7 Years in Louisville, A Chapter Closed

7 years ago, our family of 4 loaded up with my parents and our great friends, Winston and Anna, and took a leap of faith to move to Louisville, KY for Jim to attend seminary.

Today, our family of 9 is loading up with my parents and taking a leap of faith to move back to Smyrna, GA.

7 years to the day! It's incredible that it's been 7 years. So much has happened. So much has changed.

In the Bible, the 7th year is the year of Jubilee. 7 is the number of completion. 7 is the number of rest. It is quite a significant time period, in the Biblical narrative. And today it is significant to us.

I'm still digesting what all of this means, but when I think about it, my soul leaps. God, in His perfect ways, had us here 7 years. It has been good. It has been hard. At times it has been terrible. But in all of it God has been growing us, teaching us, conforming us to the likeness of His Son.

At 5 years we had no idea what was to come because everything was different from what we expected. Even as we prayed over what to do next, we honestly thought we would stay here until we were ready to go overseas. But during this last year God made it clear, we would be moving back to GA and rejoin our church family there. We still hope to go overseas one day. But God clearly has more work to do on us and for us to do here.

And we are OK with that.

Why? Because it's about God's Kingdom and God's Glory and doing what He calls us to do. We are excited for the next adventure as we return home and to see what God is going to do.

We have been so blessed to be in Louisville. Sojourn is a wonderful church. Home For His Glory has helped us navigate homeschooling. Southern was wonderful for delving deeper into the academic side of our faith. I will miss being able to get anywhere in the city in 30 minutes or less. We will miss the local food. We have made incredible friends that have forever touched our family.

Now to reconnect with friends who have cared for us from a distance, acclimate to heavy traffic, become active at FBC Smyrna, discover a new homeschool community and find what God has planned for us in Smyrna. Here is to the next ____ years, as we follow God on this adventure of a blessed life He has given us in Jesus!