Sunday Sentiments

I haven't said anything about on the blog yet because it wasn't my story to tell and it hadn't been told yet. But now it has been, so I can share my heart. 

A few weeks ago, now, we learned that our co-workers, Tim and Justine, would be leaving WillowBridge. 

When we came here, nine months ago, we barely knew them. Okay, we didn't know them. We met them at our interview and then a month later, we showed up for work. Though we went to hours of classroom training and met with Rob for other training, Tim and Justine were really the ones who taught us so much of the day-to-day workings of WillowBridge. 

We have had a lot of fun with them over the last few months. Here are some peeks at our fun together - including our fun with their sweet girl, who has become my little shadow:

(That last one was an attempted recreation of a photo our tenants took. Theirs was adorable. Ours was rough.)

We know that God is leading them into a new chapter and season, and we are excited for them. But we will miss getting to share our days with them and laughing over the (approximately) two billion inside jokes we've developed over all these many months of working together. 

And this leads to one of the prayer requests I presented to you this past week. While no one can ever replace them (obviously), we do need new coworkers! We are hopeful for a good future with new coworkers and friends to spend our days with and to share our work. We are praying fervently for God to find and bring the right couple to work alongside us in this ministry. But as we wait, we are praying for strength as we shoulder the bulk of the days on our own. 

It's a crazy dance...this push and pull of sadness and wondering alongside hope for the future. 

We are grateful for Tim, Justine, and Isla and the months we've done life together. We are grateful for their kindness and patience as we learned the ropes. 

And we want to finish well as we wrap up our time together in the next two weeks!

The Saturday Six

 

One.

Ryan and I enjoyed riding some of Fort Wayne's bike trails last fall, and I'm looking forward to riding more of them this spring and summer! I looked up Indiana's bike trails and was surprised to see I've actually been on parts of two of the three longest! We rode a section of the Monon a couple of summers ago as part of a county tour, and though we didn't bike it, we've been on part of the Cardinal Greenway when we lived in Marion! (We were right by the Nickel Plate trail when we lived in Kokomo, but we never got around to exploring it before we left.)

Two.

Even though we have Abby the RV now and will use her for our lodging all we can while it's warm enough to do so, I still enjoy looking at Airbnbs. After all, our anniversary is in the winter, so we'll still have a chance to use them when it's not warm outside! Look how cool THIS one is!!!

Three.

Anyone working ahead on Easter for NEXT year? I happened upon this idea and thought it was so good, but I'll never remember to share it come next year. I'll share it now and you can stash it away. It's an Easter scavenger hunt that points to the true meaning of Easter! 

Four.

You know, whenever we purchase a home again in the future, I'm fine with it being pretty small. Less to clean, less to operate...I'm all about it. But this kitchen could take up bout 50% of the home and I wouldn't complain. (Swoon.)

Five.

You might remember that one of my/our travel bucket list items is to drive Route 66 from beginning to end. I found this time lapse video of the route all the way from Illinois to California. Pretty cool to watch the landscape change! And though I have not watched it and cannot vouch for the content, if you have two hours to spare, you can watch this video about traveling Route 66!

Six.

And finally, today, this gray NIV spiral-bound illustrating Bible is on sale at Dayspring through April 26th. I'm not one for drawing in Bibles (because my drawing is unintelligible, not because I'm opposed to it) but think of how many NOTES you could take in this space!!! The sale is one of the best I've seen on this particular Bible, so I'm just sharing with you!

Friday Stuff n Things

I am a billion percent scattered today. It has been a week around here. Lots of unexpected twists and turns at work and in our lives, so I thought I'd take this day to catch up and clean up on the blog!

* First up...one of you asked me if we ever plan to take our bikes with us on trips, and the answer to that is a resounding YES! We don't yet have the gear to attach them to Abby, but that is on the short list of things to purchase, and we do hope to take the bikes on some of our trips! 

* Speaking of bikes, I'm so ready for our first ride of the season, even though I have no idea when that will be. I am ready to put my basket on the front, too! It's still sitting here in our living room, waiting to be added to the front of Miss Daisy. She's gonna be so stylin'!

