Moving On

This morning marks almost two weeks that we've been in our new house in WI. Mark and I will be heading to IL today, for the weekend, for him to wrap up his residency, and for a much-needed date alone. I was buzzing with all that needed to be done yesterday to prepare, and fell into bed exhausted after a late arrival by my parents at 11 last night. Then, at 4:15, I was AWAKE. The kind of awake where you try to make your mind blank, but then 10 minutes later realize you're going over the list of things you need to pack, the directions you need to leave, the zucchini bread you're excited to try...basically everything BUT being blank for sleep. So, I gave in and got up.

I haven't had much time yet to reflect on everything that's changed/changing in these weeks, but while catching up on some blogs from my Bible Study women in Wheaton, I was struck by the sovereignty of God's decisions for my life. When I moved to IL after Mark and I got married, I was lonely with a capital L. By the time we moved to Wheaton a year later, I was bitter. I hated everything about IL. At that time, I was working at Tyndale House Publishers, another of God's chosen blessings for me, even though I didn't necessarily realize how much then. After I had Dane, and decided to stay home, my good friend and past coworker, Kendra, introduced me to the women's Bible study at Wheaton Bible Church. It changed my life.

God allowed me to meet women there who supported me through countless struggles with Dane's health, through my own sadness and the loneliness of being married to a med student, then resident, and truly became examples and encouragers in my journey of becoming a mom. The love that I received from God through them washed my inner bitterness away like nothing else could have.

I will always think of Wheaton as the nest where God taught me to parent before I had to go out on my own. I'm learning new things about what being a parent means every day, but the base that I built alongside the women of that small group is something integral to who I am now, and will be for many years to come. Thankful.