The Aftermath

You may know that Hillsong United just released a new album entitled "Aftermath." This album has been more than fitting for us as we adjust to life back in Texas. We have the title song "Aftermath" on repeat in our house and our cars. "Lifted out of the wreckage I find hope in the aftermath" is the line my heart sings.

Our life in Missouri was great. The dearest of family and friends were just miles from our reach. We made amazing new friends that somehow now feel as close as family. The Lord gave us all we needed and more as we followed Him to Missouri. I look back at the last year and a half and the words that come to mind are:: refine, realign, refocus, brokeness, humility, redefine, rebuild. After the events of our move back to Texas, aftermath is a great word picture for us. Not that our life was destroyed in anyway physically but spiritually and emotionally our hearts were wrecked and redifined in a beautiful way over the last year.

I know the writers of the song Aftermath had the intentions of illustrating our lives apart from Christ and the wreck we make of ourselves as we seek our own life apart from He who gives life. They wanted, I am sure, to illustrate the hope of being pulled out, set apart for the cause of Christ and I would contend they did an amazing job of that both musically and lyrically.

After a long period of brokeness, humility, hardship, suffering or refining, do you ever feel like you are being pulled from the wreckage? The aftermath of what you just walked through is all around you, the sting of the wound, the stench of that which was peeled away? But in that aftermath, there is some how hope. Hope that you made it through alive and that it was worth it for some reason. Christ pulls you up, dusts you off and cleans your wounds so they can heal.

We are so elated to be back in Texas, a place we never thought we would live again. Its funny how the Lord excites your heart for things you never thought you would be excited about! We love it here more than EVER. We are adjusting to life in Fort Worth, our new Church and loving being close to our sweet friends.

I am a part of a women's Bible Study on Tuesday nights and I mentioned that I was thinking of not blogging anymore because I was pretty sure if I had readers they were not readers anymore because of my lack of posting. It came out that some of those ladies (whom I did not know until last month) actually read my blog! So they encouraged me not to stop. So here I am. In the aftermath. Stop by, I guess, and read as we wade through the beautiful wreckage.

with hope::

Amber

We Made It!

Most of you know this already...we made it to MO. We arrived Monday night late and our belongings arrived Thursday around 12:30; it was an adventure for us, "camping out" in our house. The boys did great! Titus started school yesterday and LOVED it. Thank you for all the prayers. It was very hard on me though. We have to drop them off, we are not allowed to walk them to class...and I am SO "that" mom...so lets just say my morning was rough.
We have almost EVERYTHING unpacked and pictures hung...even the Christmas decorations out! My mom drove down from north MO and helped me with the boys while I unpacked and arranged everything. Vernon's mom has been out a couple times helping as well. I went to a women's brunch on Saturday and was able to meet a lot of fun women from our new church. We had our first official day at our new church, The Summit. It was great! I visited a gym this morning that we are thinking about joining and of course we have all the nearby Starbucks plotted out. Sooo, life is shaping up!

I have had some rough days missing my sweet friends in Texas, but I have loved having FB, twitter and blogs to keep up. (and phones of course) Our biggest adjustment so far is figuring out how to get out the door in a timely fashion with coats, gloves, hats, shoes and socks on ALL four of us. This is not an easy task and I am open for helpful suggestions!! Also, our moving budget got pushed to the max because we had to buy all of the aforementioned items to stay warm! ha!

I will hopefully get back to blogging as our routine falls into place. Thanks for all the prayers and support during this transtion! Love to all!

Head'em up and Move'em Out

In 7 hours the boys and I will do just that, head'em up and move'em out. We have had a sweet last week here in Texas full of memories, friends and family. We can not say with words how much we love each of you dearly and will miss you more than we are ever able to communicate. We are excited about what is ahead and all that the Lord is doing. Thanks for all the love and fun this week!

Now....come visit.

Long Over Due

I have been meaning to write this post for over a month now.

My family is about to open a new chapter in our lives. We are moving. We are moving back to Missouri. St. Louis will be our new city, O'fallon, MO to be exact. Our hearts are thrilled yet we are so sad to leave all our great friends here in Texas. Houston, Midland and Fort Worth are the places we have called home in our journey here in Texas and behind us we will be leaving a wake of the dearest friends anyone could ask for. I must add Irving, although we never lived there, our church family does. They have become our closest of kin, leaving them will be like leaving our family when we moved away from MO to TX.

Vernon accepted the position of "Teaching Pastor" at The Summit Community Church in O'fallon, MO. For years now we have praying very specific prayers about a job that Vernon could use his giftings to the utmost, while continuing the work of His Voice for Sudan. When the Summit sent us the job description, we could not deny this was the place for us. It had every aspect of the job we prayed for!! We are so excited for this opportunity!

We are trying to sale our home and have been for a couple months. If we have no buyer by Thanksgiving, we will move Nov. 30th. (we are trying to find a rental home there in the mean time) If we get a buyer we will stay until we close and buy a home there. Obviously the latter is what we hope for. Please pray toward that with us!

We have learned so much through this process, so much that I wish I would have blogged. Maybe the blogs will come once we are there! Who knows.

To our Texas friends, you have have seen our family grow, cared for us in every way, struggled with us, rejoiced with us, morned with us, sang with us, gave to us, shared with us and become part of us. Although we are saying good bye physically, you have impacted our family for ever. For this we could never thank each of you enough.