updates:
We moved out of Birchcroft. It has been a difficult move, and if we had any control over the situation, we would not have moved. Without going into too much detail, we had a lot of apartment trouble. The biggest problem was that we had an AC leak, which wasn't taken care of until about a week later. So, mold started to develop, and then..because I'm trying to make a long story short, we had piles of dirt in our AC unit. (I can't really tell you how exactly that happened, as it still remains a mystery to this very day.) :) And of course, this pile of dirt was getting into our ducts and covering our whole apartment in dirt. YAY! So after about 3 weeks of Adam and I staying at different people's houses, and our problem never being resolved, we felt like we had no other choice but to move out, because well, I was getting really sick, and Adam was as well.
So..where to go from here?
We moved into a place about 2 minutes from Birchcroft. It is a difficult and challenging thing to wrestle with feeling like God called us to a place only to lead us out of living there months later. Without touching on all that free will/divine providence blah blah blah, I do believe God works everything together to bring good out of any situation. So, while I have cried and wondered why and all that, I know our new home is a place where we can continue to develop and deepen our relationships with the precious families that we have grown close to. Of course, I am a big proponent of living among the people that we are called to, but I guess God has taught me (or is trying to teach me) a lot about that too. It doesn't look the same for everybody, in every situation. God can use anything and will use everything if we are willing. So living in Birchcroft or not, He will still use us to bless and serve these people, as they love and serve us too(most of the time I feel like I am more blessed by them than a blessing to them) but I have come to think that in the Kingdom, there is no such thing, instead there is a beautiful exchange of needs being met and love being shared.
While I love and understand people who say "well, just because you don't live there doesn't mean you won't be able to serve there," -it has gotten difficult to convey "yes i know this", but the loss is still present. It is going to be difficult to not miss the knocks on the door (however persistent they might have been), the laughter and yelling, the letters and pictures, the unique smelling meals, the drama, the countless hugs...and I could go on and on.
On the other side of things, like I said before, I am excited to see what God is going to do with us next. We had our first girls group for birchcroft girls at our place this Monday. While it was kind of hectic, we were able to get the girls to write down their goals for this year, which ranged from making all A's in school to helping their moms and spending more time with their siblings. We also watched the girls dance and act, which is pretty much guaranteed to be a part of things wherever Birchcroft girls are present.
On some days I miss living there so much, and on other days I am becoming more at home in our new home. So here we are, a short walk away from Birchcroft, our hearts still very close, burning to see Jesus and His Kingdom continue to make all of us come alive.
