So, I started working on this one over the weekend, but life happened...
Today, I want to write about things that have been happening in our lives. As everyone is aware, we are no longer living in Florida. As much as we loved the weather there, it just never really felt like home. We felt like we were working simply to pay bills and nothing more. We wanted so much more out of live and for our children.
You'll also remember that we tried Western North Carolina. We felt closer to home there, however due to extenuating circumstances we found ourselves back in Florida for a stint. We knew that this was just a temporary thing as we explored where we felt like we could be "home". This was a longer process than we thought as it lasted 3.5 years, but what we learned during that time was so very important.
We made friends. Some were but for a season and others were lifelong. We learned that while working full time, I could homeschool the girls if necessary. We learned just how responsible our oldest daughter could be when needed. There were so very many more lessons learned during this time. Our family as a whole really did some growing up during that time.
Over the course of that stay in Florida, we had opportunities to do fun things, yes, but it did not come cheap. We could have used the money experiencing the area to secure housing elsewhere, but we didn't know where we wanted to be. Where we wanted to be hadn't surfaced yet, so we allowed our family to have some get-aways.
This past January we took our family on our first ever family cruise. We came away knowing that we wanted to go again, just as soon as we could. We knew this would be the last hurrah before our move. We had decided to give Greenville, SC a try. More on our experience to come.
During the 3 months before our move, we grew ever so close with our neighbors and friends. Nick, Rebekah, Walter, Alex, Krysta, Liam, and baby Izzy will forever have a place in our hearts. We miss them so much that it hurts. They started as neighbors, but by the time we moved they were family. During one of our evenings of sharing a meal at their large outside table, Kenzie even learned that Toby (their beautiful dog) was a friend. For the first time in I couldn't tell you how long, she loved on a dog. She's tolerated them in the past, but she just wasn't a fan. So now, we can add Toby to the very short list of dogs she loves.
Maddie became one of the best baby Izzy sitters! She absolutely loved loving on this precious miracle baby. There was never a time when I needed something for her that Maddie couldn't go right over and pick it up for me. You see, we loved having the opportunity to babysit her from time to time. There were even times when Izzy became part of one of my afternoon meetings :)
The experiences with this family could go on and on. That's a whole other post.
As a final hurrah and my birthday party, we decided to have a grilling session over at their house. The love they showed all of us was just nothing short of JESUS.
Fast forward a few days and we found ourselves leaving the love of this family for our new home in Greenville. We had looked at several cities in South Carolina, but none really worked out. I was on a call with work and Ryan applied for an apartment. Within an hour, he got the call that we had gotten the apartment. That was the sign for us that it was time to go. We had just a month to get things packed up, purged, etc and leave. We left a few days early and went up to his parents house for the weekend and then move in day.
During the weekend, we shopped around for furniture and were blessed with the use of a truck. More than that, we were blessed with a recliner and sleeper sofa. You see, we needed to replace our furniture, so we were starting from scratch. When we moved in, we were on air mattresses and had just the bare essentials due to some blessings we've received.
I am not going to lie and say that it hasn't been a tough few months, but I will say that even through the trials and tribulations we have walked through, we are right where we are supposed to be. We are in one of the best apartment complexes we've ever lived in. Yes, the base rent is a bit more than what we were paying in Florida. However, it includes so much more. We now have at least double the space we had there. A pool, outdoor kitchen, dedicated balcony with storage room, fishing pond... The list goes on. What is even more impressive is that this complex comes with water, cable, AND internet included! How often can we say that. Because we have so many of our utilities included in the base cost, it ends up being that we are paying less for the apartment and utilities than we did in Florida.
