Every Night's a Weekend: October 2011

[BIG NEWS=WE'RE MOVING TO OKLAHOMA! that's for those who don't have time to read all this...]

1 year, 6 months, 3 weeks and 4 days ago. That's when I became Mrs. Adam Sandwick. Apart from the day I decided to accept and follow Jesus, our wedding day was the best day of my life.

I remember about a month before we got married, we met with our friend and pastor, Blake, who would be officiating our wedding. We talked through several things, and at the end of lunch, he said, "You guys are ready." We had been blessed with great premarital counsel, training and preparation, and I thought at that point that my head would explode if I tried to fit anything else in there about how to have a godly, great marriage. I felt like an athlete training for the big game - at some point, you just have to get in the game and see how all that practice pays off. But, as I'm finding out, you have no way of knowing what the game will be like!!

I knew there would be no way to know what God had in store for Team Sandwick, but I did know that I could rest in the promises of His Word - God will never leave us, He has a plan for us, and we can trust Him and His character. I also knew that Adam and I would vow to love, respect, and pursue one another no matter what.

I know that I have only been married for 1.5 years. A drop in the bucket. But the amount of life change and transition that God has squeezed in to this time has honestly surprised me. I don't know what I expected...but I can tell you that I didn't expect that our first year of marriage would be marked by us getting pregnant, me quitting work to stay home with our Peanut, and my dad going through intense treatment for cancer...and the rollercoaster of emotions that went with everything that happened.

But let me be clear...EVERY bit of what has been unexpected has served to do one thing...drive me to a deeper dependence on Jesus. And I am so grateful for that. I trust that whatever the Lord does with us in the future will do the same, IF I avail myself to Him.

But maybe I wasn't learning that enough...so more life change is headed our way. No, we aren't having another baby...we are MOVING TO OKLAHOMA. Oklahoma! Can you believe it? Some days, I still have hard time believing it.

But it's true. Team Sandwick...our little family of 3...will be packing up and heading out in about 6 weeks. CRA-ZY.

What is exciting to me as I think about the future?

1. An adventure with Adam! I can't wait to get in the car and drive off with my love, not knowing anything about what life in Oklahoma will be like for us except that I will be with him and with Erin. From the perspective of our marriage, I think this will be great for us.

2. Getting a house! I will always have a fondness for our apartment here...where we came home as husband and wife, where we brought Miss Erin Grainne home from the hospital, and where we've spent our first year and a half as a family. But it will be fun to have a little home to make new memories in too. And Adam said we could get a dog. A dog!! I'm so excited.

3. Exploring a new place...I haven't moved to a new city in 9 years, and I do love new places.

4. Adam's job. This is the opportunity that we decided to take, and the reason that Oklahoma became an option for us. It's a job that Adam is excited about taking and I can't wait to see how God uses him in this new role. I am so proud to be his wife.

5. Being closer to Adam's family. Erin has 2 cousins on her dad's side, and they will be 1 hour and 2 hours away - I am really looking forward to spending more time with that side of the family, and for Erin to get to see her Sandwick cousins more often.

6. A chance to trust the Lord for a lot of the things I take for granted here...friends and family, an amazing church. There is much that is familiar for me here in Dallas, and I'm grateful for that. But the danger in that for me is that I can forget how much I need God. I won't need Him more in OK than I need Him here...but I may feel like I do, and that is always a good thing.

How do I feel about leaving Dallas?

SAD. SAD. SAD.

To be clear, it's not the city. (Though I will miss White Rock Lake, Target, and probably other places I haven't thought of yet. And I will miss how familiar it is to me.)

It is the PEOPLE. My parents are here. Sweet, sweet friends who are like family to me are here. The church that we are a part of through Watermark. By church, I mean the people, not the building. I cannot even process what it will be like to say goodbye. I have been having more sad moments recently, but I think that's ok.

I know that no amount of exciting and good things about going will make leaving any less sad. Please pray for me that God will help me be sad when I need to be. I tend to be a stuffer...until it all explodes quite messily, usually around my incredibly patient husband. Pray for him. I mean that. He's amazing but there's only so much crazy a man can take.

So, that is our big news. It has consumed my thoughts for the last few months as we have processed this decision, and it feels so good to have the decision made.

I love the adventure that married life is taking me on...though I confess that I am ready for it calm down. Maybe it will, and maybe it won't. God hasn't asked me to worry about that. Matthew 6:34 says, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

I am grateful for this reminder... Lord, help me trust You each day.

Somehow, Erin is already 8 months old today! No, I haven't updated the blog since she turned 7 months...but that definitely means that there has been more going on, rather than less. It has been such a sweet month with little E - and a big month, too! She got her first tooth - and then a second. She flew for the first time to visit family in North Carolina - and she was a champion traveler. She got to see 4 out of her 7 aunts and uncles, all her grandparents, 1 of her Sandwick-side cousins, and spent lots of time with her Dallas almost-cousins. She's started to 'scoot' - not quite crawling yet, but on her way. And, perhaps most significantly, she went to her first State Fair of Texas. :-) It's been a FULL month, both for Erin and for our family, and there is change on the horizon (more on that later).

I am so thankful because each day it is easy to enjoy our sweet baby girl. Almost every time I go somewhere with her, someone makes a comment about what a happy baby she is. For the most part, she is. Don't get me wrong - she lets us know when she's tired, hungry, hurting, frustrated, or not getting what she wants. And I do think she's energized by going places and meeting 'new' (anyone besides me and Adam) people. This really is a sweet time in our lives as parents - I know it will only get more compicated from here. I pray that Adam and I will grow in our dependence on Christ to parent Erin well each day, no matter what that day holds.

Here are some pictures...we decided to show off her awesome scooting skills this month for her 8 month pics. See how well she gets across the floor - all movement was entirely unassisted...unless you count motivating her with her favorite toy, the tv remote.