Now that normalcy and routine are becoming more a part of our lives, we are able to start doing more fun things together. Every Tuesday and Thursday at 10am there is a mom’s play group here at our apartment village where moms and kids come and hang out together. Yesterday morning, Lily and I went to the group with Stacie and Caedmon. It was so much fun! One of my favorite things is the diversity of the group. There were moms from: the United States (us!) Japan, India, France, Iran, Canada- and I think China. It’s nice to connect with other moms from different cultures.
After we came home, I was still amazed at how many different nations are represented here. This passage of Scripture came to my mind. “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.” Revelation 7:9
I feel like God is giving us a glimpse of what this will be like. What an incredible day that will be.
The most important part of the event is that we were able to show Jesus to the city officials. The people that worked for the city told us they had never had a church volunteer to help- in fact, they had never even had volunteers for this event. And this is no small event- we’re talking 50,000 people. The team helped vendors set up booths, pick up trash, and do basically anything they needed. It was so simple, but it spoke volumes to the workers there. Bridging this connection was one of the most significant things we could do at this point.
Next, we had our own booth for South Bay Church with cool banners, drawings for Starbucks gift bags every hour(w/ $25 to Starbucks), and balloons for kids. We had many opportunities to talk to families, moms, dads, young people, & old people. It was a great way to get to know the community and the people we will be serving.
I’m excited for the relationships that will be built because of this event and the lives that will be changed for Jesus because of South Bay Church. How amazing it is to be a part of Kingdom work!
Archie & Andy talking to people in front of our booth.
A little acoustic sound.
Dinner at Red Robin after the weekend.
The Team.
We have been in California for a week now and I still feel like I barely have 5 minutes to sit down. We are doing well getting adjusted- some moments have been great, some not so great. I could probably write 10 blogs about things that have happened, but I’m going to combine all the highlights. Here’s a little recap- some things good, some not so good, some funny, some not so funny!
-Our flights were great- none of our flights got cancelled or delayed (amazing!). Don’t think there’s any down time when you’re traveling with 2 small children.
-Jet lag is not so fun with kids when they wake up at 5:40 am. Luckily this morning (a week later!) they slept till close to 8.
-Sleeping on an air mattress doesn’t help with the jet lag, BUT eventually getting a great Posturepedic mattress was worth the wait.
-Kids always make life more interesting. A couple mornings ago (at 6:30 am!) we were awakened to Lily saying she had to go potty. She was in the bathroom with no diaper. Filipe had got up (thank you Fi!) to help her and asked where her diaper was. He went into the girls’ room and found Lily’s poopy diaper INSIDE Cailyn’s crib! Poor Cailyn was standing up with poop all over her! So- at 6:30 we were up doing laundry and giving Cailyn a bath.
-Love the weather- haven’t seen rain yet, barely needed to turn on the AC.
-Finally got to eat an In-N-Out burger. Yum!!!!
-The first time I went out to buy stuff at Target, I spent over an hour trying to find it. Part of me was a little annoyed since I had directions, the other part of me was enjoying “exploring” my new city. Well, needless to say, Filipe bought a GPS the next day- now I can find anything!
-Starbucks is everywhere I need it to be. About a 5 minute walk from my apartment & even in the grocery store. Love it.
-We have a beautiful apartment village- with about 7,000 people. The cool thing is there are a lot of young people and young families. Moms with strollers are everywhere!
-Moving is rated as one of the top most stressful things in life. I agree.
-I’m so thankful for Stacie who has helped with the girls’ all week while we shop and organize our apartment. I couldn’t have nearly gotten done what I have if it had not been for her- to have someone whom I trust with my girls is such a blessing. It definitely helps lower the stress level!
-IKEA is great!…and relatively inexpensive…assembling all the furniture is not so great! Filipe has already put together 15 pieces of furniture (beds, tables, dressers, night stands, chairs)…we still have 4 boxes left to go.
-New cell phones are fun, but figuring out all the cool stuff they do is a little frustrating. I have wi-fi on my new Blackberry Pearl though!
-The internet company can’t come till next week to hook up our internet, but our neighbors graciously gave us their wireless password. Yay- now I can blog!
-Renting is a lot different than owning- when something breaks you can call the maintenance guys to fix it. We’ve had to have them come re-light the pilot on our gas water heater the past 3 days.
-A 2 bedroom is quite a bit smaller than a 5 bedroom- still trying to figure out where to store the suitcases and camping gear.
I’m sure I can keep going, but this should give you a good overview of what our lives have been like this past week- feels like a month has gone by sometimes. Overall we’ve had a great experience so far! We like the place, the people and are excited to get things to a normal pace of life.
Well, it’s really goodbye now. Thankyou everyone in our Northwood family! I am so grateful to all of our family and friends here who have poured into our lives making us who we are today. We wouldn’t be where we are without you! Please pray for us as start this big, new adventure!!