* Someone also reminded me that I forgot to circle back to the coffee story from our first Abby trip! THANK YOU! Yes, I forgot all about it. Here's the story.

We did a lot of research on coffee pots/makers/etc. over the last few months. We determined that it probably wasn't practical for us to have a regular house style coffee maker in the RV, because we have very little counter space. We don't want to clutter it up with a bunch of appliances. (Or even one appliance, if we don't have to.) 

The same was true for a traditional Keurig. They're so big, and we hated to have it sitting out - or using up storage space that could be designated for something else. 

We decided to go with an electric water kettle and a stainless steel French press. We liked the idea of the water kettle because it would allow us to have it for other uses as needed - like hot chocolate or cooking with hot/boiling water. The French Press is on the bigger side, so it would give us plenty of coffee, but the stainless steel would not be fragile like glass, and that would be good for travel. Both of them tucked away nicely in a little storage cube. 

All of it worked exactly as we envisioned...until...

...it came time to dump the grounds. We shook most of them into our trash can, but we didn't want a bunch of coffee grounds running around in our gray water tank, so rinsing out in the sink wasn't an option. We made it work for the weekend with some creative (and gross) manual cleaning, but we learned this is definitely going to require some adjustments. 

We've been pondering what to do, and we haven't landed on an answer  yet. Keurig does make a slimmer machine that a friend of mine has and likes, so that's a possibility. (And we could get the little pod that allows you to use your own grounds if we don't want to guess at K-Cup numbers for a trip.) This wouldn't take up a TON of room if we put it on the counter, nor would it take up a ton of space in storage if we chose to do that. 

And though not quite as slim, there are options like this one that aren't huge, but they do have stainless steel carafes. So that's another idea. 

We'll keep thinking about it and try to figure it out soon!

****

And now, a complete switch of topics. Let's move on to prayer, shall we?

* I'll tell you more about it another day (Really, I will! If I don't forget!) but we have some changes coming up here at WillowBridge, and Ryan and I would gratefully accept any prayers you might have for us as we navigate those changes. It's a whole story, which is why I will save it for another time, but if you have room on your prayer list, we'll take a spot!

* And while I'm asking for prayer...I have a dear friend who has battled health challenges for about twenty years now. (I didn't ask permission to use her name, so I'll keep it anonymous.) She has always faced each battle with loads of grace and has both challenged and convicted me with her complete trust in God, even when she is so very ill. Within the last week she had to go on dialysis and a kidney transplant list. She messaged me yesterday and said dialysis is absolutely awful. I don't know that I have ever heard her say anything is awful, even with all the awful things she's faced. My heart breaks for her. I know she hopes for a new kidney, but I also know that could take a while, so dialysis could be here for much longer than she hopes. If you think of her, even without knowing her name, would you join me in praying for her? (God knows exactly who she is, so He won't lose your prayers!) She's such a prayer warrior for others, and I would love to gain some extra warriors for her. 

Thanks, friends!! Much love to all of you this scattered Friday!

10 Questions

 

I saw this on Natasha's blog this week and thought it looked so fun! Since I've had a crazy 24 hours and my head is spinning (hello, job) I thought I'd have some fun with this today!

1. What was your first job? How old were you when you started working?

My first job was babysitting, and I loved it. I was somewhere around 12 when I started working. My niece was a few months old and my sister bravely entrusted her to me for an hour or so while she went somewhere. My brother-in-law, who was a pastor, was in his office next door to where they lived, so if I'd had any sort of emergency, he was right there and could be home in seconds. I was SO NERVOUS for that first job, but we got along beautifully and it led to many years of babysitting. I did that all the way through junior high, high school, and even some into college. I still love kids so much and don't hate it at all that the WillowBridge kiddos have adopted me without hesitation. 

