A Special Dinner, Very Special Friends

Last night we shared what was probably the best dinner we've had in a very long time with some of the closest friends we know. We just have been so blessed that some of our closest friends just happen to live next door (or very close by). Linda and Leta went all out and cooked for us some absolutely delicious fare and set a really gorgeous table. We even got to eat in Linda's beautiful dining room, set aside for only very special occasions. What an honor!

Leta and Mike, Rodger and Linda, we love you and will really miss you.

Today my close friends Larry and John came over to help clean out the house. I believe Larry thought he was going to be hauling trash to the dump all day when offered to help. But instead the poor guy wound up with a garage full of my old stuff! You're welcome buddy!

Really looking forward to tomorrow night. So many friends to see once more!

Only 61 hours to go...

Good-byes

Yesterday we attended our last service at the church we have been members of for the last 15 years. All our children attended school there and Kenny & Gretta were both baptized there. In this pic is the sign I made a few years ago. It's sandblasted vertical grain redwood with 24k gold leaf lettering. You can even see the top of the K-Rose in the background.

When we first joined St. Paul's it was still a small community congregation with many lifelong members. They had just installed two co-pastors because one just wasn't enough anymore. Onalaska was poised for some tremendous growth. A few years ago we built a beautiful, huge new sanctuary and greatly expanded the school. Now it is one of the largest congregations in the Wisconsin Synod.

Saying good-bye to our brothers and sisters in Christ is somewhat bittersweet. We've watched their children grow along with ours. We know it will be a long time before we see their faces again, perhaps not until eternal glory. But we praise God for the opportunity to have known them and we are eager to meet other saints along our way.

Welcome

Our home of 15 years is sold. So many of our posessions are slowly liquidating, mostly just given away to family and friends. So...much...stuff.

I look at the inside of the pantry door. There are the lines that mark the growth of our children. And some of the day care children that were here. Even some that were here before us. Our last daughter was born in our bedroom across the hall.

We don't know where we are going from here. We don't know where or if we'll find work. I'm not even sure this old bus will make it very far. What I do know is that now more than ever we know we are in the Lord's hands.

"I have been young and now am old and yet have I not seen the righteous fosaken, nor His seed begging bread."

This journey begins the rest of our lives. It seems at the same time the culmination of everything we've been and the inauguration what we will be. An end and a beginning. Isn't life just that way everyday?