Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

I apologize for my lack of blogging lately, but as many of you know we spent just over a week on vacation in Hawaii. I thought that I might be blogging from the beach, but, besides the fear of getting sand in James' laptop, I was way too busy taking pictures and video to blog. I will be posting a daily summary blog on our family blog soon, and I will blog my thoughts about the trip here at some point. In the meantime you can check out all our photos (400+) from the trip on smugmug.com (See the link "Our Photos" to the right).
With that caveat out of the way let me tell you my main reason for this post. As I was stumbling around the house this morning in my pre-coffee, jet-lagged stupor I realized that today is June 10th. While this date may not have significance to you as the reader, it was a very important date for the Dewald family. In 2005 it was the date when we closed on our first home. Little did we know that changes that would take place in three years. At that time we were living in Michigan and James had been the youth pastor at our church there for over 18 months. We had searched long and hard for a house that would meet all our needs. We needed a large room to host gatherings of youth and we also needed a guest room as all our family lived far away and needed a place to stay when they visited. We also were working with a very tight budget. We settled on a four bedroom bi-level in a nice neighborhood in Perry, Michigan. It was just 6 miles from our church. We closed on June 10th and moved in about 10 days later. We did a lot of work making the home our own.
As I said above, if we had only known the changes that would take place while living there. Two months later James was let go from his position at the church, which of course necessitated us finding a new church home (which we did the very next Sunday, BTW, at Red Cedar in Okemos ). Six weeks after that our second beautiful daughter was born. Then James, who had been working at Dick's Sporting Goods to make ends meet, found a job in the mortgage industry and proved to be very successful at it. After about 18 months the economy in Michigan started to turn south and he began to look for a position in Ohio. As soon as the position at the church was gone, our reason for being in Michigan ceased to exist. We knew that we wanted to move back to Ohio eventually, but were waiting until we could get a little equity in our house. When James was offered a position with RH Donnelley we knew that the time had come. We prayed long and hard for God to provide a buyer for our house as James began work in Ohio on June 4th 2007. We spent most of the summer separated as the girls and I were in Michigan trying to sell the house and James split his time between Ohio and North Carolina for training for his new job. By God's grace we were able to sell our house. We closed on August 13th 2007 and were finally able to be together as a family again. We lived with my parents (with most of our stuff in storage) for about six weeks until we settled on a nice duplex to rent. We moved in on September 9th. So now we are finally getting settled.
Since June 10th 2005, we have lived in three homes, gone to three churches, had three jobs, and added one child to our family (at least it wasn't three children - that would have been too much). Even though at times I've wondered "what the heck is going on here" God has always been in control. On that day in June 2005 HE knew where we would be three years later, even though I had no clue. Looking back I can see His hand in everything we faced. He held us as we cried over friends lost. He encouraged me as I locked the door on our beloved house for the last time. He provided new jobs, churches, and friends just when we needed them. I am so thankful that He knows what He is doing. Thanks Lord for being there all the time and for the many lessons you've taught me along the way!

Our home in Michigan when we purchased it

Our home in Ohio last October with James & the girls playing in the sprinkler out front