2. Tell us about the best job you've ever had. And the worst.

Tricky! I really loved radio so much, but I also really love getting to work alongside Ryan now. So I would say I love aspects of both of them dearly. Radio was a really fun job. I loved all the people I got to meet, the guests I interacted with, the concerts and events I attended, and the people I worked with. But in my current job, I also dearly love working with Ryan, the best EVER commute, and the wide variety of things I get to do every single day. The worst job I ever had? Hmmmmm. Maybe the loan company I worked at early on? It just was so outside my comfort zone. I was just outside of high school, and it was major culture shock.

3. Are you a saver or a spender? How about your significant other?

Am I allowed to say both? :)  Probably in the eyes of most people, we are definitely savers. We are not into impulse shopping and we certainly don't live beyond our means. We do everything we can to be fiscally responsible. But we also don't save every single penny to the point where we never do or buy anything fun. I appreciate the balance that we strike in saving and spending. I really appreciate that Ryan is responsible with money, because I choose to be that way also, and it makes marriage so much nicer to have us on the same page with that. But I appreciate that we are able to have some fun and get the things we need.

4. Do you play the stock market? Do you play the lottery? Ever gambled? Ever won big?

We are much too conservative for any of this. Plus, you know I have terrible luck when it comes to games, so do you really think gambling and lottery-playing would go well for me?

5. What is your favorite way to splurge? What do you dislike spending money on the most?

Favorite way to splurge...probably would be things for our home. I love making it pretty. (And of course, now things to make Abby pretty.) I'm not big into buying clothes or jewelry or makeup or anything like that. OH! And experiences. I really love spending on things like trips or experiences on trips. Memories more than stuff. Things I dislike spending money on? Repairs. Underwear. All manner of things you can't see. LOL!

6. How do you save money? Do you save change? Christmas club or vacation accounts? Time-share? 

Hmmmm. We probably save money (in comparison to most people) by not eating out much. And when we do eat out, most of the time it's fast food. We don't go to many high dollar restaurants. And we try really hard to be frugal on regular fees. (Like we try to have the cheapest cell phone plan possible, and we don't do high-tier TV services. And we use phones, computers, and cars until they die. And then we duct tape them and use them some more.) We do not save change. I have never saved change. Back in the day when I carried cash more than I do now, I used every penny. I never had leftover. While it may not be a specific Christmas club, I am so thankful my mom taught me back when I was five to start saving part of every allowance for buying Christmas gifts. We always save up for Christmas and trips so we don't have to go into debt for them. We've never done a time-share. 

7. Who pays the bills? Who does the taxes? Do you file early or last minute?

I was so delighted to hand over all the money to Ryan when we got married. I did it and did it well when I was single, but I hated it. Like I said earlier, we are on the same page with financial responsibility, so I never have to worry about him paying things late or doing anything unethical or unwise with our money. He enjoys it and I hate it, so this arrangement works well for us. He takes care of our taxes and we are all about being as early as possible for everything.

8. Name brands or generic groceries? Favorite stores to shop? Have you used grocery pick-up? Delivery? Coupons?

We try to buy generic on everything we can - other than things that we don't like the generic brand. WE do get name brand toilet paper, laundry detergent, coffee, etc. But we don't get hung up on name brands for most things. We usually shop for groceries at Aldi and get everything there that we possibly can. Whatever we can't get there, we get at either Meijer or Wal-Mart. And we have a handful of things we get at Sam's. We don't use grocery pickup or delivery. And we don't clip coupons, but we do have some apps to get coupons that way when we can.

9. Do you shop thrift stores and yard sales? Ever use Poshmark or eBay?

I love thrift stores and yard sale, though I haven't had much time for either in the last few months. I have no shame in buying other people's leftovers!! I've never used Poshmark or eBay. 

10. Is there anything you collect or save that you think might be valuable one day?

Not a thing. I'm not really into stuff so I don't have collections. And back when I did collect, I collected business cards. They're not worth anything. 

So there you have it! We're not very exciting, are we?

Pros and Cons and Questions

One more day of Abby talk and I promise to take a break from overwhelming you with it all. 

First up...a couple of you asked some questions, so let me answer those!

