Soooooo Many Changes!

 In January of 2024, our lives began to change. And it's felt like pure craziness since. haha! 

Our denomination, the Bible Presbyterian Church, has a church in St Helens, Oregon, and they found themselves in need of a pastor. One of their elders was talking to my husband about something entirely unrelated and that elder, in a semi-joking manner, asked my husband if he would be interested in the position. In a split second my husband realized he was. *Very* interested!! 

And with that, things began to change. 

We talked as a couple for a few weeks, considering all the options, if this would be a good fit, if it would be good for our family, what it all might look like......and we both strongly felt that this is what God wanted us to do. 

Things quickly started to come together and there have been many, many times where seeing God work and move and line things up for us has been jaw dropping. It was just further confirmation that this is what God has planned for us next. 

Not only have we been working towards moving, but I was continuing to homeschool our brood, and also preparing for the arrival of our eleventh baby. Between everything, that's where the pure craziness feeling came in. 😄

It's now July 3rd, 2024 and here are some of the major things that have happened since that first phone call:

We decided that my husband taking this position would a really good fit for all involved,

He already had a trip planned out to Washington for a conference and seeing the LORD work it out for this to be a candidating trip as well....was amazing. 

The church there voted unanimously to call him as their pastor.

Our oldest daughter, who is attending Reformation Bible College here in Florida, was oh so excited for us, but also decided she wants to stay here and finish her education. Her housing was completely worked out in a matter of weeks. Another jaw dropping moment for us. 

We started packing. 

The church we are currently at voted to release Steve as their pastor and hired a seminary student to be their full time pulpit supply.

We hired a realtor, listened to his advice on how best to prepare the house for showings, and executed the plan we came up with. 

Our house began to echo. Which with our size crew is pretty awful haha!

We listed our house and within an hour of it going live, we had a showing request. 

In less than a week we had an offer. 

At first we rejected the offer, but they came back with another that we countered and they rejected. They came back *again* and we had an agreement! 

We just passed the home inspection. 

We are putting an offer in on a house in Oregon today. 

Baby #11 is 38 weeks today! 

This week is our Florida Presbytery's Church Camp, but since I'm so massively huge, I stayed home with our 5, 3, and 2 year olds. Our 15yo had no desire to go, so she is home too, for which I am SOOOO thankful! My husband and the other 6 kids left Monday morning and will be home Saturday 

around noon. 

There have been times I've really struggled during all of this. Being so pregnant, trying to homeschool, keep up with daily life and the realities of a large family, while planning to move, doing all the packing......it's been very hard at times. This past weekend was one of those times. I was oh so overwhelmed, I kept crying, and physically I was achy and in a fair amount of pain just from being pregnant. I ended up needing to stay home from church Sunday morning. Facing a week without my husband wasn't helping I'm sure. I did lots of praying, tried to refocus myself, and woke up Monday morning feeling better mentally and emotionally. 😊