church family again, my parents, and some of my dearest friends on earth. I'm a little overwhelmed by my feelings and I know I'll have some challenging days when we leave here again. However, God is faithful. If I've said it once, I've said it one thousand times, "God is faithful!" I'm trying not be overwhelmed by the fact that other than the job, we have nothing else lined up. How will we get our stuff out there? Where will we live? What church will be best for our family? Will we make close friends and have times of dear fellowship again? I very much enjoy having people in our home, and I'd rather have people come visit me than me visit them. I'm praying for a home that we have invite others over, be a blessing (I hope), and reach out to those in need. I feel a little overwhelmed by all the uncertainties, but God has never let us down. He knows my heart, my feelings, and my desire to love Him completely...He will take care of us. 

The boys had the opportunity to go up north for deer hunting this weekend. Roger, my dad, and the boys went up north to go deer hunting. They left Friday night and came back on Saturday. Although the hunt was unsuccessful, they had many stories to tell of their adventures. I love the fact that my dad and husband take them on experiences like these and the boys are storing up memories. Moving to Maine is also going to rough on my dad as he very much enjoys doing things with the boys. They've been helping him work on a construction project, and they have enjoyed that very much. The boys also found an old ladder in my dads barn along with some wood and nails. They've been building their own deer stand in the back yard! It's rickety at best and the amount of nails in it is astronomical, but they've been having a blast! 

As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, I am again reminded of how much I have to be thankful for this year. It was one of the most challenging years by far, but God really showed Himself strong. I learned so much about clinging to God's promises. 

T- I'm thankful for togetherness! As challenging as Arizona was on our family, it was an opportunity for us to be together as a family. God knew that we needed to be together.

H- Heat! My blood has thinned since Arizona, and I'm cold all the time! I'm thankful for heat!

A- Always! I'm thankful that God is ALWAYS faithful. I get carried away in small, mundane details, but my God sees the big picture. He is the great I AM. 

N- Near to the heart of God. Oh, how I'm thankful that I can draw close to God! When I'm weary or tired, I can cling to the Rock that is higher than I. (Psalm 61:2)

K- Kids! God has blessed us with five wonderful children. While I'm not always as thankful as I should be, I am thankful for these five precious blessings. They belong to the Lord, and we are doing our best to raise them for His glory. 

S- Salvation. Really, where would I be without this in my life? God offered me His free gift of salvation. I am 100% sure that when I die I will enter the presence of God in Heaven. (John 3:16)

G- Grace ...I'm thankful that God gives grace as we need it. He doesn't give me a storehouse of grace;  but as I need it, He provides it. When I fail to show grace to those around me, it's a sign of my shallow relationship with Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

I- intercessory prayers. I'm thankful for intercessory prayers that our family and friends prayed on our behalf. I'm thankful that the Holy Spirit directs people to pray for us even when they don't know why or what they should pray for specifically. God has protected our family in many ways because of the intercessory prayers of God's people on our behalf. (Romans 8:26-27)

V- vision. My husband has a vision! I'm thankful for his talents in aviation. I don't brag about him enough, but Roger is (in my opinion) a truly gifted pilot. He is confident that God is directing his steps in these aviation experiences, and that God has a plan for our family. I trust Roger completely, and I thank God for him.

I- interesting! While at times I'd like to be a little bored, God has provided us with many interesting experiences in our ten years of marriage! I love the fact that Roger has stepped out on faith to pursue the talents that God has given him and the direction that God has provided at every turn. My flesh desires a little more stability and security, but because of our interesting life journey, I am forced to depend on the Lord every step of the way. It's a good place to be! 

N- New adventures. Well, to be honest, I'm not always excited or thankful for these new adventures. But as I see God at work in our lives, I know that God provided these new adventures to strengthen my relationship with Him and my husband. (And the adventures are not over!) 

