Li’l Elves

We moved into our new farmhouse, this past weekend!!!! Cannot even believe the day finally arrived – it’s been a looong, challenging, two+ years. If you’re a newer follower, you probably don’t know the backstory of this whole building thing. Just over two years ago, my li’l fam and I were getting ready to move to Europe for a few years, but the week we were supposed to move, my husband’s father was killed in a car accident. We ended up moving to Bend, Oregon, instead, so my husband could run his father’s business in town. We moved in with my mother-in-law the very day the accident happened, and soon started our design and building process on the farm land next door. While it was super nice to move in to an already furnished, dish-pots-bedding-and-toweled-out place, after two years, I’ve gotta say, I’ve really missed having our own things, and space to call our own. I guess I’ve really just missed the essence of what a “home” is – a place that reflects who you are, and most importantly, a place that you feel welcome in… The past two years have not been my favorite. I’ve learned a lot; my faith has painfully stretched, and grown, and failed a lot. The biggest, most challenging thing I’ve been learning on the daily, on the minutely (succeeding sometimes, but mostly failing), is letting go, and letting God. I’ve known forever in my head that I need to “be anxious for nothing,” to place my trust in Christ, and fully lean on Him, but it finally occurred to me, in a big smack-in-the-face kind of way, that I’ve never trusted in Him like that. I’ve learned well over the years to “give thanks in all things,” as my form of trust in my Savior, but I’ve never really taken it further than that. I’m the type that prefers to shoulder my own stuff, pull my own self up, figure it out on my own, kinda gal. And learning to give that – all of that – over to the Lord, and laying it at His feet is, and feels, SO FOREIGN to me. So foreign!! I stink at it. I keep failing at it. Everyday. But the times I succeed, has made all the difference – truly. I feel so much lighter, and more joyful! And I think it might even be erasing some wrinkles. 😉

Anyway, I just wanted to share a little of my heart with you, this beauuuutiful, white, frosty morning! And to finally share some fun photos we took at Crater Lake over Thanksgiving break.