Changes for Our Boys Too

The move to Chicago hasn't only meant change for the humans in our family.

Our dog, Spike, who was strictly an inside creature back in Chattanooga, is now learning to do life as a real dog. Gone are the pampered days of laziness and inactivity. He now takes two thirty minute walks a day. During these outings he takes in every sight and smell along the way and expertly avoids any contact with manhole covers or other four legged creatures.


so much to see


so much to smell
We've supplemented his potty patch usage with the occasional outside "business"! It's a whole new world for this once sheltered pup. The good news? He's taking to it with gusto. Turns out, when you treat your dog like a dog, they begin to act like a dog. He was once a neurotic bundle of nerves scared of his own shadow. And now... well, I mean he's still pretty neurotic but he's making progress. And the best news is that all this walking is leading to one worn out pup.




pooped puppy
As far as the cat goes, I'm concerned that our move has only heightened his quest for world domination.



surveying his kingdom
He spends hours looking out our 7th floor windows. One can only assume he is plotting to annihilate and conquer. His tail twitches and his eyes remain focused on whatever is he sees down below. I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty glad I'm the one that feeds him twice a day. Certainly that task has earned me amnesty when he finally puts his plan into motion.

Moving Day

"Being alive, it seems, means learning to bear the weight of the passing of all things. It means finding a way to lightly hold all the places we've loved and left anyway, all the moments and days and years that have already been lived and lost to memory, even as we live on in the here and now, knowing full well that this moment, too, has already gone. It means, always, allowing for the hard truth of endings. It means, too, keeping faith in beginnings."

~Katrina Kenison

Thank you, for the quote beautiful friend.

Next Stop, Chicago.

Transition Continues

Stage 1: "We're Moving to Chicago!!! Yippee!"

During stage one we dreamed and danced and cheered our exciting new adventure. We found a place to live and  talked about all the fun our new life would be. We were filled with gratitude, stunned by our good fortune and giddy with excitement.

Knowing the next few months would likely be filled with stress and transition, we celebrated the news and trusted it would all work out.

Stage 2: "We're Moving to Chicago!?! Holy Crap!"

During stage two we panicked a little bit. We came to terms with the fact that our lifestyle was going to be changing a LOT. We realized that we had a ton of stuff and not a ton of room in which to keep it. We wondered what should happen with our little house in Chattanooga. We clung tightly to our daily routines and imagined how they would be altered when our surroundings changed. We spent a whole lot of time praying for strength, wisdom and courage. We sorted, purged, packed and downsized. Unexpected curve balls came our way that kept us from getting too far ahead of just today. I promise that each today provided plenty to navigate.

Taking our first taste of the stress and transition, we cowered a little bit.

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Stage 3: "We're Moving to Chicago. Just not quite yet."

Our house is half empty as I type this post. Many of our things have been gifted, stored, pitched or listed for sale. The hubby is making his way back to Chattanooga after a quick trip to deliver furniture and other sundry items to St. Louis. While we still await an official moving date, the plans seem to be falling into place for sometime late in January. There is a peace about the transition now. No longer frantically doggy paddling against the current; fighting for breath, we find ourselves calmly floating and wondering what we'll find around the next curve. I've let go of control of all of this in countless ways. While that might sound counter-intuitive, it's definitely saving my sanity. "What will be, will be." And until then, we're taking time to enjoy our last days in Chattanooga. Spending time with friends and one another is the highest priority.

Unsure of how many more stages this transition will be, I am at peace with exactly where we are today.

Doesn't it seem like this is shaping up to be the longest move in the history of moves? 

What was your most drawn out moving experience?

  

Getting Over My Own Expectations

Over the past few weeks I've started and abandoned countless posts. There is no denying, I have plenty to write about. Life is changing. There is excitement all around. Prayers are being answered clearly, unquestionably and differently than we might have ever imagined. We're in the midst of an "ebenezer" moment in our lives. I am certain we will look back on these days and months for years to come and remember the joy, the provision, the excitement and the growth.  But as I stare at the computer screen and consider sharing the day to day details of the experience here on the blog, I'm overwhelmed with a sense of responsibility. I worry that focusing on things like the daily minutia of our move, my emotions or the little gifts that we are worshipfully receiving would be doing a disservice to the bigger story. Because, people, make no mistake I recognize that this move is big. It is BIG for our relationship, BIG for our faith, BIG for our present and BIG for our future. I've convinced myself that focusing posts on the daily minutia ignores the magnitude of this experience in our lives. The problem is, whenever I try to tell the big story it feels so big that all my thoughts get jumbled. Nothing I put down seems quite right. None of my words fully capture our reality. I struggle, uncertain how much to share and what parts of the story to keep close to my heart. Since I've been unable to tell the entire big story effectively, I've stayed relatively silent. Thinking that I won't be able to communicate everything perfectly, I've chosen not to communicate much at all. But, now I realize that that kind of thinking is a crock of crap.

Truth is, I'm just too close to do the big story justice right now. Being chin deep in all this transition, doesn't afford me the perspective necessary to tell it properly. So, I'm letting myself off the hook. The big story will have to wait for another day. Someday, with a little bit of distance, I'll have the perspective to share it all. Someday I'll be able to communicate the full impact it has had on my heart. Someday I'll be able to do the big story justice. But for now, I'm going to enjoy living in the story as it continues to unfold.