Our last days as Houstonians

It is hard to keep up with all God is doing to get us to Bologna (yes, we finally know what city we're headed to!). He sold our house on the very last day of the week we had been praying it would sell by. Our inspection went awesome--they asked for nothing. We needed to sell our refridgerator, and the buyers needed one. Today is our "Liquidation Garage Sale" and so far things are flying off the shelves! (Little do people know that tomorrow by 10 we're literally going to be giving things away. . .)

So, we'll close on June 5 (Hannah's very last day of Kindergarten), and we'll leave the next day for Florida and X-Track (our international training program). To help the kids remember and say good-bye to Houston (and yes, us too), we've started a "What We Love About Houston" scrapbook. We've gone around and taken pictures of our favorite people and places. Here are a few of them (our local Starbucks, Texadelphia--one of our favorite lunch spots, the Houston skyline, and our church). We have loved living in Houston! And I say that on a day when it was 95 degrees and almost 100 percent humidity. These past four years have been some of the sweetest of our lives.

Even though we are in the midst of it, it is still hard to believe we are actually leaving. I wish I could say it has gotten easier, but every few days a wave of grief washes over us. It has been very emotionally exhausting to say good-bye to a place that has been so good for us, for our kids and for our family. It's been exhausting to purge half of our belongings. It's amazing how much emotion can be attached to something that carries with it a memory.

God was so good to me (Jen) this week. On a day when I was especially having a hard time of letting go, God gave me the picture of His outstretched arms, asking, "Can you give it to Me? Can you give this up for me and for what I'm asking you to do?" In light of that, it is not hard for me to let go. I will willing give it all up to be obedient to Jesus.