The Best of the Year

If you missed yesterday's post, you can catch it here. This week marks a full year since we've been at Gateway Woods/WillowBridge, so we're looking back at some of our year's memories!

Today I'm looking back at some of the best/our most favorite things about our year here. (And these are in no particular order.)

* Our commute to work. Ryan thought his commute couldn't get any better after working at the hospital, which was less than a block from our house. I already knew how great working from home could be...and now he knows it too! There are for sure things that are challenging about living and working in the same space. But I adore being able to duck into our apartment for a moment's rest, a switch of the laundry load, the start of dinner, or some other little detail - and be right back out to work in half a second. I especially love our commute on bad weather days. No worrying about slipping and sliding in the winter or drippy hair in the rain! 

* New relationships made in our community. This is the first time either of us has ever lived outside of Grant and Howard counties. This was the first time we have ever truly had to establish ourselves in a community where we knew NO ONE. New church. New stores. New restaurants. New everything. And I realized even just this past weekend how many people we've met and come to know and call friend in this past year. Friends at the coffee shop. Friends at church. Friends at Gateway. Home is more than just the four walls where we live. It's the community in which we live, and this is indeed a great one. 

* Living in a small town. We have both lived out in the country and in small cities. Ryan even lived in a small town for a few years of his life. But Grabill is my first time living in a small town and I. Am. Smitten. Small town life is THE best. We have almost ever single thing you could possibly need within walking distance. (Including a coffee shop!!!) It's the perfect town for nightly walks. Some of its buildings are cute as a little button. I love it here. 

* Working together every single day. It was our dream, and it has proved to be as wonderful as we always dreamed it would be. We love doing every part of this job TOGETHER. We love dreaming together. Organizing together. Driving together. Processing together. We understand the joy of each other's victories and the agony of each other's hurts. Together is our favorite. I don't know that we would ever want to do it any other way.

* Days off together every single time. After an entire marriage full of each of us working multiple weekends without the other, one of our most favorite things about this job is having all our days off together. I absolutely ADORE it. Our work days are long and demanding, so being able to spend our days off together is the greatest reward! I don't think we even realized what joy we were missing all those years that we had to be apart on our weekends.

* Growing and stretching in more ways than we can count. We knew we didn't know what we were getting into when we came here. We knew we would grow, change, and stretch. We didn't know what it would look like in practical ways, and we certainly had no idea how profound it would be. Ryan has learned to depend on the Lord in new ways. He has gained new skill sets he didn't know he could achieve. I have gained courage I didn't know I had. I've learned a boldness I didn't have before. We've both learned a capacity for love we didn't even know could exist. 

* Growing as a team with each other. We are in this together. No one else truly understands what we face day-to-day, unless they've lived here and worked this job too. (And not too many people can say they've done that.) Living away from everyone who has always been our support and working a job in a brand new field has pushed us to be each other's number one in ways we've never known before. We both feel like this has strengthened our marriage and helped us become a better team. 

* Making lasting relationships with tenants that go beyond their time here.  We knew when we came here, we would make some sort of relationship with the tenants, because it's nearly impossible to live in the same building together and NOT do that. We did not know how deeply we would come to care for these new-to-us people. We didn't know they could come to feel as dear to us as family. We didn't know some of them would want to continue having a relationship with us even after they leave. That has been a bonus and a joy!

* Seeing sprouts of seeds beginning to grow. I've said before on here that this work is more about planting and watering seeds than seeing a harvest. But sometimes we do see a little bit of a harvest, and it is such a blessing!! One of our tenants said the other day, "I know...early is on time and on time is late." I could have stood on my chair and shouted!!! We've had little moments along the way that show us they've grasped onto some things, and we are always SO EXCITED when that happens! Such a joy!

* Variety! It's the spice of life, you know. The other day, Sarah and I worked to put together a bunch of flower bouquets to deliver, and as we walked home from a delivery, I said to her, "See why this job is hard to explain? You just never know what you're going to do in a day's work! And it is THE truth. We've done everything from study for permit tests to fix technology to search for cell phones that flew off cars and into ditches to watch babies to dig glass out of the bottom of a foot to calm panic attacks to explain the Bible and a hundred things in between. Every day: something different.