G- Gifts. You'll never know how blessed and encouraged I was through the simple gift of an encouraging note in our mailbox. So many people wrote letters and gave gifts that God allowed to come at the exact moment I needed encouragement. I believe that because of our recent adventure, I can relate better to people that are lonely. My desire is to do better at reaching those that might be lonely...a missionary's wife, an elderly person, a neighbor. I am so, so thankful for each one that wrote a note, sent a gift, or prayed diligently for our family. Until we reach eternity, you won't understand the impact of those gifts both monetary and non-monetary. I am blessed! 

           The boys "deer stand"! 

               "Papa and Travis"

Keeping the "Maine" thing the main thing!

It's been a little crazy how intense and busy the last few weeks have been! Two weeks ago, we were in Arizona with no idea that Roger's job was about to abruptly end. One week ago we left South Dakota to come to Wisconsin. This morning we left Maine to come back to Wisconsin. I think I'm done driving for a while!! 

After twenty hours of driving we arrived in Maine. Since my sister, Hannah, and her husband, Josh, are living in Maine, we were able to stay with them this past week. For me, seeing my sister was the highlight of the trip. I don't get to spend nearly enough time with her, and this week I had uninterrupted time. 

One Tuesday, Roger went to check out the job. Since I didn't know how long he would be, I stayed at the house with Hannah. We did some errands together, had coffee and lunch, and visited together all day! 

Roger spent the day at the airport and God provided an unusual but perfect opportunity for him. When Roger arrived at the airport and introduced himself, the owner offered to let Roger tag along for the day with one of the other pilots. Roger was able to see first-hand how the job worked, and he spent the entire day seeing and talking with the pilot about experiences and asking questions about the company. It was a great day for Roger, and the pilot that he worked with is also a Christian. They talked about flying, families, the company, and Roger said it was a very enjoyable day. Roger came back excited and eager to learn more about the job and living in Maine. 

                       

 

On Wednesday, Hannah and Josh both had to work, so Roger and I ventured off to have our own experiences. It was like an all-day date! We have not been able to spend this much time alone since our cruise in February, and God knew that we needed to spend some time together. We visited several cute little towns, did window shopping, and drove by several properties for rent. Although living in Maine will be way cheaper than Arizona, we are still going to have to micro-manage all our expenses for a while. Roger said that the owner of the company is willing to hire him, but Roger wasn't sure when that would be. And since the owner hadn't said whether it would be seasonal or year-round, finding a place to stay would be a challenge. However, we were able to come up with a general idea of the areas that might work for us to live in. We will definitely not be living on the coast as that will sky rocket the price of living! 

On Thursday, Hannah, Roger and myself went out to Acadia National Park. Josh had to work, so he wasn't able to come along. Roger wanted to go back out to the airport to talk to the owner and ask a few more questions in the afternoon. So we left for the park in the morning, hiked for a bit on the beautiful trails, walked through the touristy downtown (which was empty this time of year) and headed back to Josh and Hannah's house. Roger left to go to the airport, and Hannah and I visited together. As much as I love my children to pieces, it was nice to be away from them this week. I'm so thankful to both my parents for their willingness to watch the kids, so that Roger and I could take this whirl-wind trip to Maine. 

Roger came back from the airport on cloud nine...and he hasn't come down yet! The owner told Roger that he would hire him for sure and that Roger would be hired on a year-round basis! This helps us a lot with trying to figure out renting logistics, etc. The owner told Roger that he could plan on coming to Maine for the job mid-January. This will give us sometime to do the things we need to do in Wisconsin, and hopefully line up things for a smooth transition to Maine. You can probably think of a million questions to ask, and so can I! We don't have a lot of answers to anything right now, but I have a very specific list of prayer requests. 

