New Adventures

We're in the calm before the storm.

Soon, but not yet, Simon will start up preschool again for the year. On that same day, I will start rehearsing for a new year with the Grand Rapids Women's Chorus while somehow supposedly attending the church council meeting I'm supposed to be at. Even sooner than all that, Adam will begin student teaching at a local elementary school for an approximately 12-week stint, forcing him to relinquish full-time employment for about 3 months. A few short weeks after this all I will be heading back to the center of the state for the first class of my second year in the STEM (lay ministry) program through my beloved United Church of Christ. That same month I'll be attending a training on how to be a delegate to the UCC Synod, which I will be in the summer of 2011 and the summer of 2013.

So we're buckling down, batting down the hatches, putting a freeze on saying "yes" to things or spending money on things that are less than vital. And we're excited.

It's a new phase of life - we're forced into creativity, pushed to rely on each other, reminded that we have faith to sustain us through it. Since we moved to Silver City, New Mexico the summer of 2003 with no jobs, no friends (there), and a year commitment to a house we'd never laid eyes on, I don't remember being in a situation where we've really been challenged to turn toward one another and draw on our own reserves of resilience and creative determination.

Another element of the new phase is the simultaneously undramatic and yet paradigm-shifting decision we recently committed to: we're happy with our family as it is and have no intention of adding any more people to it. With the exception of possible exchange student hosting or foster parenting or family/friend caretaking or long-term guests, our home will house four people happily with a sense of completeness. This decision frees up so many options for the future, starting now. The first being a very literal "freeing up" in terms of space...all those boxes of clothes and cloth diapers, bulky baby items and toys are now being sorted for donating or selling. Not only can we use the extra income for our new journey of creative poverty, but it will be nice to create space in the closets and storage areas.

We're letting go of our "comfortable" normalcy for Adam to pursue the last leg of his educational journey. It's been many years in coming, but he has completed his last academic semester of his degree and, assuming a successful student teaching and portfolio-building semester this fall, he will be graduating in December.

Expect a party.

Although we're entering it with hope and determination, we'd love your prayers and encouragement as we muddle our way through the precarious Labor Day through Thanksgiving time frame. We're not too proud to accept meals or meal invitations, free childcare, non-tax-deductible cash donations or six-packs of quality microbrews at any time during those 12 weeks, however.

And if you want to buy any baby stuff, let me know. :)