The Kelly Crew: October 2013

So the year has blown by and I am not sure I realized how crazy we would end up being. So last time I updated, life had just passed over into a crazy zone. We were pushed out of the home we were renting, when a rainstorm met our uncovered open roof. The house looks to have sustained close to $50,000 worth of damage and the reconstruction had not even begun by the time we were able to secure a new home to move into. We are now renting a house right across the street from Costco. Life has never been so convenient. We also moved into a home with a yard about the size of our old master bedroom. Makes for interesting time outside. The kids are so busy, that they don't seem to miss the large yard yet. I have a feeling by spring, we will all be missing our outside space. For me, it will just save on the destruction that takes place in the house when the boys are forced to spend time inside.
Anyway, onto what the Kelly crew has been up to. We moved into our house on the first day of school. Looking back, I am shocked and amazed that we made it through that time. After living in hotels for nearly a month, and commuting to our community about 45 minutes each way, it was very comfortable to be able to move into a real house and live within 10 minutes of everything. The move itself was stressful and led to a severe feeling of unsettledness (is that a word?). It was just minutes before the last house flooded that I had said how nice it was to feel settled and ready to get started on the new adventures of school. Well, God had other things in mind for us. It was an opportunity for us to practice patience and to learn to be grateful for what we have. I am getting it God. Thank you for the lesson.
I have found that teaching school is God's plan for me right now. I have been through the season of life where I was home with my babies, but God has planted me at my school for this time, and I have learned a couple of things. First off, the verse that I felt impressed on me from the beginning is from Esther, and to paraphrases, speaks out being prepared for a time such as this. I feel God has been laying the foundation in my life to prepare me to be where I am right now, teaching junior high science. I love it. I look forward to getting into the classroom every day. I want to be the best I can be and I want to provide valuable opportunity for my students. They are awesome. The other lesson I have been learning is found in the verse when Jesus talks about his yoke. He calls his yoke easy. I don't think he means "laying on the couch" easy. I think he means it will seem effortless. The oxen in the yoke still have to strain and work to plow the field, but the yoke they are wearing is easy. It fits just right. It is made just for that oxen to pull. I feel God has made a yoke for me, and I am exhausted and challenged because I am pulling the plow, but it feels like a perfect fit. It was made for me. I was made to teach and I was prepared for a time such as this. It is a joy to watch God work and to be allowed to see His work first hand.
Speaking of seeing God's work, we have had our sweet, precious baby girl for a year now. I love looking at the pictures from our trip to China, and of her when she first was placed in our arms, but I love it even more when I get to see the girl she has become. She hugs with desperation sometimes, and she craves my arms more often than her siblings did, and she is very emotional, but she is so much a part of our family, we feel she has been here forever. She loves her siblings and she loves her parents. She looks for all of us for comfort and fun. She makes our life joyful and challenging all at the same time. My heart still breaks when I remember where she has come from, and from the lost history she will now endure. I hurt for the woman that left her sitting on the hospital steps the day she was born. I am madly in love with her and selfishly wish she had been with us from the first day. I feel like the first years of her life were a long waiting period for her. She was forced to wait to start life for real. I hope we are able to fill her life with so much love and laughter that she never feels cheated of the time she was without her people (our family). I am amazed everyday by the God I serve, and the blessings he has placed in our life. I have no words to describe the emotions I feel when I think of all He has done for us.
So onto the other monkeys. The boys are all playing soccer, and doing great. We have found some really good kids for them to hang out with. Ainsley has become so theatrical, and loves her ballet class. All four of the big kids are doing well in school. They have found the new school to be very welcoming and each kid has begun to make friends. We are busier than we have ever been. We are still looking for a church to call our church home. We know God has a place for us. Other than that, same old story. Follow the kids around all day, then reconvene in our home for dinner before homework and bed. Life is good. God is good.