A Final Hosting in This Home

            Our Bluffton home looks so bare and stark right now. All the wall art is safely tucked away in boxes, awaiting a move, and Ryan says the walls look diseased with all the mudded patches awaiting their sanding/repainting treatment. Smaller pieces of furniture have disappeared from their longstanding spaces, and not much about this space screams home anymore.

            It doesn’t bother us. It’s all part of the moving process. One house has to give up its rightful place so another house can be ready to receive a new mission. We’re excited about making the new house home, and we’re excited about decommissioning this space so someone else can make it home.

            One thing I’ve never done before is host company just days before a move, when everything is in disarray, including my brain.

            We did just that this past Sunday night. Our new friends who came to spend New Year’s Eve with us asked if we were watching the game, and Ryan invited them to join us to watch it. I warned them we were not at our prettiest right now, but of course they were welcome to come over if they wanted to, and they did!

            We decided to have a baked potato bar, so everyone could bring their favorite toppings and have a potato or two in whatever way they wished!

            I made peanut butter oatmeal cookies and a football shaped dessert dip. We had coffee, of course, and our friends also brought four bags of chips. (Apparently there is an episode of King of Queens where they eat a different kind of chip in every quarter of the game. We borrowed that idea!)

            I told Ryan earlier in the day that I’m thankful for how far I’ve come in my own mind and heart. The Bekah of years ago never would have dared to invite anyone into such chaos. To be able to say to new friends, “This is our mess. Welcome to it,” shows me I’ve grown, and I celebrate that.

            Lexi was beside herself with joy that we had friends over, though after a few hours of exuberance, she eventually tuckered right out and missed the whole end of the game.

            There are a million opinions on this game, its commercials, its halftime show, and its music. I think I’ll keep mine to myself because in truth, none of it really mattered to me. I had no investment in this event at all. Our team wasn’t in the game. I picked a team to root for, but I didn’t have a strong opinion. I laughed at some commercials and rolled my eyes at others.

            What I enjoyed most was spending the evening with friends and appreciating the opportunity to still share our home, even though it feels more like just a house at this point. (I'll share a couple pictures of Ryan and me here, but our friends are the non-social-media type, so just imagine them!)

            Looking forward to spending more time with more friends in a new space (once it’s fully constructed). Looking forward to more deeply appreciating the gifts God has given and will give. Looking forward to learning our new community and its people even more.