apartment living

So....we've taken the leap. We are now -- currently-- apartment-dwellers: something we haven't been for 7 1/2 years. All it not yet unpacked, by a long shot. And of course, it won't be. There's far too much to fit inside our tiny little place. Many of our belongings (furniture, keepsakes, kitchenware) is sitting in our two rented storage spaces.

And here we are. The boys are loving it, I think. Benjamin and Kyle are clearly happy to have their bunk beds back, along with some toys which haven't seen the light of day for months on end. Owen has his own room, but gleefully toddles into his brothers' bedroom whenever he has a chance. He has so much fun hanging out in there, playing with his brothers' toys, and just being with them.

All three boys have been sleeping like champions since we moved in, which is more than I'd ever asked for or imagined. Especially considering that we're on the ground floor, and that the boys' bedrooms are out next to the parking lot: so they're potentially exposed to the noise of people passing by, etc., as well as vehicles coming and going. What a gift their sweet sleep is!

Jeff and I, I must tell you, are struggling a bit. Not with each other...we're just somehow feeling very low about our new living arrangements. Everything feels crowded, and we still have boxes of things which we'd like to be here with us, but have no good place to put them. We're facing a new round of "Do you know where the ________ is?" It's very frustrating, and often the items are fairly important - recently missing was Benjamin's soccer uniform (the season's first game is Saturday...Jeff found it, thank goodness!). This is a minor example, I know. But this kind of thing contributes heavily to our morale.

Also, many things seem to be going wrong - the case in point being the theft of our van's CD player, as well as the family camera (as I mentioned in Monday's post). Jeff's car is not working right now, and we have no idea when it will be running again. We're receiving help of various kinds from our friends and wonderful church family. Yet we find that we are living with a sense of "...what will happen next?"

I hesitated to even write this post, because I don't want to come across as complaining. We are very blessed, and we know it. We're incredibly excited about the new house in January...it's just that January seems to be so far away. And there's this foreboding sense of "...what could go wrong with that?" Still, I decided to go ahead and write it, after all, for two reasons. First, I wanted to let you know how we are, now that the (first) move is over. But secondly and most importantly, I wanted to ask you to pray for us. It seems clear to me that we are under spiritual attack. We're holding on, but we're discouraged. So if you think of it, please keep us in your prayers. We truly covet them.

We're getting there, though. I'm getting back into the swing of things in my tiny little kitchen. I believe it is doing our hearts and bodies good to have nourishing food on a more consistent basis. And our family is in the midst of a very busy few weeks; hopefully once we're past that time, we'll be able to relax and breathe a bit better.

We are so thankful that the sale of "our" house did close, and for all we have to look forward to. Jeff and I are grateful for good health, a lovely pregnancy, and easygoing children. So as we begin this new chapter of our marriage, we're reminding ourselves to count our blessings. Because we are so, so blessed. We do know that.