Homecoming Festivities and Cowboy Stadium

Homecoming last week was a lot of fun. Prosper is "small" compared to most school districts in the metroplex and very out in the country so we experienced our first homecoming week in a true small Texas football obsessed town. Max played during the 7th grade football game and the band did a great job! I love that Max is in percussion because no matter where you are standing or how well you can see you CAN always hear the drums. My parents met us at the game and we all sat in the stands and cheered on the Eagles.

We just love our superintendent. Not since New York did we feel like the superintendent truly had an impact on the schools. Dr. Watkins is everywhere! He rotates around the different campuses each week and is always out front helping kids out of the cars in the morning. He knows our kids by name already and even shouted out to Max during the parade route. He's from Southeast Texas so once he found out we had moved from Beaumont, we had an instant connection. We couldn't be more thrilled with the school district.

Max walked around with several of his friends during the parade and Ben hung out with a new friend who lives just down the street from us. Ella was asked to RIDE on a float and throw candy with her two new best buds, twins in her class, Paige and Payton. Their parents own the Equestrian Center just next door to us so Ella is now asking for jeans and boots since the twins' dad said he'd put her up on a horse next time she comes over. Mark Thomas sat by me during the parade. We sat in the back of the pick up truck and it seemed like every other float that drove by had someone yelling, "Hey Mark" on it. Totally cracked me up. MT makes friends wherever he goes. He took an Under Armour satchel to the parade and came home with WAY too much candy.

You are not a true Prosperite until your car has a big "P" on the back. I saw this awesome zebra one at the parade. I put one on the back of the truck the second week of school and when the kids came home that day they shouted as they walked up the drive way, "we got a P!". So we are now completely legit!

On Sunday Mark took three of the kids to Cowboy Stadium for a special tour that the Scouts were holding. Ella said to me before she left as she was doing her hair, "bow or no bow?" and I said, "the bow looks cute" and she said, "but it might fall out on the baseball field". Sweet little darling girl of mine, does not have a sports bone in her body. But she loved going to the stadium and told me all about the cheerleaders' locker room! She turns 8 tomorrow! Can't believe it!

Heavy Hearts

This will be a short post because I don't want to it turn into anything that sounds like I'm complaining. We are so happy to be in this new environment. The kids are adjusting to their schools and we're happy with the "smallness" of the community, if such a thing exists in the Dallas area. It's not St. Anne's and we still have moments where that saddens us but we are thankful that Prosper offers some familiarity in terms of class sizes and community.

We are also thoroughly enjoying the new church. I don't want anyone to read into this the wrong way and I honestly would not have thought I'd feel this way but sometimes it's in the "numbers". Whether you worship in a small church; remembering the rural church in Rewey, Wisconsin, Mark would fill the pulpit in during seminary, to the massive non-denominational churches my parents have often worshipped at, the presence of the Lord is still there. I know that to be very true but sometimes you long for what "numbers" can do. I LOVE the ministry of music and sometimes when you're in worship and the congregation is singing a hymn, you can honestly hear your voice above all others. Maybe that's because people don't feel that confident in their own voice or maybe it's because the space between the pews is too large so that you aren't sitting shoulder to shoulder with anyone. Whatever the reason, God calls for us to sing our praises to Him and He's undoubtedly worthy of our praise.

So the pews are full, the congregation sings loudly, the praise echos throughout the sanctuary and MY heart is filled with a joy that reaches deep into my soul when I am praising God with our new community at Grace. And the kids are loving their new congregation too. It's never a compare and contrast. It's just a thankfulness of where God has called us to and it's a privilege to serve along fellow believers.

With that said, we completely, totally, without a doubt, sincerely believe that God has called us to this time and this place. We would not be here if we did not believe that. So we also believe that God will provide for all our needs. Right now those needs are great. For years, we have been completely aware of how financially tied to life we are and we don't want to live that way any longer. It's cliche to some but after taking the Dave Ramsey course, we truly do "want to live like no one else so that we CAN live like no one else." We still long to be in our own home again and are struggling to determine at this point when that may be and what that home may look like for us as a family of six.

But before we can even begin to lay out that plan we desperately need our home in Beaumont to sell. So our hearts are heavy this week as the bills are piling up and without my additional income, it's not possible to pay them all at one time and still have left overs for the necessities such as food and gas. So I ask, to whomever may come upon this blog, that you please join us in prayer. Prayer that our house will sell. We have been asking that it sell by the end of September at 90% of what we're asking for it. Pray that our hearts would not be troubled by the bills that seem to be flowing out of my bill box. I know that our Father cares for us like he does the birds of the air and the flowers in the field so I long to feel that peace. Peace that I know comes only from Him. God is our ultimate provider and we are trusting that day by day we will be able to keep up with our earthly demands while always looking towards Heaven, mindful that everything we have comes from above; and that nothing is truly ours.