Another Adventure in our Lives!

In a nutshell our lives can be summarized in the following statement: still looking for a vehicle, Roger is still working a lot, still adjusting and working on schedules and routines, still working at trusting the Lord to lead us day by day.

Truth of the matter is that we are adjusting to life here. We've been here for almost four months, and while I still don't refer to it as "home", the transition is happening. Roger has been working four or five days a week, but I frequently remind myself that the days are getting shorter! I will be delighted when it will get dark early enough that we can all sit down to dinner together as a family again. Mom and the kids is not the same as Mom, Dad and the kids.

We had the pastor and his family over last week on the day Roger had off. It's not possible to have people over on the days that he is working, and I don't really like taking up the day that he had off for other events. However, we want to make this church our home church most likely, and we wanted to get to know the pastor and his family better. We had a great time of fellowship, and I feel that Roger and I are both more comfortable with the church after hearing his heart and vision. The have a son about the age of Garett, so the boys were delighted to have nerf gun wars with a new friend!

The children had a long weekend from school this past week as they had off for Columbus Day. We decided to take a trip to the "Big City". I was able to use a coupon on a hotel room in Portland. We left on Sunday afternoon and came back on Monday afternoon. It was a quick get-away as a family, and a bit too short, but we had a good time together. The boys had two things that they wanted to do in Portland. One was to go swimming and the other was to eat at Sam's Club! The hotel had a nice sized pool, a fabulous free breakfast, and it was a suite of two rooms. The kids went swimming three times while we were there. We did go to Sam's club on Monday, and the kids had lunch there. There are very few places that we can feed a fmaily of our size for $15.00, and Sam's Club is one of them! The boys also asked to go to the mall. Roger and I were curious as to why they wanted to go, but we said yes. When we got to the mall, we realized that they were looking for the sporting goods store. At the mall in Wisconsin, they have a sporting goods store where you can shoot at targets. We explained that not every mall has that kind of store. Wyatt replied, "You mean they only have clothes and shoes here?! Let's go home!" Yeah, no one was interested in shopping! We explored a bit of Portland and located a few places that we would like to visit in the future. It was a fun time. It was very different from how I would've spent a date with Roger, but we had a good time together.


Roger had off on Tuesday and he went to check on buying a vehicle. Back to the one we originally looked at, actually! However, the Toyota Highlander had already sold. The disappointing part is being back at square one again. But the advantage is knowing that God has a better plan! We keep looking, and God will provide at the right time. We have a budget that we are working hard to stick to, and because we don't want a vehicle payment, we are petitioning God to bring the right vehicle to us. I know when the time comes to say "good by" to the suburban, I'm going to be sad a bit. We've taken that truck so many places like Alaska, South Dakota, North Carolina, Arizona, Maine, and all states in between! It's been a good vehicle, but it's time is growing limited. Oh well, it's just a vehicle, right?


I was able to go on a walk with one of the moms from school this week too. I'm enjoying getting to know some of the moms better and recognizing whose kids go with which mom! We also had our parent meeting for the month. The parent group is getting ready to put on an auction in November to raise money for various items needed either for the teachers or the students. I'm just kinda along for the ride this year as it will be our first year participating...obviously! I've been trying to help in ways that I can as in supervising a lunch duty, participating in parent meetings, getting fingerprinted, and playing the piano once ina while for chapel. The students participate in chapel every week with a different classs leading every week. However, as we have children in every class but one, I attend about every week.


On Thursday, I visited with the Pastor and his wife from a church near our home. I had visited two weeks ago, and she had asked me to come back again. It's a good opportunity to think about others. I hope we can be a blessing to them. Their upbeat nature has certainly encouraged me! It did make for a long day though. I had grocery shopping to do, lunch to take to Roger and a few other errands. It meant that I didn't come home in between picking up Travis and the other boys. Needless to say, by 3:00 pm., we were ready to go home! I also took Travis and Emma to the farmers market and the park today as we had extra time and the weather was beautiful!

On Friday Emma and I attended chapel. I was blessed to be able to play the prelude and one of the songs. The church just replaced their older piano with a beautiful baby grand piano. Wow! It was a refreshment to my soul to play through some hymns and arrangements today. After chapel I sat at the piano with a new friend, also a pastor's wife, and we played through some of the hymns as duets. Abby has been a blessing to me through the parent meeting, her friendship, and our mutual love of the piano. I wouldn't say that either of us are fabulous at playing the piano, but we both know the blessing it can provide to both the listener and the one playing.

Emma and I spent the rest of the morning enjoying a walk through the beautiful Maine countryside with two other school moms. The fall foliage is just breathtaking, and it was a beautiful, crisp morning walk. There are lots of trail options and gorgeous scenery to behold around these parts. Since I definitely enjoy the outdoors, it's been wonderful to have so many options to walk and hike.
When I picked up Travis, one of the boys other teachers asked to set up a meeting to chat about some things. My heart always gets a wee bit nervous hearing those words, but she assured me it wasn't a behavior problem or a character issue. She suggested meeting at 2:00, which I was more than willing to do. It just meant we didn't have enough time to go home...again. So I took the kids on a walk, to a playground, to the library, and then back to school. Whew! I was tired by the time 2:00 came around. I do love each of the boy's teachers, so I knew that any concerns expressed were out of love. We discussed, in depth, one of the challenges that one of our children are facing. It was a hard meeting for me, and I'm not ready to express what we need to do. However, Roger and I could use prayers for grace and wisdom. I'm not the type for drama....or at least I don't think so, so I will come back and revisit this topic again.

The truth is that we are abundantly blessed. The darts that Satan throws are painful and ugly, but God's grace and love are more powerful and stronger than Satan. Roger will be working against this weekend, and he is struggling with a cold. I'm sure that he would appreciate the extra prayers also.

Our love to you, Sarah
Have a wonderful weekend!