Calm in the Storm

We are getting busy around here. Sorting through things, getting ready for a house hunting trip and VBS, packing for a trip to Cornardo and 2 months in temporary housing, all while hanging out with friends "one last time." It's been busy, emotional and tiring, but through it all we have moments of reprieve where we just laugh with one another, or watch the stars come out while Jeff ready Narnia by flashlight. During worship this week I was comforted by a song that reminded me that "the great unchangeable I am" will be with me wherever we go. I cherish these moments of calm, the times when I take a deep breath and know that I am so thankful for God's presence in my life. Rachel Lee woke up the other day grumpy. It's probably our fault as parents because we have been out late a lot lately, and she was worn out. She has thrown a tantrum and calmed down, so I went to find her. She was not in her room, where she went to throw her tantrum, but instead she was in my room lying on my bed and she was staring out the window. At first I thought she fell asleep but as I peaked around at her I noticed she was still awake. I asked her what she was doing and she said, "I just lying here breathing." Sometimes that's all I can do, lie down in the presence of God and just breath, enjoy His calm and soaking in His peace. Praise God for moments of calm in the storm of life.

Our Next Adventure...San Francisco

I previously wrote about our waiting place, we were waiting to hear about a job offer for Jeff, and he has both received and accepted the position. So, we are bound for San Francisco...the last metropolitan area in California that we have yet to live. We both know that this is where God is leading our family, and we not know that it will be painful to leave both sets of our parents, the Pine family (Jenna's family), friends and our church community. There are still times that I feel the pain of leaving Boston, the friends and church family there really were family to us. We went from being naive newlyweds to being a naive young family there. We shared really hard and really good times with our Boston friends. And now, facing good-byes again seems difficult. I'm not sure our hearts ever heal from saying good-bye, but I know it makes me long for a time in heaven when I know we will not say good-bye, and where we will have the comfort of being with God. But that time is not now, so please pray for us as we say good-bye to dearly loved family and friends and beginning settling into a new adventure in San Francisco.

Tell Me a Story...

The girls love hearing stories. When they are in the car they will often ask me to tell them a story...sometimes they are more specific and ask for me to tell them a fictional story, or a story with a king, queen and other characters. The other day Hannah said, "Tell me the story about our house." And it made me think about the passage that says, "You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand...you shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." Deut. 11:18-19 I know God was referring to the 10 commandments that He had just given them, but we need to teach our kids how God is working in our lives. He is not just a God in the Bible, but He is our God, and He is doing great things in our lives for His glory. So, here is the story that I told the girls about this house... When we moved from Boston we looked at different places online and found a great apartment to live in. It was tiny, but it had just the right amount of space for all of us. And it was next to a playground where other people came to play, so we were able to quickly meet people and make lots of friends. We invited friends to play in our tiny apartment and we had a great time. While we lived there we looked at a lot of houses in the area to buy, but every house that we tried to buy seemed to be bought by someone else. We were really discouraged and so I suggested one night that we look at renting a house for a while, that way we have a little more space and we could still try to buy a house. Most of the houses in the area were too expensive for us to buy, but there was one house that was just a little more than our apartment. We were worried that the house was not really for rent, and that it was really a scam. We called the man who was renting it, Mr. Craig, and he said that a lot of people were coming on Sunday and asked if we could come between 10-12. We had church until 11:30, so we said we would be close to 12, but that we would like to come. He waited for us, and when he showed us the house he said that he had seen a lot of people that day, but that he wanted to rent it to us! Praise God! We had considered skipping church to see the house, but knew that if it was where God wanted us nothing could stop Him from putting us there. So, we moved in and knew that we wanted to bless other people in our neighborhood with the house that God gave us, so we had a BBQ and asked the neighborhood to come. Lots of people came and we met most of our street that day. We played outside a lot with other kids, and had the kids over to our house to play. We have always seen this house as a gift from God, and hope that we have been good as opening our house to our neighbors and others who need and want love. Ironically I told her this story as we were driving to Target to pay a bill for our neighbor who is sick and would have otherwise been late with her payment. It's not always easy to love our neighbors, and I am grateful that Hannah asked for a story that reminded me what a gift this house is, and what a gift my neighbors are. I am also grateful that she reminded me of this story as we consider where to live next, especially now that we are even more concerned about where the girls will attend school. When we moved it we moved based on what we could afford, and Mira Mesa was the place! Now we are trying to combine what we can afford and what schools we want the girls to attend. We are praying for God's leading, provision and protection. We know that God gave us this house at below market rent, and we know that God will take us to any place He wants, and that is where we want to be!

4th of July!!

Four "F" things to be thankful for on the 4th: 1. Freedom 2. Friends 3. Face painting 4. Family!

Disneyland

The girls have been asking and asking to go to Disneyland, so when Jeff's cousin, Beth offered us some free tickets through her friend, Breck, we jumped at the chance. And it was everything each girl was hoping for: Kate wanted to meet princesses and Hannah wanted to go on fun rides. Rachel Lee just enjoyed everything, and really wanted to go on a train when she saw the train going around the park. We all had a great time, and feel so blessed to be able to take the girls to such a fun and special place...the happiest place on Earth! In Minnie's house and meeting Minnie Mouse At the castle Meeting Mickey Mouse DUMBO!! Meeting the Princesses (Hannah went on rides with Jeff and then met us for the Tangled show) The Main Street Parade Rachel Lee on the train ride We stayed until 11:30, and Rachel Lee feel asleep on the tram ride back to the parking lot. It was quite the day, and we truly made the most of our time there! What a blessing to be able to do fun things together as a family!

COUSINS!!

With the Oetken family living in Colorado, it's not often that ALL the cousins on the Nichols side get together. So, when it happens, it's super special and there are lots of pictures taken. LOTS of pictures. So, let's start at the beginning, where all good Nichols moments start, with a coffee at Starbucks... Rachel and Kirk then went to work moving Kirk's office (the purpose of the trip) while we were able to play with Joe and Kara at the Fish Park... ...where we try to throw pine cones into the fish's mouth and get the pine cones to stay in the middle...it's not as easy as it sounds! And also where we play ball tag! I just need to highlight my mom, Grandma Sue, using Hannah as a shield in ball tag. Who says the Nichols aren't competitive? Then dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory before Rachel and Kirk headed home. But, they left the kids for some more play time!! At the pool... At the park... And then some special play time with the Pine cousins who were on vacation at Lake Shaver and weren't able to be there sooner. My mom made all the girls matching dresses and we took all the cousins to Picture People for portraits together. It was a production getting everyone there, posed and smiling, but the pictures turned out great and were well worth the effort! Praise God for this time with all the Nichols cousins together! Can't wait to do it with the Murry cousins in August!

Amy Girl's 7th Birthday

It's hard to believe that God answered our prayers to grow the Pine family over 7 years ago. It seems so fresh in my mind how we prayed and waited, prayed and waited, prayed and waited and then finally REJOICED! Amy was born, and it was clear that God had blessed our family with a true treasure. As I have watched her grow I can see a loving heart that is full of compassion for others, and a happiness that radiates as she literally jumps and hops around from activity to activity. It is fitting to have a pool party for this dear one, a party full of activity and fun. I am so glad to be able celebrate this dear life. God is good, and Amy is truly a blessing!