One Year Ago

Exactly one year ago today, we pulled out of Jackson ... us, my pregnant belly, all our earthly belongings crammed into the biggest moving truck I have ever seen, and my 3 houseplants (only 2 of them lived to tell about it) .  We left the city in which we had gone to college, met, dated, married, worked, celebrated - in short, lived - and headed out for a whole new city that I had never even seen before (Will had only seen the airport, the food court at the mall, and his future place of employment).

We had no stinkin' idea what we were getting ourselves into.

I distinctly remember driving down (up?) I40 singing to myself the old Steven Curtis Chapman song "The Great Adventure" (oh wait, what's that, huney?  you're saying I sang it out loud?) ... saddle up your horses, we got a trail to blaze, whoa-oa-oa-oooo, to the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace ... cheesy, I know.  I could go on with the lyrics, but you get the general idea.

But ya know?  if you'll indulge me, that's kinda what this year has been - the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace.  There were a list of things we needed - new doctors, taking care of our house in TN, new church - the seemingly endless list of stuff you have to figure out in a new place.

And here we are, one year later.  We know people - I have even run into people I know out in public - without meaning to!  shocker!  We like it here.  I even got a good haircut over the weekend!

God's grace has carried us through what could have been the worst year of our lives and made it one of the best.  I could say more, but Benjamin will be up early in the morning, so I'll close with this song that stuck with me through all of 2009's bumps, curves, and blindsides ...

By Your Side, by Tenth Avenue North

Why are you striving these days
Why are you trying to earn grace
Why are you crying
Let me lift up your face
Just don't turn away

Why are you looking for love
Why are you still searching as if I'm not enough
To where will you go child
Tell me where will you run
To where will you run

And I'll be by your side
Wherever you fall
In the dead of night
Whenever you call
And please don't fight
These hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Look at these hands and my side
They swallowed the grave on that night
When I drank the world's sin
So I could carry you in
And give you life
I want to give you life

Cause I, I love you
I want you to know
That I, I love you
I'll never let you go

Amen.