Will I ever drive Abby? Not if I can help it! (HA!) I did take a turn in the driver's seat last fall before our purchase, because Ryan wanted to know that I could drive her if needed. As you know, I really don't enjoy driving at all - even cars - so the general plan is that Ryan will drive the majority of the time, but if there should come a time when he's sleepy or not feeling well and shouldn't be driving...yes, I can and will drive her. 

Will we ever tow our car? Probably not. Abby does have a hitch and can tow a vehicle, but we would have to get all the other pieces and parts to tow. Our car is not super small, so it would probably utterly kill our gas mileage to tow it. Ryan actually said if we ever did tow a vehicle, we would probably tow our truck, because it's lighter weight. But for the most part, wherever we go, we'll probably just drive the RV and rely on walking (or driving the RV) where we need to go. With the type of travel we envision doing in the near future, that would be sufficient. 

Next up...the things we loved about camping in general and about Abby specifically.

* One of my biggest dreams over these last 4-5 years of RV research has been to have a bathroom with us on the road. You remember the 3 hour traffic jam before our wedding, right? :) Having a bathroom at our disposal at all times is THE BEST. 

* We also loved arriving at our destination and not hauling luggage inside and unpacking...only to turn around and pack it all up and haul it back out. I realize that there will be a measure of that eventually when we set up a proper outdoor campsite, but with toiletries and clothes and all that, this was a dream. 

* I mentioned this a couple of days ago, but we really liked the amount of space we had to move around (as opposed to a camper van, which would be even smaller inside) during days full of rain. It was nice to stretch our legs and be able to walk around each other, even if it was still on the tighter side.

* Also nice, given the rain, was the quick setup. We didn't have to mess with pulling out slides on the side or hooking up water/sewage or even messing with leveling blocks. We just pulled in, plugged in, and called it a day.

* Even though there's the potential downside of not having a vehicle to drive separately, I LOVE having the cab attached to the house. I love just being able to crawl over the console and immediately be home. Especially in the rain. (Maybe having our first trip mostly rained out really helped us appreciate her best qualities!) 

* We enjoyed the privacy of camping in our own space, while still getting to see other people out and about at their campsites. We could enjoy the presence of life around us without having people right on the other side of our walls. 

* We loved taking our own food and making our own meals inside. By plugging in the RV, we were able to use an electric griddle and save propane! I also ADORE that we have a pretty big refrigerator and separate freezer. Some RVs the size we have only have a mini-fridge or one where the freezer is just this itty bitty compartment within the refrigerator. I think it's pretty amazing that we have one as large as we do. 

* Everything is comfortable. I have heard some real nightmare stories about RV furniture being INCREDIBLY uncomfortable. I was shocked that our bed is so comfy. It's smaller than we're used to, and that takes some adjustment, but it's SO comfy. And the sofa and chair in the back are equally comfortable. Even the chairs in the cab (though not cute!) are really easy to ride in. 

While it was (much like Mary Poppins) practically perfect in every way, there were a couple of things that weren't amazing or that we might choose differently in a future RV.

* The wet bath. When you choose a small rig like we did, you have to pick and choose your luxuries. For us, having a bed that doesn't have to fold out each night and up each morning - OR rest over the cab - meant we didn't have as much space for a bathroom. Our wet bath works perfectly fine as a restroom, but as a shower, it will require some adjustments. We'll learn as we go, but years down the road, if we upgrade our RV, I think we would both choose a full bathroom with a shower separate from the toilet and sink. It's not a disappointment or complaint...merely an observation. 

* We chose a shorter RV on purpose, because it is easier to navigate, and after watching some people try to park larger ones in the campground, I surely was grateful for her small size. But I also think if we were ever going to go full time or travel more extensively, we would probably want something JUST a little bit larger. Part of that has to do with outside storage space. She has TONS of cabinets inside, but very little outside, which means we have to be pretty choosy about what/how much we bring for outside living. If we did ever get a bigger one, we would also probably try to find one with a permanent table, so we didn't have to take it down and set it back up all the time. (BUT!!! I really do love it that a table is even an option in the one we have.)

Hanging Out With Abby!

