Look what you’ve done…

We are basically homeless.

The madness of this move must be diagramed.  We have a ranch with houses on it and we own the houses.  One of the houses is occupied by my sister and her husband and their four children.  One of the houses is occupied by our man-babies, John and Luke. And one of the houses we rented to a large family,  we will call them Family O.

When we left the ranch, we swore it was for good.  The drive into town coupled with some pretty bad memories were enough to turn this rancher’s wife into a lover of city life.  But you know my motto, never say never… ever.

As we near the adoption of our foster son, Charlie we started to rethink the ranch life.  The original batch of our children had a grand time out here. And the new batch? We adopted Sam when he was ten days old, he’s now four, and Charlie is two and half. We are also blessed with a longer term foster placement, a precious baby girl. And this bonus batch of babies needs fresh country air, wide open spaces, fireflies, fields of wildflowers and lots of sunshine.

So we decided to come home.

Our renters Family O, who owned a house in town, decided it would be good for them too.  So they notified the people that rented their house and let them know it was time to come home.

 

We will call them Family J.  And family J made a few phone calls and found a new place to rent and it would bless them immensely.

And of all the houses in all the land the house that Family J rented? Was the house we were about to vacate.

So three large families (between us we have 24 children and one on the way!) played musical houses. Family O moved back to their house and Family J moved into our house and we moved back to the ranch.  But first, we wanted to make a few changes.

 

Like I said, sad memories waited for us here.  New memories are on the horizon.  But the changes are taking longer than anticipated.  And we can’t be displaced for long because of our foster license.

 

So we are spread out between the man-babies’ house, my sister’s house, and our hunting cabin.

I am on overload.

On top of living out of suitcases, crowding my sister, and cramping the man-babies’ style, the baby is teething. She is fussy and out of sorts. Justin is working 15 hour days, he has lots of work… and lots to do to bring us all home.

In the midst of all the chaos, exciting things are going on with my blog! And this week I will fly out of state, again.

I am different since I lived here before.

Better in some ways, worse in others.

And at the cabin after dinner, Justin had flopped onto the bed, completely worn out. Charlie and Sam pounced on top of him and giggled and teased.  The baby crawled over and pulled herself to a stand and reached and squealed to be included. In between yawns, Justin wrestled.  And then he said, “Look what you’ve done…” And we both laughed.

A million miles, a road less traveled. Perhaps we are old to have such young children. But they keep us young in turn.  And the good outweighs the bad. We have learned and we have grown. Hopefully, we won’t make the same mistakes, at minimum I hope we make new ones.

And if I knew then what I know now, I don’t know what I would do differently.  I am so glad to be in this place.  In this space of crazy, I know we are back home. What a fun season to live under Texas stars and a new moon… Different than before – better in some ways – worse in others.

Good days, bad days, and all the in-betweens, we are rolling with the punches, taking it as it comes.  What a delightful new day –

Just look what we’ve done.

May your floors be sticky and your calling ordained. Love, Jami

Philippians 4:19-20 (MSG) “You can be sure that God will take care of everything you need, His generosity exceeding even yours in the glory that pours from Jesus.  Our God and Father abounds in glory that just pours out into eternity. Yes.” 

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