1) That God will continue to open doors and that we will wait on His perfect timing

2) That God will make a way for a smooth transition for all of us when the time comes to move

3) That God will provide the perfect housing for us:

      *will be about $800.00 a month or cheaper

       * a nice home with a place for growing children to play

       * will be in a location that will be good for travel to both work and church

       * that our landlords will be honest, upstanding people

4) That Roger will be able to get a job until it's time to leave for Maine

5) That I will be aware and sensitive to the needs of my children as we prepare to move

6) That God will direct us to the perfect church for our family when the time comes

7) That our friends will start saving their money so that they can come visit us! :) 

This opens a whole new feeling of emotions for me as this job becomes a reality. While we were in Arizona, I knew that the job was short-term and envisioned the day when we moved back home. In this situation,  we have no idea how long this job will be for us. The employees seem to enjoy working for the company, and the owner has a good relationship with his employees. The secretary is a Christian lady who knows Pastor Ken and Debbie (our pastor and wife in Arizona!). Two other pilots that work for the company are Christian men as well, and I'm already praying that these will be good relationships for Roger.  Perhaps they can encourage and have fellowship with each other as this would be a huge blessing to my heart. 

As with any job in aviation, the job is not for sure until the pilot passes the check ride. Roger will have to have training specific to this job before he will be getting a pay check. Many of these flights are to various small islands with short run ways, so the pilot and the company need to have confidence that the pilot can do it safely. While I am confident that Roger can do this type of flying, and he is ecstatic about it all, he will probably be going out to Maine on his own to do the training before we move out there. 

That's about all that I know, so I'll close for now. I'm thankful that the Lord is always in control. I rest in His promise that He loves me, He will take care of us, and I can trust Him completely. We do appreciate your continued prayers. Our love to you all....Sarah

                         

Arizona to South Dakota to Wisconsin...and to Maine!!

 Well, what can I say? Life is a crazy roller coaster, and sometimes it's big, scary and fast! I'm ever thankful that God is in control of our lives, and He knows exactly where we are! These days I'm writing on the blog, so I can keep up with my own life as I'll never be able to look back and remember what happened and when. 

If you don't want to read the whole blog post, the following are the highlights:

1) We had a little trouble leaving Page, but the Lord showed Himself strong.

2) We visited my sister, Jenn, in a Rapid City, South Dakota.

3) We arrived in Wisconsin on Friday evening.

4) Roger and I left for Maine on Sunday afternoon. 

5) You are missing details by not reading the rest of it but those are the highlights. :)

Okay, so a little review and catch-up on our week! We had a fabulous last Sunday with our church family in Page. They had a cake for us after Sunday night church and blessed our family with a love offering. One sweet lady, Sheila, made me some beaded jewelry, and I was blessed by her kindness. It was such a privilege and a blessing to play the piano for the services, and I will miss doing that on a weekly basis. 

We spent Sunday afternoon packing, cleaning, packing, organizing and pulling more weeds! We had originally thought we'd leave Tuesday morning. However, the packing was going so well that we thought that we could leave on Monday afternoon instead. 

Monday, November 2,

Roger and I worked on cleaning up the last few things in the house and packing stuff up. I'd bring something out to be packed, and Emma would haul stuff back in the house! It wasn't going as well as we had hoped, but then Pastor Ken and his wife, Debbie, offered to take the three youngest children so we could finish up. We picked up a lot of speed on packing once they were off to the Pastors house! We managed to get the last of the sheets washed, the oil in the car changed, and everything else loaded up. We then went to the airport to find the assistant chief pilot as he was supposed to come check on the trailer to make sure everything was tidy before we left. And that's when our smooth sailing abruptly halted! 

 First we had to wait around for him because he was no where to be found. Then when he arrived, I could not believe how picky he was about the trailer! It looked over 100 times better than when we arrived, and six different pilots had lived in the trailer before we came along. Basically, the assistant chief pilot said that when the company rented the trailer the yard was clean of brush and weeds. It was FULL of brush and weeds when we arrived! We cleaned up the front yard so that the kids would have a place to play, and when we received the unpleasant note from the landlord, we raked the brush into piles. However, we had no way of getting rid of the piles of brush. The assistant chief pilot had a trailer he said we could borrow; but he never brought it over to fill, and then they abruptly let everyone go. The assistant chief pilot hinted strongly that he felt that we should stay and clean up the brush and stuff, but I felt that since he's still getting a paycheck and we aren't...he can do it!! There's a bit more to that story here, but suffice it to say that when the inspection was over, it was made clear that we were dismissed. We had thought about just bringing in blankets to sleep on the floor on Monday night since it was already the afternoon. But when the inspection was over, we didn't feel like that was an option. 