Wow, you guys! Thanks so much for ALL the Abby love yesterday! And thanks for the encouragement about hiking that particular park. We would love to go back sometime in nice weather and actually DO the trails. We saw the lake, and it looked really pretty! (And big!) 

Today I thought I'd tell you about life IN the RV, since we did spend a fair amount of time in there! Maybe this will help answer some questions, too, because we do get a lot of questions about what life with her is like! 

First, let's talk about driving her! That cab is SO comfortable. So very comfy. The seats are old and not that pretty, but they sure are a delight to sit in! We found the cab to be really easy to sit in, which is good for when we have longer trips! Ryan's console was PERFECTION! We loved our cup holders and the little tray in the middle, where we could put snacks or my camera or whatever. And Ryan said she really is easy to drive. We tried not to use it unless necessary, but she can have some good pick up and go if she needs to! 

This chair? Also very comfy.

This was also an original from Abby, and she's SO comfy. I can use the back cup holder of the console for my end table when I'm sitting here, and I love it. I can use the couch for my ottoman. :) And that little mail/key holder up behind mem was also a great choice. We put our masks and sunglasses on the hooks when we were inside Abby, and I also used that chalkboard for an idea I'd seen on Pinterest. I saw a tip to write your campsite and the county you're in up on that board so if you have an emergency and have to call for help, you can quickly help the medics or police find you - and if there is a weather emergency, you know your county to know if it applies to you!

(Our park was in two counties.)

Our new couch? Shockingly comfortable. You always hear about RV furniture and how it's practical but not comfortable. That did not prove true with our couch. We enjoyed sitting on it AND even lounging on it together to watch a movie! 

We both fit on it very nicely, and because it doesn't have arms at the end, if our feet needed to hang off the end, they could! 

After we got rained out of our campfire Saturday night, we ended up hanging out on that couch, watching a movie on our TV - through Ryan's phone. That also worked better than we thought it might. It was a good movie and it didn't have a bunch of signal interruptions. We appreciated that! We also watched hymns on the TV on Sunday morning while we got ready!

OH! Those lights reminded me that the string of ambient lighting made PERFECT evening lighting in the RV. All our house lights are crazy bright bulbs, and while they're great for getting ready, etc., they're a bit much for just lounging quietly in the evening. We used only these lights when hanging out (and overnight, too) and they were perfect. Just perfect. 

We did some cooking in the RV, though we did not try the stove in it just yet. We used our Griddler we brought from home (which is one of my favorite extra appliances that we own). Cooking went well, though it did certainly heat up the place in a hurry! We had hoped to be able to cook outside some, but it wasn't meant to be on this trip. Maybe next time? :) 

The lack of counter space didn't turn out to be a huge problem - at least on this trip! And I adored having all my ingredients handy in the pantry and in the refrigerator. So much easier than digging through bags and coolers! 

We put up the table to eat, and while that can be a bit of a pain to put up and take down all the time, we really enjoy having the option of HAVING  a table without having it in the way all the time.

Ryan was in charge of making all the coffee, but this is one of the parts we think we need to modify (More on this another day.) Having said that, he rocked the barista life this weekend.

People seem surprised that we enjoy the bed in Abby, because it is pretty small. It's a full size bed, and one side of it doesn't have a ton of stretch-out room, because of the closet at the end of the bed. But we honestly do fit in it quite nicely and have plenty of room to turn over. It's not bad at all! And I am grateful to not have to sleep in an over-the-cab bunk. I think I'd get claustrophobic in that. Here are the pictures of our two sunrises from our bed. I'm glad I captured them, because the sun went on strike after this - both days!

And then...the bathroom. Abby has a wet bath, which means the entire room serves as the shower, while also holding the toilet and sink. I didn't take pictures (ewww) but here are some thoughts on the bathroom while we were gone.

I LOVE having a bathroom right there, at the ready, just as much as I thought I would. I loved being able to pull over in a parking lot for a bathroom break without going into a store or restaurant that may or may not be all that clean. It was one of the things I looked forward to the most, and it lived up to the hype. 

