good news

So much good news in the last week!

Our house in Lynn finally closed a week ago. We left the closing sad to be moving on from a huge chapter in our lives (the Lynn chapter was 11-1/2 years of our 12-1/2 year marriage), but also feeling free to move forward.

Yesterday, we signed the P&S on our future home here in West Bridgewater, a cute and sunny bungalow a mile from Jason's parents' home. We're hoping to close January 22nd! The seller bought the house to flip it, and it is completely renovated, inside and out, and nearly finished (I walked through it again today). We're so grateful to have found this house, as it will mark the first time we haven't adopted a "house project" in the purchase of a home, and at this stage in the life of our family, we are needing the freedom to attend to our children more, and our property less. It is a provision.

We've been busy in the last week, too, making new friends, and this is good, too. The boys are now receiving phone calls from friends at their new school (amused sigh). Jason and I were over two different houses for dinner last week, meeting over nine couples in those two visits. We have dinner plans with another family this weekend, while Orilus joins forty other middle schoolers from church at "Snow Camp" in New Hampshire. And even little Moriah is making friends--a little boy from the Down syndrome support group we've joined, and two girls in her mom-and-baby swim class this morning. We are so thankful to be so well-provided for in potential friendships.

There continues to be, as in your lives, much that is concerning. We need jobs that are closer to our new home. I would like to do some work this spring, even, but can't forsee commuting to Lynn with Jason and leaving our children parent-less before and after school. Orilus made a visit to Mass General yesterday for symptoms that are mystifying to us, and to his hematologist. So far, his blood counts look good, but he continues to complain of back pain and other aches daily and we are worried for him. We're waiting for more test results this week as the doctors try to figure out if his pains are from sickle cell damage, some kind of post-transplant "fritz," an autoimmune issue (his immune system still just 3-1/2 years old), or just plain growing pains.

Somehow, though, I have an increasing sense of faith. Faith that God might, after all, be paying attention to us. Faith that we might have been on to something when we gave Moriah her name as a reminder that God provides. The cliche says that when God closes a door, He opens a window. Hm. But those who told me so forgot to mention that sometimes the window only opens after you've sat in a stuffy, dark house for a long time, thinking you're alone and there's no way out. This week, though, I've found a window and through it, hope rising like a warming winter sun.