Getting settled in TX....

Well, I have no pics to post today, but just wanted to give a little update. Here's a quick run-down of our first days in Waco...

Monday, June 14th- closed on our house in Wichita at 9:30am, did a couple last "Wichita things" and then drove, drove, drove! We arrived at Brett's parents house around 9:30 pm. Long day! We were worn out!

Tuesday, June 15th- unloaded the moving truck (in 3 different places). Another long day!

Wednesday- started unpacking and trying to get settled in at Mimi & Poppie's house.

Thursday thru Tuesday- we hung out with old friends & tried to get caught up on rest.

Wednesday (today) thru next Monday- we are in San Antonio seeing my (Julie) family.


We have a great "set up" at Brett's parents' house. We're so grateful that they've allowed us to stay with them until we figure out "what's next" for our family.

Emma is doing great with this transition. We knew she would! She is such a social butterfly...she's loving meeting and making new friends (even though many of whom are actually "old friends"....she just was too young to remember them). She is loving being at Mimi & Poppie's. She's especially loving playing with Jeb (our old chocolate lab), Bella (Brett's mom's dog), & Cheeto and Topper (the two new kittens). Plus she's getting to go to Aunt Carrie and Uncle Sloan's house, where she gets to play with and feed the horses, cows, chickens, etc. FUN STUFF!! :)

Luke has had a hard time adjusting. On top of those first few days in TX being so exhausting (not to mention the very full days/weeks that we had leading up to the move), Luke kept us all nearly all night long those first few days. His crib is in our room, so he can see us. Basically, he stands up & screams at us until we give in. It's been a little rough. We've desperately tried to think of other options, but the best we've come up with is rearranging the room so that he can't see our faces. It has helped, but he still knows that we're there. Each night seems to get a little better. We're hoping that he will get used to the new arrangement and get back to sleeping 9-10 our stretches each night. Ahhh.... can't wait for that day! :) Until then, we're just trucking along!

I'll try to post sometime soon with a few pics. Wichita friends, thank you so much for all your help getting us packed up and moved. We miss y'all already!!!

BIRTHDAY BOY!!

1 year ago today...

June 9, 2009

Luke Andrew Spivey

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET BOY!!!

DIGGIN' IN!!!

YOU SURE THIS IS OKAY?

OH YEAH!!  TASTY!

HEHE....LET'S DO THIS EVERYDAY!!

I'LL EVEN SHARE!!

HEY THANKS....I LOVE MY NEW GREEN BALL!

I ESPECIALLY LOVE LICKING ICING OFF OF IT!!  :)

Birthday boy was too distracted to look at the camera long enough to snap a picture....Probably on sugar & sensory overload!  (Notice we had to change his clothes after the cake....he really enjoyed that!!  Hope he sleeps tonight!)  

Today was a GREAT day--a wonderful combination of good family time (just the 4 of us), fun Wichita activities, and good friends!!  The weather was a bit stormy early on, but it cleared out and turned out to be a beautiful day.  With only 4 days left here in Wichita & a birthday to celebrate, we started the day at the zoo. We had lots of fun and enjoyed watching Luke's reactions to all the animals.   Then this evening, we were able to celebrate Luke's birthday with lots of special friends at the park.  It was perfect!  Even better than I had pictured!  We're so grateful for all of our friends & small group here!!  We feel especially loved and encouraged after tonight.  Thank you all!  We're going to miss you greatly!!

~~~~~~~~~~

Can't believe our little guy is 1 now!  What a blessing he has been!!

Can you say STINKER?!?!  But pretty darn cute, eh?  :)  

(this pic was from a few nights ago at a going away party that Brett's coworkers had for us...it was so nice.  We feel so loved!!)

WE ARE MOVING!!

First of all, I'm really sorry if the first you heard about us moving was thru the facebook event I created or the email I sent out.  I should have blogged about this a while back.  I'm sorry.  Here's the story...

On Feb 26th, we found out that F*C*S, the non-profit organization that Brett works for, was possibly going to be unable to pay for health insurance starting on June 1st  (because of the economy, finances have been really tight).  Anyway, we were not looking to leave nor does F*C*S want us to leave.  After we heard about this possibility, we spent the next month or so just praying.  

By the end of March, we got word that this was definitely going to happen..... F*C*S staff and families are now responsible for paying for their own insurance, however, we simply do not have enough in our personal account to do this.  In a nutshell, things became very clear to us that it was time to move on.  We put our house on the market and had a contract on it by day 7.  We will be closing on the house on June 14th at 9:30 am, and we will be heading back to TX in the moving truck afterwards.  

We're not sure what is next for us.  For now, we are moving in with Brett's family, (right outside of Waco).  Brett has been applying for jobs; he'd like to be on staff at a church again.  In the mean time, he will be working with his dad (real estate).

Overall, we're doing okay with all of this.  Transition is always hard.  We have our sad days, our days when we get anxious about the unknown that lies ahead of us, and our days when we are really excited to see what God has for our family in the near future!  We have really loved our life here in Wichita!! We've made some life-long friends, we LOVE our church & small group, we believe in F*C*S & what they are doing more than ever before, we've made a lot of special memories here, and we will miss this place a lot!!  So much good has come out of our last 2.5 years here in Wichita, and we're really grateful that God allowed us to be here! We're confident that God is in control of this whole thing, and we are trusting Him and resting in the knowledge that He has a plan for our family.  

So that's the story! :)  

We only have 12 days left in this place, & we want to make the most of each minute!  We're not as far along in the packing process as we had hoped, but we're planning on making some major progress in the next couple days so that we can focus on spending time with friends.  Thank you so much to those of you here in Wichita who have loved us and lived life with us the last 2.5 years!  And thank you so much to all of you not in Wichita.... for the ways that you have loved us, supported us, and believed in us along our journey.  We're grateful for each of you!