I chose not to do a hair washing on this trip, but we both fear for me when I do have to do that. It's not super conducive to it. We have a handheld shower head, but I just have SO MUCH HAIR! My goal is to try to use regular house showers as often as possible on trips. But it works okay for a shower - though we do have to get the hang of drying out the room after so it can go on with normal life as a regular bathroom. That will take the most adjustment, I think.

When we first looked at RVs, we considered trying to go with a conversion van, but one of the main reasons we didn't (other than cost...they're CRAZY expensive) was because of space. Though the goal is to always be able to go out and about while traveling, we knew that some trips might have bad weather, and we didn't want to be totally cramped in such an event. Who knew that our first trip out would prove us right on THAT!?!? 

We appreciated being able to walk around inside and stretch out comfortably while the rain poured outside. 

So there you have it! A glimpse of life on the inside!

Abby's First Official Outing!

Well, it was six months in the making, but Miss Abby's first official outing came THIS WEEKEND!! Weeks of prepping and planning, a billion Pinterest posts consulted...and then it was here! I thought I'd tell you about it today! I might tell you a few more things about it throughout this week - thinking out loud from other angles, if you don't mind. 

I had a speaking engagement this weekend (one postponed from last year and all carefully distanced) so we decided to take Abby with us and make this our first camping trip!

And so it was that Friday morning we did our official pre-trip photo shoot...

...and then we headed out!

We had a GORGEOUS day to travel...though it was incredibly windy. So Ryan learned right away how to hang onto the RV in a strong wind!

Hello, Ohio!!!

My speaking engagement was held at a state park, and this is the beautiful lodge where it was held!

We stopped in at the lodge, but literally just a few minutes after I took this picture, we headed toward the campground, which apparently was in a completely different climate!

It was our first time ever to check into a campground, of course we had to do it in a torrential downpour. Of course! We had no idea what all was required of a check-in...but it turned out to be pretty easy. We had registered for this site several months ago, so the lady at the little building basically just pointed us to the correct road and told us to have a great visit. :) 

And by the time we drove around the bend and down the road, the rain had stopped and the sun was shining again. GO FIGURE!

Our little campsite was simple but perfect for our needs. We only had electricity at this site - not water. But we were going to be in and out all weekend, so it was actually much easier to only have electricity. Didn't have nearly as much too plug in and unplug when we needed to move around. (We had to drive Abby everywhere we needed to go, because we didn't tow our car.) We had a picnic table and fire ring, and this beautiful sight out our front window:

Ryan had picked our spot at random, and of course we'd never been to this place before, so we knew nothing about any of the spots. But this was so pretty! And I was so grateful for the gorgeous bright green baby leaves and the blossoms. Perfection. 

We were probably a pretty boring campsite compared to others, because we didn't truly set up camp. We didn't have flagpoles or welcome signs at the edge of our drive or a dog run throughout the yard. (We didn't even bring our rug...but we do have one!) But we thoroughly enjoyed our spot.

Unfortunately, it rained THE ENTIRE WEEKEND. It was okay, since we had plenty to do, but when we were at the campground, we were limited on our outdoor activity! 

I'll have to tell you more about life IN Abby on another day, but I will show you this one snippet of time we got to enjoy a fire in our fire pit before the rain drowned it.

Saturday evening the radar showed NO rain, so we made a fire.

(Don't you love the giant mud puddle next to it? That was our only sadness over our site. The other sites all seemed to have grass or gravel around the fire pit. Not so much for us.)

We had our coffee outside, because of course...

And then we sat a mud puddle's distance from our fire to wait for it to get marshmallow-ready.

It was pretty perfect...

...until literally halfway through our marshmallow roasting. All of the sudden the skies opened and it rained the rest of the night. We scrambled to get inside with half-roasted marshmallows, which made for awkward s'mores. 

And that was the extent of our true campground adventures with Abby. We didn't even get to hike the park on Sunday like we'd hoped, because the rain game was still going strong throughout that day. But even though it was unconventional, we had a great time. I'll tell you more tomorrow, but I just had to tell you today that she's officially had her debut!!

