And Away We Go!

Hey there!  Surprised to hear from me?  Ya, it's been so crazy, these past few weeks!  A whirlwind, really!  Even now, I don't have a ton of time, but I will try to bring you up to speed.

Since my last post :

Matt went up north to northern Quebec to speak at a conference.  His dad also was a speaker.  The meetings went well and God was working.  But on one of the last days they were there, a tragedy in the village happened.  A young man, 22 years old, was murdered.  This is devastating news,  it especially in a small community like the Cree village.  The grandparents of the boy (who basically raised him) were members of the local church there.  They were heartbroken at the news, and asked Matt to help them tell the parents.  So, Matt had to do one of the hardest things he has ever done.  He had to look a father in the eyes and tell him his son was gone.  We are still praying that God would be using this to His glory in the village.

A day after Matt came home, we headed down to New  Hampshire for American Thanksgiving.  It was a quick trip (complete with a little Black Friday shopping and girls night out to the movies), but a good one.  The cousins always have fun playing together!

Once we returned home it was the mad dash to finish packing everything.  But, by Tuesday morning all was packed in boxes or suitcases and ready to go.  We were so completely exhausted.  Neither Matt nor I had slept much in the preceding four days or so.

Sunday morning we went back to our old church to say goodbye to everyone.  It was nice to be back and was hard to say goodbye.  I'm glad we went, though!

Tuesday morning the moving truck came and they took our things.  I believe the last time I posted, we were planning on pulling a trailer behind our van.  Well. In further research, we found a company that would take our stuff for us at a cheaper price.  Ad we wouldn't have to worry about towing it.  Which is great.  We didn't really want to do that, and our new church didn't want us doing that either. Anyways, we had to have everything ready to go for them to take.  It was nice to have them take it all away, but a weird feeling having pretty much all your earthly possessions in some strangers care!  It's a good lesson in laying up your treasures in heaven!

The rest of Tuesday was spent cleaning up the house.  We hadn't had even one offer on the house, but we wanted to leave it in mint condition in case there would be any showings. My good friend, Teresa, and her mom were sweet enough to come over and help me clean.  We had a great time together, nd a very tearful goodbye that night.  I hate goodbyes and "see ya laters."

Wednesday morning Matt had an appointment we had to go to in a nearby town.  I was back at my in-laws waiting for that to be done so we can head off on our new adventure.  Matt got back around noon.  Our good friends Scott and Andrea stopped by to say goodbye.  Then it was time to say goodbye to Grampy and Nana.  It was a very hard time, with all of us crying.  Even sweet Liam was crying.  The girls didn't quite get all that was happening, and still don't.  But we hugged, prayed, said our goodbyes and drove away.

Day one we drove just to New Hampshire and stayed with my brother and his family.  The next morning, we had even more goodbyes there.  I was sick of saying goodbye by then.  It's just plain hard to do.

Day two we drove to the middle of Pennsylvania and stayed the night there.

Today (day three) we drove to just outside Chicago.  We are going through the states most of the way as it is cheaper for gas and hotels.

S far all is going well despite everyone having colds.  Poor Lexi has a bad cold and is teething.  But we are