Roots and Wings

“I don't care how poor a man is; if he has family, he's rich.” ~Dan Wilcox

One of our goals this year was to have some good quality and quantity time with family.  We are so grateful for the hugs, tears, dreams, disappointments, prayers and laughter we were able to share with family members the last six months. 

These last couple weeks have been the “grand finale”of family time as we’ve been able to be ALL together on both sides of our families. It has been awesome. Just in the last few weeks we’ve celebrated a . . .

1st birthday

40th Anniversary (my parents)

funeral (Jason's Grandma)

10th Anniversary (ours)

Memorial service

4th of July

I’ve heard it said that family should give you roots and wings. We certainly have experienced the blessing of both.

 'A happy family is but an earlier heaven. ' by George Bernard Shaw

This is probably the last post I’ll write here at Moving in the Moment as I will be switching back to In the Moment for our life in Hong Kong. We would love for you to keep following along. In closing this blog I want to end with a quote from the first entry that I wrote . . . 

"A ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are made for…” - unknown

We are so thankful to our families, especially our parents, for giving us solid roots but allowing us to stretch our wings. We appreciate your understanding that for our family right now our “ship” is not meant to be in America. We love you all so much!  xoxo

9 More Days

I sat down to count up all of the places that our family has stayed from last July 1st when we moved out of our Monte Vista flat to mid July when we will settle back into our new (yet to be discovered) home.  I counted every transition- so a few houses were counted twice, like my parents, if we left and returned. 

Any guesses? 

Drum roll please. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

That averages out to moving every 5.6 days

We have lived in 7 countries 

in 4 continents 

taken 17 flights

driven through 18 states

and 12,000 miles

No wonder I need a nap (: 

As our time winds down and we prepare to enter into a season of more stability and predictability I feel mixed emotions. Without doubt we are ready to plant ourselves, yet we don’t want to loose our sense of dependence, desperation even, for God.

In Richard Foster’s book “Prayer” he references a term for dynamic change called conversatio morum.  Translated it means “death to status quo” or “constant change”.  Although I’d rather not change my bed every five nights, I do want to be ever changing and transformed into His image. 

So our ongoing challenge is to hold everything loosely. Even as I look at pinterest decorations for our new house and pick out the case for my eagerly awaited iphone God is reminding me to go “low and slow” into Hong Kong.  To not be too easily satisfied with the security this world has to offer and to truly have faith in his promises. . . for  provision, for power, for love that can change lives.

Only 9 more days of this journey. . . .thanks for reading.