Sunday Sentiments

I have friends who were (or still are) foster parents. I've heard many stories and watched them walk difficult roads for the love of kids who weren't born to them, but they love them as though they were.

We understood it...while we didn't understand it at all.

The work we do isn't foster care, but I think it has some similarities.

I remember the day we came for our interview. We knew we would meet the tenants, and we had no idea if they would like us. Rob told us a bit about the personalities of the people who lived here at that time, and he wasn't wrong about any of them!

One of them had a personality as big as the world. She was a brand new mom, and her sweet baby was just a couple of months old when we first met him that day. I still remember when we all sat on the couch together talking, and she yelled over all the conversations taking place to say "ROB! You should hire them RIGHT NOW!" 

He must have listened, because about a month later we moved in and slowly began to get to know her and the baby. We came up with things to talk about on trips back and forth to work. We did life together, day by day. We were strangers. Then friends. Then framily. 

And in the course of the last nine months, she has made us laugh until we cried. We've sat beside her through unspeakably hard meetings and conversations. We've advocated for her and her baby. We've taught her life skills. We've gone to coffee together. We've gone to church together. We've shared meals around the community room table. 

We have grown to love her with all our hearts. We haven't always agreed with her, but she's our girl. And that sweet baby boy has grown up right under our noses, and we've grown to love him, too. (He is Ryan's biggest fan, other than me, of course. He'll practically jump out of my arms to jump into Ryan's when he catches a glimpse of him.)

This work we do...it's a stepping stone. Everyone who moves in here is just here for a season. We know that. They know that. Some of the tenants who have lived here have been here for a very short time before heading on to the next chapter. But this one was here for over a year. And we were here with her for most of that time. 

A couple of weeks ago, she moved on to her next chapter, and we celebrated and grieved all in the same breaths. We celebrated for the goals she achieved, but we grieved the loss of her in this place. There will never be another one just like her. Never ever. 

She spent a couple of weeks slowly moving out, but on the last day, after she came to clean her apartment, Ryan and I drove her and the baby away for the last time - to their new home. She gave us a tour and somewhere in between the front door and the bottom step, I started sobbing. I was a mess by the time we got to the van twenty steps away. 

Ryan asked if I thought Culver's would fix it, and I said I wasn't sure, but there was no harm in trying. So we tried. It didn't fix the hole in my heart, but it was a good bandage. ;) 

(Funny story: that night when we drove her to her new place, everything about the day had taken so much longer than planned, so it was about three hours past my dinner time when we took her home. When I talked to her later, she asked what we did after we left her. I said, "Well I cried." She said, "You CRIED? I'm sorry! I didn't know you were that hungry!" I said, "NO, SILLY!! I cried because I missed you! Not because of dinner!") 

Some people have asked if we can still be part of her life, and the answer is yes - if she'll have us. We gave her our numbers and she's reached out multiple times to text, call, and FaceTime us since she left. We've told her we'll go visit her - and we have! We'll stay part of their lives for as long as they'll let us. 

Love sneaks up on you. At least it did for us with them. They went from being strangers whose building we invaded to being framily to the two of us. She's taken to calling me Momma. I told her that's fine, but that child is NOT calling me Grandma! I'll just be Aunt Bekah where he's concerned. I told Ryan once that if she decided not to keep us in her life after she left, the baby would never remember us. He's too young. We spent every day with him and he would never remember us at all. But we will always remember him and how he changed our lives so profoundly. 

Love can be hard work. But it wraps itself around you and pushes you through the hard moments. It doesn't quit just because miles create a distance. 

She's our first goodbye to a tenant we've developed a deep history with. We miss her terribly. We miss both of them. But we are so very grateful to have been part of their lives for these last nine months. 

We'll say goodbye again and again as tenants come and go. We know that. We know it won't be the last time our hearts are gripped by grief in letting go. 

But that's what this job is all about. Investing fully, loving well, and cheering them on as they step into their next chapters. And we pray that the Lord equips us to do all of this with His grace.