Going Home

I suppose it's a good thing I never changed the name of this blog. I meant to, but I was always hoping some really clever title would come to me, and when one never did I just forgot about it.

But now that doesn't matter, because after 2 1/2 years in Eugene, we are moving back to Moscow!

This wasn't entirely out of the blue. Joel realized a few months ago that public accounting was not for him, and so we started thinking about a job change. And since we were making a decision about changing jobs, we knew we should think about the possibility of moving back to Moscow as well. We left a great deal of friends behind when we moved, and in the past several years those friends have gone on to have many cute kids. And as it turns out, Lucy gets along with those cute kids, and we still get along with those friends, so we're excited about the fact that we'll get to reconnect with all of them. And, of course, my parents live in Moscow, which was a huge draw for us too (they may have bribed us home with the promise of free babysitting). Plus it was always our hope that Lucy could attend Logos School when she was old enough.

So with all of that in mind, we began praying that God would open doors if He wanted us to return, and keep them closed if that wasn't His plan for us. Joel applied for a few jobs, and one of the companies he applied for was called Digilent, Inc. They are located in Pullman, WA and they were looking for an accountant, so after a few interviews and some time spent waiting for them to formulate an offer, Joel was offered the job last Wednesday, and he accepted. So once again we have just a few short weeks to pack up our house, say goodbye to all of our friends, and move.

There is so much we will miss about Eugene. First and foremost, we will miss all of our dear friends, especially the saints at Christ the King Church. We moved here without knowing anyone, and they welcomed us and treated us like family. They had us over to their houses, helped us move from apartment to duplex to house, kept us afloat through the loss of our son, and rejoiced with us at the birth of our daughter. Our lives have changed so much in the past 2 1/2 years, and these wonderful saints have been there every step of the way.

And we will miss the city of Eugene, with all of its friendly people so passionate about food, recycling, and the great outdoors. We will miss being an hour and a half from the coast, and two minutes from Trader Joe's and Target. We will miss the year-round greenery and the fact that I could actually keep plants alive here (although I will not miss their large spiders).

And of course, we are leaving behind a tiny grave marked with the name of our son. But we know that no grave will hold our little Christian for long, and that when the sun rises on the earth-made-new, he will come bursting forth in his transformed body, and no number of miles will keep us from him.

So this is a bittersweet move for us. But we are so very excited for this new adventure, and hopefully once things settle down a bit I will be able to share them with you on this blog! But for now, back to packing...