Welcome Home! (Finally!)

Welcome!

Here are a few initial glimpses of our new place.  I am not a real estate writer, so the basics are: it has 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, an unfinished basement, TONS of natural light, two stories, a two car garage, an open floor plan (which we LOVE), an awesome back yard, is on a cul-de-sac and is surrounded by families with young kids which has so far been a blast!  

The sweet family we bought from had two daughters who left us this message when we came for our inspection.  It made us feel so happy!

Not ideal, but I only had a certain lens for my camera with me when I took this photo, hence the only way I could get all of the letters in one shot was this angle.

 Seriously! It about made me cry I loved it so much! 

I forgot to rotate this one...my hubby is cringing right now... sorry babe!

I loved that they took the time to write it out for us, color it in and also make each letter special... so adorable!  

We never got to officially meet them, but throughout all of our "official" dealings, they were easy and honest which says a lot these days.  In my heart I know they were/are amazing people.  Its clear from meeting our new neighbors that everyone really liked them and were sad to see them go.  Maybe someday our paths will cross again and we will have the chance to be friends.  I really think they would be people we would really like too.

Initially I wanted to show you all the house when things were "put together" and all tidy etc, but what I know now, is that those moments are RARE, so now, there will be some real life mixed in with these photos for your enjoyment.  The goal is to get something posted not perfection! So without further delay... here we go!

Some of the outside features we are enjoying are...

Seriously! It's really great to have a doorbell.

There are nice outdoor lights flanking our garage door.

A nice little front garden/flower bed area for Luke's statue to sit in and greet our guests.

Here is our front door. Our front porch is not huge, but it has two steps and is nice and shady in the afternoon.  I am excited to find some good seasonal decor to help it look and feel happier.  This year our seasonal decor consisted of our lone pumpkin that sat there this fall after our mums died.  It was admittedly pretty sad looking, but hopefully as time goes on, that will change. 

More photos soon! My little napper is waking up, gotta run-

A note of thanks

A centerpiece at a wedding we attended earlier this fall...

We laughed about it just the other night.  I don't even remember what brought it to our minds, but we were remembering the hundreds (literally) of thank you notes we wrote during our first year of marriage.  Between beautiful wedding gifts and all of the love, support and kindness you could imagine that we were blessed with during our time with Luke, our hands physically hurt from all of the thanks and gratitude we were trying to send out into the world.  It was a lot of work and difficult to keep up with, but also worth every written letter and the price of every stamp.  We wanted people to know how thankful we were that they were with us on our journey and how much their thoughtfulness and kindness-es meant to us.

That is how I feel about you today.  So deeply grateful for your grace and understanding as I stepped back from blogging for a season.  It was not necessarily a planned break, but it gradually became somewhat of a sabbath for me.  These past few months have been a time of presence here with my family and here in our new home.  A time of precious focus on my daughter and her new achievements and milestones (almost daily it seems!), and a time of intense effort in getting us nested in for the winter in our new place.

The new home God has brought us has been SUCH a blessing.  I'm looking forward to showing you around here in the next several weeks.  It has been a gift to finally (we are talking never before in my ENTIRE adult life) have all of my (our) stuff in one place...and then discovering that I (we) have waay too much of it! So there has been a lot of purging, de-cluttering, trashing, donating and organizing going on around here.  Joe has been a champ with his patience as I have worked my way through almost (still have about 10-12 boxes left) every single box and every. single. item.  There is still much work to be done, but I am finally seeing the light at the end of the very long tunnel. 

But before jumping into all things life and house again with posts and photos, I wanted to pause and thank you with all of my heart for your faithfulness here at Lassoing the Moon.  I am humbled beyond words for the way you all continued to check in here, for the sweet comments and emails you sent even when there were no new posts, for reaching out, for the phone calls, texts, questions about the house and for your kind encouragement towards me and my writing here.  

It is so easy to doubt, fear, wonder, worry and be discouraged when you step away from something you love for any prolonged period of time...Does it matter?  Have I been gone too long? What do I even say? Does anyone read? Does anyone care? Then if one wallows too long on those questions, it becomes an easy next step toward questions of identity, worth, value I add, fears etc.  All difficult things to ponder while trying to unpack box after box.  So please know that your words, questions, notes and encouragement were used by God to counteract some of my own spinnings toward my deepest doubts and fears about myself.  He showed me through you all that what I have to share with the world matters but he whispered in those still, quiet moments, that it matters most of all to Him.  

Thank you for being my friends.  As we prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday, just know that I am beyond thankful for you and am super excited to be back here in the blogging world!

xo

Sarah