Home

Comfort....warmth....acceptance.....food.....home. For well over a year now, we have been calling the Sabbath House home. But the thing is...it's not really our home. We've made memories here, we brought Naomi into our family here, we've celebrated and cried in this house, and we are extremely grateful for it. I've tucked Jerusha into bed at night, thankful for the warm bed, but in the back of my mind always remembering that it's not really her bed. I've served dinner on plates, and while I'm very thankful for the food and the ability to serve it, it has never been on our dishes. We have had a front row seat to watch God's faithfulness to our family (all from the comfort of very plush couches), and have waited to go home. Well, it's happened. We closed on our house last Friday. A lovely 3 bedroom home in Mason (suburb north of Cincinnati). It was a foreclosure and needs a bit of work and we've been going very strong for a week. We have it all painted and we just have the carpet to do and the master bath. So many people have come out to help us paint, with the plumbing or the appliances....so many dear people that have been praying with us to bring us home. As we go through this experience (living in a place that's not ours) I can't help but think that really, this is just how we should feel. Living in this world but knowing that there is a place so much better, a place where we will truly be home.

Thank you so much for praying through this with us. I'm not sure what all I've learned or how I've grown through this, that's to figure out later, but I do know that God good. We are working very hard to get the house ready to move in, we are expecting to move on the 7th. Like I said, we are working on the master bath which is a little beyond our comfort zone for home repairs (Jer is fond of saying "let's just say I'm more handsome than handy"). Thankfully, we have some very capable people helping us...it should be fun! I'll be sure to post some pictures,I've taken quite a few, however they are all at the other house...I'll blame it on all the paint fumes I've been inhaling.

Family Time

I hope your Christmas was as lovely as ours...we enjoyed having the Taylor side reunite at our house. With lots of food, new toys and two very willing uncles (thanks Aaron and Jonathan!) Jerusha and Naomi were running from morning till night. It was great to take the time to catch up with each other and just enjoy one another's company.

Here Jerusha and Jonathan share their Christmas meal. He made for much better dinner conversation than her sister does, so Roo made the most of it and spent every meal chatting it up!

Merry Christmas!

I love this time of year. I love time with the girls doing fun cozy crafts on a cold winter night (like this smashing gingerbread house that Roo and I that Puffalump is showing off...I think this is the best house I've ever made!)

I especially cherish the moments when we teach the girls about why we celebrate Christmas, That God entered our world. We've been talking a lot about grace, kindness when it's not deserved (rudementary, I know) and Naomi has been giving Roo lots of oppportunity to practice!

We had the great pleasure of going to Jerusha's first school Christmas program. Here she is giving me the old thumbs up in the middle of a song, but if you look closely, not many kids are actually singing anyways. Beside her to the right is her best school pal Ally. They couldn't be any more cute!