The girls are in the best schools in the district. Maddie attends the only middle school for global and traditional studies in the district. She was one of the blessed kiddos who was zoned for this school so she didn't have to go on the lottery pick list. She was a little nervous starting school this year because she'd never had to change classes, but she's a pro at it now. She loves her science teacher, but her favorite class is Math. She's part of a release program where every Monday she goes over to a local church for some enrichment on a spiritual level during her related arts program. She's a Greenville Middle Academy Spirit Lifter. You may ask, what do you mean?... Well, she joined the chorus! She's doing amazing and learning so much! She's looking forward to the big chorus winter concert and going a few days later to see A Christmas Carol at Logos Theater. More than that, she's excited that her mom gets to chaperone this event.
Kenzie (or as the school counselor knows her as, Mack) is doing so very well at her high school. She enjoys being an Eagle and that was so very evident during this past week where her school raised over $100,000 for a charity that supports programs like Make-A-Wish. This was an absolutely amazing experience for all of the children. They got to have fun dressing up for various days, but more than that they realized that they were blessing others when they attended paid events, such as the bonfire they had on campus Thursday night. She's a second year freshman because of the way credits transferred in, but she's only a few credits shy of being a sophomore. With taking a few courses online over the summer, she will be right there! She loves science class and her least favorite is math.
My girls couldn't be more polar opposites could they???
When we came up, we didn't have a job secured for Ryan. We came on the faith that within the first few weeks he would be able to secure work. He did, but then he got a call from THE job saying he needed to come in for some stuff during the day, so he ended up needing to resign his job because they wouldn't let him have the days off he needed in order to take care of the onboarding requirements. So this meant to get the job he really wanted, which was much better paying and a really great opportunity. He resigned from the other one so he could go through that process. It took about 6 weeks and that was pretty tough for us financially, but through blessings we were able to get things taken care of while he was onboarding.
In the mean time, I was promoted to a new position in my department. The manager had decided that we needed someone dedicated to managing our projects. Because I was already juggling most of the tasks of a project coordinator, but this new position meant widening the scope of my role.
[I will go into more details on my position at a later date as things are still being fleshed out.]
As you can see, our lives have reallly changed in the last 6 months and we couldn't be happier. We are in a great location, great schools, and we are starting to bloom where we were planted. Until next time, my friends.
Today, I want to write about things that have been happening in our lives. As everyone is aware, we are no longer living in Florida. As much as we loved the weather there, it just never really felt like home. We felt like we were working simply to pay bills and nothing more. We wanted so much more out of live and for our children.
You'll also remember that we tried Western North Carolina. We felt closer to home there, however due to extenuating circumstances we found ourselves back in Florida for a stint. We knew that this was just a temporary thing as we explored where we felt like we could be "home". This was a longer process than we thought as it lasted 3.5 years, but what we learned during that time was so very important.
We made friends. Some were but for a season and others were lifelong. We learned that while working full time, I could homeschool the girls if necessary. We learned just how responsible our oldest daughter could be when needed. There were so very many more lessons learned during this time. Our family as a whole really did some growing up during that time.
Over the course of that stay in Florida, we had opportunities to do fun things, yes, but it did not come cheap. We could have used the money experiencing the area to secure housing elsewhere, but we didn't know where we wanted to be. Where we wanted to be hadn't surfaced yet, so we allowed our family to have some get-aways.
This past January we took our family on our first ever family cruise. We came away knowing that we wanted to go again, just as soon as we could. We knew this would be the last hurrah before our move. We had decided to give Greenville, SC a try. More on our experience to come.
During the 3 months before our move, we grew ever so close with our neighbors and friends. Nick, Rebekah, Walter, Alex, Krysta, Liam, and baby Izzy will forever have a place in our hearts. We miss them so much that it hurts. They started as neighbors, but by the time we moved they were family. During one of our evenings of sharing a meal at their large outside table, Kenzie even learned that Toby (their beautiful dog) was a friend. For the first time in I couldn't tell you how long, she loved on a dog. She's tolerated them in the past, but she just wasn't a fan. So now, we can add Toby to the very short list of dogs she loves.
