Sometimes we need a recap...

I am often amazed at how much has happened in the last 9 months. As I type this and count the months on my fingers, I realize that 9 months has another significance. Something to do with birth, I believe...I'm sure there's some deep, wonderful parallel that can be drawn between birth and new life and our last 9 months, but I'll choose to move on and continue with the post that was already in my mind to write.

I've realized that through switching blogs and posting more often than I did before, some details may have been lost in the shuffle. I probably have readers who have read each and every post and know exactly what has been happening, and others who have read most of them, but feel like they are missing something, and then others who have perhaps only started reading (???). So, for my sake and yours, and so we're all caught up to the same place, I've decided to write a short recap of the past 9 months.

September 2008
One day in the first half of September, I was sitting in my office, checking my email, and I got a short note from Nathan letting me know that something had happened at work and that he was heading home for the day. I hurried home as fast as I could and found Nathan broken and humbled. His struggle with internet pornography had come out.

This was followed with an immediate 2 week suspension which involved ALOT of driving (to and from Saskatchewan a couple times), a couple meetings, some confessions to the youth and church, and, later, a five month unpaid suspension.

We chose to continue to attend our church and walk with them in a healing process (for both of us).

October 2008
This is the month when Nathan found another job. He worked long hours at the Cargill here in town doing soil testing.

We really began to heal and feel God working in us. The shock of how our lives had just changed was wearing off and the deep soul-work was going strong.

November 2008
Nathan's job at Cargill was finished and he found another job here in town right away. Praise the Lord!

More deep, hard soul-work.

December 2008
Our "new" life is starting to feel like we have a new normal but the stress of everything has been catching up. We really felt like we needed a break with family, and, despite not having much time off for Christmas, we were able to make it to Saskatchewan for Christmas!

January 2009
A new year, a new beginning. When we began the healing process, we chose not to make any decisions about our future until the new year. Now it was the new year, and we began to look at our options.

End of January brought a weekend set aside for prayer and fasting. God spoke to us pretty clearly about moving on from this place. We met with the church leadership and were affirmed in this call.

We put our thoughts about attending seminary into motion.

February 2009
The official resignation. We shared about our healing that had taken place (and was still taking place). We shared about our plans for the next couple years.

Nathan was getting really fed up with his job, so we began to discuss how much longer he would have to be there.

March 2009
Nathan got another job and resigned from his old one. (official job count in 6 months = 4) The end of March saw two weeks of much needed time off for Nathan between jobs.

We put our house up for sale privately this month. Beginning to make plans for a move to Saskatchewan to put our stuff into mom&pop storage and then continuing on to the south.

April 2009
Nathan started his new job back at Cargill. He enjoys this job so much more.

More plans for moving. The house is getting fixed up (not that it took much more than a few paint touchups and a thorough spring clean). Continuing to get calls about the house, but no offers.

May 2009
We listed the house with an agent.

We decided that we would make the move to Saskatchewan at the beginning of July, whether the house is sold or not.

Healing seems pretty complete by now, at least in the initial area.

Still no baby...2 years, 9 months and counting...still hurts...still a hard wait...enough said...

We are still attending our church. We are still feeling support from our church. We are also feeling, more than ever, that it is time to move on.

I am feeling excited about moving, but not sure how it all works from the "moving" side. I've always been on the "left behind" side of the picture, so I am trying to learn from this to know what to do and not to do the next time I'm on the "left behind" side again. Am I supposed to feel excited? Or am I supposed to feel sad about leaving? Am I supposed to be trying not to think about it? Or should I be planning everything out? How can I be sensitive to the people we are leaving behind while still being excited? I just don't know. I guess the last few weeks/months before a big move are always kind of different, right? *sigh*

June 2009
Now I'm predicting the future...Nathan will work until the middle or end of June. We will try to get together with as many friends around here as we can before we leave. We are putting it all off right now (kinda) because of Nathan's long hours. We're hoping that once his job is done, we'll have some time to see everyone...but guys, it's not like it's for the last time, right???

July 2009
Move to Saskatchewan! The U-Haul is rented. The destination is set. The house is not sold, but hopefully that will be settled by then too. We hope to spend the month visiting family and friends in the Saskatchewan area.

August 2009
More visiting. Packing (what will we take down south, what will we leave) kicks into high gear. We hope to leave for Cali in the middle of August sometime...stuff down on that end starts around the 20th, so we hope to be down by then.

So that's our last nine months and next three months! That's our year, I guess...hope this was helpful. It was helpful to me to write it all down...I'm sure I've missed something, so if you know of something in our life that I missed, let me know.