"Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes." – Henry David Thoreau
Time for an update. After many weeks and months of waiting, everything seems to be moving incredibly quickly. I have been so grateful that things are coming together in all the big (and even some of the little) ways. Our Fort McMurray house is on the market. Our temporary housing in Calgary has been arranged. Our house in Calgary has been purchased (and I can't wait until the boys get to see it!).
It has certainly been a journey in faith: buying a house sight unseen, waiting for each step of the relocation process to be completed, and journeying through some more health challenges (we've had more than a small amount of illness through the house and then my INR, the test for blood thinness, spiked to over 5.5 when it should stay between 2 and 3 - yikes). It has also been a busy journey (I apologise for not being very good at communications these days) and it feels like there's just not enough time to do all that I really would like to do before we make our way down south.
This past weekend I was fortunate to finally go to Calgary for the first time since coming to Alberta. Despite the fact I was intensely ill, it was a phenomenally good weekend; I attribute the good primarily to the girls who took me to the Beth Moore Living Proof Live conference (and to the conference itself). I felt blessed immeasurably more than I had ever felt in my entire life as I found myself in that place, knowing that things were coming together for the first time in what seems a very long time.
Lacking in time, I can't cover all that I learned at the conference, but the topic for the time was rooted in 2 John and grounded in the concept of walking. Through the sessions we learned that walking is a theology, not just an activity and, amongst other really core concepts, we learned about the importance of investing your entire life walk into love. For more about Beth, check out the Living Proof Blog here.
We're scheduled to leave in less than two weeks. And as we go, I've had a great deal of time to think about saying goodbye. Honestly, I'm not liking the idea at all. So I'll take a page out of my Beth Moore conference book and camp on the concept that we're walking home as we're walking here. To me that means I don't have to say "goodbye", I can say "see you later" as we go forward on this journey.
"Don't be dismayed at goodbyes, a farewell is necessary before you can meet again and meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends."
– Richard Bach
