Lots of changes...

Well, lots has changed since my last post (which actually wasn't even that long ago)...we are now residents in Mississippi (well I guess we can't technically be residence since we don't have our own place) but we are currently living in my good ole home state.  Lets do a quick recap.  Several months ago, Steve felt the Lord stirring a change in his heart.  He had been struggling with feeling his call to youth ministry was coming to a close.  We prayed through it and felt we would continue on until we received confirmation...well not a week or two later he was contacted by a Pastor from here in Byram, Mississippi.  Hillcrest was looking for a full time worship pastor. We continued to pray and ended up meeting with the pastor and his sweet, sweet wife.  It was a great time to get to know them both and hear their heartbeat for Hillcrest.  It seemed like such a God ordained thing and timing but truthfully I was not ready to say goodbye to our Calvary church family.  They are by far the sweetest congregation of people and so many have taken the time to pour into us and especially love on our little Eli. So with apprehensions we agreed to cut our family vacation a little short and make a detour in order to view one of their services.  It was a good time and we truly enjoyed meeting a select group of the congregation for lunch...we could feel the Holy Spirit drawing us to Hillcrest.  We continued to pray but felt moving forward was the right move.  From a personal (and probably not so spiritual side of things) I did not want to pack up my house, disrupt my Eli's routine and comforts to move 8 hours away from his first home.  We hadn't been at Calvary long and felt we were just started to really get settled and involved.  I was loving having time with the youth girls and time with the choir was always great. So when we went for view of a call I kinda sorta might have really questioned this whole thing.  On the way to the service that night (when the church would vote on us) I prayed and basically said if this was a God thing we would have at least 98% of the vote...then I took it back realazing I shouldn't put a number on God and just prayed he'd make it clear.  Well of course God did above and beyond what I asked or expected...100%...listen people, this rarely, and I mean rarely happens that a congregation vote 100% yes for someone, so yep its a God thing.  So we packed and packed and packed up our house and moved 8 hours south to Mississippi.  Tonight will be our first Wednesday at Hillcrest and I am anxious and excited for what is ahead of us.  Things haven't been super easy...we don't have a place to live so my parents and grandparents have opened up their home for which we are grateful, I got sick while we were packing with a terrible cough and sinus infection, plus Eli's been sick with a cough and ear infection then had a reaction to the antibiotic (that he's had 2 other times) he's been a terrible eater since we moved and bit more winey, but who can blame him, this is a lot for a 1 year old to adjust to, hey, its a lot for a 25 year old to adjust to.  So we are just praying through it and hoping we can find a place of our own soon, get healthy, and get settled back into our little routine.
On a happy note - my sweet baby boy just turned 17 months.  He favorite things right now are making motor sounds to everything...his car, the broom, his walker. He also LOVES the cozy coupe my uncle just bought for him....he's so cute in it.  He still loves to read and I am so grateful for that and he would literally live outside if we would let him.  He still loves music and dances away when NaeNae's phone rings.  He likes to brush his teeth and is obsessed with looking at all the pictures on the wall...yesterday when we would point to the picture of him on the wall he would then point to himself.  It was so sweet.  But my favorite thing he does is pray.  If we forget at lunch or dinner he put his hands together and looks at us like "hello, aren't we forgetting something".  We say our prayers at night too but lately he's been stalling bed time by asking for more prayers after we finish...he's got us there cause how do you say no to praying right?!? sneaky little man!  Of course we are still throwing fits when we dont' get our way (probably more so now since we are around grandparents that may tend to spoil him a little more than he's used to) but thats part of it.  He's still a little behind on his speech but we are working on it. His new words are: cold and yellow (his facial expression when he says cold is hilarious) Our schedule is still about the same: nap 10:45/11:00-12:20, nap 3:45/4:00-5:20ish bed at 8:30/8:45.  We are close to being down to 1 nap a day but for now we are sticking with two naps and I am not complaining! :) I am so thankful for my Eli and his sweet, loving nature.  He's such a gift from the Lord and keeps us all entertained!! :)