Joshua 1:9 This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

transition

[tran-zish–uh n, –sish-]

noun

1.movement, passage, or change from one position, state, stage, subject, concept, etc., to another; change:

Everything about our life has transitioned…

October 14, 2016, my dear hubby officially became a civilian.

October 20th, 2016 we watched a moving truck drive away from our house on Fort Belvoir that basically contained everything we own.

October 21st, 2016, after 53 weeks of driving 77 miles each way to visit her every other day, we picked up our baby girl from the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore and got on a train headed for Florida.

October 22nd, 2016, we woke up on the train to the sights of palm trees and water. The transition to our new state was nearly complete… or so we thought.

Y’all, I mentioned in my last post that change has gotten harder for me to cope with in my old age and that I NEED a plan. I should’ve known that putting that out there for the world and God to read would create a “growth opportunity”.

We HAD a very detailed, perfectly organized plan for the transition to Florida that included closing on our new house either two days before we left Virginia or within the first few days of arriving in Florida. I booked a beach house for twelve days that is located six miles from the house we planned to buy so that we could take turns sitting with Sofija and going to the house to unpack and paint. My plan gave me plenty of time to get all my nesting done before transitioning our baby girl to her new home. Do you see how flexible I was being? I gave God lots of days to work out the specific details of when we would close on the house. But noooo…. once again, my plans and His plans did not align.

October 26, 2016, about the time I was growing completely impatient with the whole house-buying process and on the day I was an emotional wreck preparing to say, “Goodbye” to the team of people that helped us travel to Florida with Sofija, we got a call from our mortgage broker. The appraisal on the house had not been done and he was calling to say that we need an additional $50k+ to close on the house. Ugghhhh yeah… We have two kids in college, one who just spent a year in a hospital more than hour away from our home, and dear hubby JUST started his first post-Army job. We do NOT have an additional $50k sitting around. After we vented about how it would’ve been great if he’d said we needed the extra money a month ago, and freaked out more than just a little bit, and had a beer at the beach, we remembered…

This is our seventeenth move. Out of seventeen moves, we have had uncertainty about where we would live up until the very last minute at least twelve times. Seventeen times, we’ve found a home.

Philippians 4:6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and THANK HIM for all He has done.

I’m not gonna lie. I worry about every other minute. But in the minutes between the worrying I’m doing A LOT of praying and A LOT of thanking.

The day after we arrived in Florida the MOST AMAZING BCBA (behavior therapist) started working with Sofija. On that very same day we hired someone to work with her for 30 hours a week in addition to the hours we have our BCBA. We also hired a backup for weekends and evenings (Hooray for date nights!) and our firstborn asked if she can be added to the weekend payroll of Sofija-whisperers. My Mama heart is bursting! On Friday, after nearly five months of needing someone to hold her hands 24/7, Sofija let go and swam in the pool for FIVE straight hours. Every day she’s getting a little braver and a little more independent and after thirteen days she’s gone from asking ten times an hour to about once a day if she’s “Done with KKI”.

Sooo many things to be thankful for.

Our baby girl is home.

Our baby boy is a happy camper.

We get to see sunsets like this ^^^ every single day.

After too many years of hell on earth, dear hubby and I are still married and kinda like each other. 🙂

Our life is not easy. We’re still getting beat up and working hard to keep baby girl from beating herself up on a daily basis. The amount of help we need means that every day has A LOT of moving parts and that we don’t have the luxury of taking a day to “just be”. But we really do have SO much to be thankful for. And when I remember all those things, the hard stuff isn’t quite so hard.

The house situation will work itself out. In the meantime… there’s paradise to enjoy.