It was now almost five o'clock on Monday afternoon, we were already tired, and we had a long ways to go. We will forever be thankful that Pastor Ken and Debbie saw our need, reached out to us, fed us supper, and housed our family on Monday night. God knew that we needed that little bit of Christian fellowship after a long day, and our spirits were revived and encouraged. The Norris family loved our kids, and Wyatt cried when we left Page because he was going to miss Justin (the pastors sixteen year old son). 

Tuesday, November 3,

After breakfast, we gathered up our family and headed out of Page, Arizona. I drove Roger's car, and he drove the suburban with the trailer. I will always be thankful that my dad insisted that we learn to drive stick-shift vehicles!  Our first stop was the gas station, where we discovered that our bank cards were not working! Thankfully we had a back-up plan, but it's always disconcerting when something does not work! Since we were both driving, I was unable to call the bank and figure out the problem. When we stopped for lunch, I called the bank. They said that our account was overdrawn! Say, what?! We discovered that I had forgotten to move money from one account to another during the last few crazy days. We had two overdraft charges at $35.00 each! I talked with the bank manager, and I asked if there was any way that they could waive the fees. Since we have never done anything like this before in our history of banking with them, they graciously waived the overdraft fees. Praise the Lord! 

We traveled 557 miles on Tuesday with three kids, two vehicles, one trailer and a partridge in a pear tree...okay, scratch the last one! We made it to Rock Springs, Wyoming. By the time we arrived at 7:30 pm., we were all cold from the temperature change! 

Wednesday , November 4

We were on the road by seven am. The roads were covered with snow, and it was cold! The kids were looking for blankets and coats, and the roads were wet but safe. We thought that we would arrive in Rapid City, South Dakota, fairly late because of all the snow and weather conditions. However, God blessed with good, safe travels and we arrived by four pm. We had some children that were very, very happy to be out of the vehicle as well as one very happy mama! They did great traveling, but we were all thankful to stay with my sister, Jenn, for a day. My sister plays on a city volleyball league team, so we went to watch her play. Well, actually Roger and I watched the game, Wyatt played on Aunt Jenn's phone, and Travis and Emma climbed all over the bleachers. Travis did find twenty dollars under the bleachers though, so he was very happy! 

On Thursday we spent the day with my sister. She has an apartment at the school, and Emma discovered her classroom...every single class hour! Emma would drop in to way and smile, and the boys played in the apartment and in the gym. It was a fun and relaxing day for us. 

Friday, November 6

We drove and drove and drove! We left at four am, and we drove 332 miles without stopping! The kids traveled great for most of the day, and they knew that they would only get to Nana and Papa's house by driving. It was a long day, but it was nice to get home. I've missed my big boys greatly! 

Sunday, November 8

So...you're wondering what happens now? Well, we are too! However, we do have a few options. Roger and I left this afternoon to drive out to Maine. Yes, Maine! Roger has a job interview this week for a job out there.  This looks like a job that will possibly be for a few years, so we feel it would be best if I came along also. My parents are graciously watching our children...I mean, who wouldn't want to travel another 20 hours after traveling for 27 hours?! I I wish we were flying, but driving is a lot cheaper. This will give Roger and I the opportunity to spend some uninterrupted time alone which is something we haven't had since Feburary. So, in that regards, I am happy to be going. Also, my sister, Hannah, and her husband live in Maine, and we will get to visit them! Yay!!

Please pray for safe travels, wisdom, direction, and patience for my parents as they watch our children.  Our children are so very precious to us, and we desire to make decisions that will be the best for all of us and in Gods perfect will. We are desiring that God's will be made clear and plain to us in the matter of this job pursuit. God promises in Psalm 16:11 "Thou wilt shew me the path of life; in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore."

We saw this rainbow about an hour after leaving Page. Both Roger and I were reminded of God's many promises to us. I certainly don't know what the future holds, and I'm not a fan of uncertainty but God is faithful!