Training. . .

Yes, that is our little padawon, Gavin, lightsaber-to-lightsaber with Darth Vader. This year Disney's theme at their parks is "Year of a Million Dreams." On Father's Day, we went to DisneyWorld and made two of those dreams come true--it was perhaps an even bigger dream come true for Daddy than for Gavin. Gavin was chosen to participate in the Jedi Training Academy, at the end of which he got to fight Darth Vader himself. Wow! It will probably always be on Daddy's all-time most incredible memories list.

If only we had the time to update our blog as quickly as life is happening! We really felt like once we left for X-Track, things would slow down. On one hand, we are so thankful to be past the chaos of the past several months. We are so thankful (SO thankful!) that our house is sold, our belongings are packed, and for better or worse, we've sorted through what is going with us and what is not. We are glad that phase of this process is over. X-Track has been exhausting in and of itself.

The training we have been receiving has been incredible. We have been challenged so much in thinking through not only how to minister more effectively to Italians but how to thrive in our new culture. We have learned tons that is going to save us learning a lot of lessons the hard way. And we've received some great guidance in coming up with proactive plans for not only surviving but thriving. We're leaving with an Education Plan for the kids. And a Language plan for us. And minds filled with cultural adjustments in what could help Italians better understand the personal relationship Jesus wants to have with them.

Though we feel pushed to the limit in terms of what we can process, we feel like God is being so active in our lives. He is shaping and molding us in so many ways. We are so glad for it though! We feel so incredibly inadequate for what He has called us to. We are trying to soak up as much as we can from this time.

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.

A little bit of stress

Well, we have to be honest and say that we're starting to feel the stress of all that is going on in our lives right now. We have tried to be as proactive as possible to get as much done before this "crunch time" as we could, but there are just some things that have to be tackled now. A lot, actually. We definitely feel like we're operating mostly out of the urgent and not so much out of the things we'd rather prioritize.

We also didn't anticipate the emotional stress we'd be feeling, as we prepare to leave Houston. We love Houston! We love our church, our neighborhood, the city. It is so hard to say good-bye! My best friend visited last week from Washington D.C. I have no idea when I'll see her again. Saying good-bye caught me off guard. We're having to actively "grieve" all we're leaving behind. . .not the material things but the relationships. We still see our departure as far away. It's not that far away anymore.

We will leave Houston in about six weeks for X-Track, our International Training program. If our house sells (another source of stress, we hate to admit!), we'll have our entire lives in Houston packed up in that time. We wish we had all of our time to commit to either the details involved in moving to a foreign country or to the emotionally exhausting task of saying good-bye. We're finding it really hard to balance both.

Every day is a chance to walk in faith. Really. We find our dependence upon the Lord to be a necessity to making it through the day. On one hand, we are so incredibly thankful for that. Praise God that He sustains us and keeps us from completely losing it! On the other hand, growth never comes comfortably. There have been so many times we have felt stretched to our capacity. And yet the stretching continues! He IS sustaining us. He IS growing us. He IS providing what we need. He IS meeting intimately with us. He IS allowing us to be completely uncomfortable in the process.

As a dear friend and ministry partner exhorted us recently, we want to send Praise before us. We want faith in God's provision to be what defines this time. And so, exhausted and feeling at the end of ourselves, we say "to God be the Glory!"

Here we go!

Today is the day we listed our house. Obviously, we have to sell our house before we can move. Still, it is so bittersweet. We are so thankful for God's provision of this home. It was our first house, it was such a blessing to our family. We have so many great memories here! It is the only home Gavin has ever known. Weird that Benjamin won't remember it at all. Anyway, today we begin the huge step of faith in trusting God to provide the right buyer in the right time.

Essentially, we need to have a contract within 30 days. Crazy. We had planned to list it earlier, but because of Benjamin's early arrival, today is the day instead. All the more to trust the Lord with. He has provided even before we have asked up to this point, so we trust He will do the same with our house.

We are definitely grieving having to open up our hands and let God take this gift, but we know, also, that it is part of the cost in following where God is leading. So, we willingly do it. We also have anxious anticipation to see how He is going to work in selling it. Seeing how God has chosen to work has definitely been a fun aspect of this journey!

Our Blog Begins

Welcome to the blog of The Phipps Five! We wanted to start a website for friends and ministry partners to be able to see and read about what's going on with our family and our transition to life in Italy. Though we're still several months away from actually moving, the "transition" is definitely beginning, as we're being faced with more and more change and more decisions that need to be made. The adventure has begun! We hope you are encouraged to read through our journey of faith in following God to Italy. We feel like every day we are asked to exercise a faith we didn't know we were capable of. And yet, every day, God provides even the faith to follow Him. We count it such a privilege to be doing what we're doing.

So, I (Jen) couldn't think of a better way to begin our family's blog than with the announcement of the birth of Benjamin Lewis Phipps. Our precious little guy arrived two weeks early, on March 13. We induced early because of concern about his size and my blood pressure beginning to rise. God was so good to provide all we needed during Ben's delivery. It was all we could have asked for. We were especially thankful for an incredible nurse, who really made it possible for me to have the almost completely natural delivery we had wanted, despite having to take Pitocin. From beginning to end, labor was 1 hour, 59 minutes--another sweet gift from God. Despite having done this twice already, Cody really came through like never before in the coaching department. We would both say it was definitely one of the most incredible experiences of our lives.

Benjamin has been with us for two weeks now, and already we can not remember life without him. He is an absolute delight! He is a very laid back little guy, really not making much noise unless he's hungry or needing a diaper change. And he's already allowing us a six hour stretch of sleep at night. We have been savoring this precious time of his first few weeks. We've been cuddling at every opportunity. The kids LOVE him. Gavin especially. Gavin is our nurturer, and he is loving looking after his little brother. He has been very concerned that for some reason we would leave Benjamin somewhere. He has been so, so sweet to Ben. Hannah has shown a soft heart to her new little brother too, offering to give Ben his first bath. It has been really fun to see how grown up she is with this new brother.

And in the midst of this sweet time with our little one, we will be putting our house on the market on Monday. God has been so good this Spring to allow us to get all of the little projects done we needed to, to get our house ready. It is a bittersweet time for us. We are so thankful for our house. We see so many ways God so perfectly provided it for us. We have loved living here! And so it is hard to get ready to say goodbye. We also know it is one of the many things God is asking us to give up in order to follow Him. It is a cost we are willing to pay. But it is something we also have to grieve. We have been so blessed by our home that we are praying for a new family to buy it that will be just as blessed. Since it is our first house, we are also praying for God to provide the money we need to get out of it. We are leaving for our International Training on June 6, and we're praying we'd be able to close and move before then. Again, even selling our house is a huge step of faith for us.

Well, I think this has been a good beginning to our little blog. We'll post more as God continues to bring all the pieces together. Thanks for reading, and thanks for your prayers on our behalf!