Maddie became one of the best baby Izzy sitters! She absolutely loved loving on this precious miracle baby. There was never a time when I needed something for her that Maddie couldn't go right over and pick it up for me. You see, we loved having the opportunity to babysit her from time to time. There were even times when Izzy became part of one of my afternoon meetings :)
The experiences with this family could go on and on. That's a whole other post.
As a final hurrah and my birthday party, we decided to have a grilling session over at their house. The love they showed all of us was just nothing short of JESUS.
Fast forward a few days and we found ourselves leaving the love of this family for our new home in Greenville. We had looked at several cities in South Carolina, but none really worked out. I was on a call with work and Ryan applied for an apartment. Within an hour, he got the call that we had gotten the apartment. That was the sign for us that it was time to go. We had just a month to get things packed up, purged, etc and leave. We left a few days early and went up to his parents house for the weekend and then move in day.
During the weekend, we shopped around for furniture and were blessed with the use of a truck. More than that, we were blessed with a recliner and sleeper sofa. You see, we needed to replace our furniture, so we were starting from scratch. When we moved in, we were on air mattresses and had just the bare essentials due to some blessings we've received.
I am not going to lie and say that it hasn't been a tough few months, but I will say that even through the trials and tribulations we have walked through, we are right where we are supposed to be. We are in one of the best apartment complexes we've ever lived in. Yes, the base rent is a bit more than what we were paying in Florida. However, it includes so much more. We now have at least double the space we had there. A pool, outdoor kitchen, dedicated balcony with storage room, fishing pond... The list goes on. What is even more impressive is that this complex comes with water, cable, AND internet included! How often can we say that. Because we have so many of our utilities included in the base cost, it ends up being that we are paying less for the apartment and utilities than we did in Florida.
The girls are in the best schools in the district. Maddie attends the only middle school for global and traditional studies in the district. She was one of the blessed kiddos who was zoned for this school so she didn't have to go on the lottery pick list. She was a little nervous starting school this year because she'd never had to change classes, but she's a pro at it now. She loves her science teacher, but her favorite class is Math. She's part of a release program where every Monday she goes over to a local church for some enrichment on a spiritual level during her related arts program. She's a Greenville Middle Academy Spirit Lifter. You may ask, what do you mean?... Well, she joined the chorus! She's doing amazing and learning so much! She's looking forward to the big chorus winter concert and going a few days later to see A Christmas Carol at Logos Theater. More than that, she's excited that her mom gets to chaperone this event.
Kenzie (or as the school counselor knows her as, Mack) is doing so very well at her high school. She enjoys being an Eagle and that was so very evident during this past week where her school raised over $100,000 for a charity that supports programs like Make-A-Wish. This was an absolutely amazing experience for all of the children. They got to have fun dressing up for various days, but more than that they realized that they were blessing others when they attended paid events, such as the bonfire they had on campus Thursday night. She's a second year freshman because of the way credits transferred in, but she's only a few credits shy of being a sophomore. With taking a few courses online over the summer, she will be right there! She loves science class and her least favorite is math.
My girls couldn't be more polar opposites could they???
When we came up, we didn't have a job secured for Ryan. We came on the faith that within the first few weeks he would be able to secure work. He did, but then he got a call from THE job saying he needed to come in for some stuff during the day, so he ended up needing to resign his job because they wouldn't let him have the days off he needed in order to take care of the onboarding requirements. So this meant to get the job he really wanted, which was much better paying and a really great opportunity. He resigned from the other one so he could go through that process. It took about 6 weeks and that was pretty tough for us financially, but through blessings we were able to get things taken care of while he was onboarding.
In the mean time, I was promoted to a new position in my department. The manager had decided that we needed someone dedicated to managing our projects. Because I was already juggling most of the tasks of a project coordinator, but this new position meant widening the scope of my role.
[I will go into more details on my position at a later date as things are still being fleshed out.]
As you can see, our lives have reallly changed in the last 6 months and we couldn't be happier. We are in a great location, great schools, and we are starting to bloom where we were planted. Until next time, my friends.
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