Lovin' Blueberries!

Cora was eating blueberries the other day and I thought I would snap a few photos! She was fine for some and then became not so happy--which was pretty funny to me and encouraged me to only take MORE photos! :)

"Mom, I said that's ENOUGH!"

Adjustments

Today marks 3 weeks that we've been in Columbus. We love it here!!!! We have been going on long walks in the beautiful neighborhood where we're living. We've been having fun being with and near family and well, I think we just feel more at peace now. We have found a really great church and are moving forward with starting the membership process there. Though we've all made some adjustments to the way we're used to doing things the transition to living with family has gone quite well. Here's a short recap of what we're all doing individually:

DAVID: He's still looking for a job. Daily he's getting applications, applying on line and calling places. It's a long process and it gets aggravating, but God is good. David has been helping with yard work here at his mom's house, helping his mom hang stuff on the walls and is helping his step dad with the cleaning business. He is keeping busy!! David is adjusting to NOT being home alone all day with Cora. He's having to get used to me being home as well as his mom. I try to give him alone time when possible! :)

JENI: I am also keeping busy helping with keeping the house clean, cooking meals, doing yard work and caring for Cora. I have enjoyed being with my MIL and getting to know her even better. I have to admit, I was a bit nervous about this transition, but it seems to be going well. We've had fun being MIL and DIL. It's also nice for me to have someone around to talk to. We're both adjusting to not being at work all day behind a desk! It's great not to have to "punch a clock," but it is an adjustment! :) I am relieved every day when I think about cleaning and stuff and know I don't have to cram it all in to the weekend. Our weekends have been that much more relaxed!

CORA: Cora will be 14 months on TH! How on earth is that happening????? It's hard to think she is quickly getting closer to being 2 than 1! She's growing like crazy, both physically and mentally and is just so smart! She knows several words: dog, toe (and knows where her toe is and LOVES to show you!), HI (which we here about 1000 times a day!), HEY (also hear 1000 times a day), Da-da (all men are "da-da" and I am either "dog" or "da-da"), Ma-ma (except only when Daddy is disciplining her, never to my face), ni-ni (for night-night) and something that sounds like "bye-bye." She will also say "yah, yah, yah" when you ask her if she wants her cup. She is a hoot! She's going through the I-only-want-Mommy stage so that's a bit taxing on me sometimes, but oh well! She has done a fantastic job adjusting to to life here in Columbus. Last week we eliminated a nap so she's down to 1 nap and goes to bed at 7 and falls asleep better now! It has been working very well and seems to have been the right move. Cora is also adjusting to having Mommy home and not just Daddy. With this adjustment it seems she's been mad at David due to this. Today was the first she let him hug and kiss her w/out her screaming. Not sure what that's about all we can think is she's somehow mad that she doesn't get Daddy to herself all day.

MOLLY: Molly, our dog, has been doing GREAT!!!!! My MIL's house has a nice fenced-in back yard, and Molly is LOVING it!!!! She is also loving the long walks we take almost daily and all the "city smells" she can sniff along the way! :) She has trimmed down and is back to her svelte self! :) She is adjusting to having the whole family home all day, every day! She can't seem to get a good, long nap in anymore! :)

All in all the Hardin's are doing well. We love our new, temporary home and we love our new church and love being closer to family. God is so good and we're thankful for this time of respite and healing!

A Little Photoshoot

So, I had fun taking photos of Cora in the yard today. She hates grass, so Grandma put out a quilt and we sat in the yard with the wind blowing and Daddy working hard! We were good supervisors! :) Anyway, I had a great time photographing Cora and Molly. Hope you like these too!

Let the Healing Begin...

If you have been a regular reader of my blog you know that the past 4 years, especially the last 2, have been full of trials, hard times, questioning and just plain not fun. You know some of the hurt we've been through with our previous ministry, the longing to do God's will, the relief of being released from that ministry and then the long time of waiting the last year and a 1/2 has been. You know the sorrows we've had and the joys we've been given as well. You know it's not been an easy time and you know we have needed to heal, a lot.

When we left our place of ministry we were hurting. We had been wounded by "family," brothers and sisters in Christ. Hurt in ministry is so hard to take. It gets you to the core of who you are and touches you in ways few things can. It's hard to get back into ministry after being burned like we were. Sadly, many folks do not. We knew that the initial healing would begin as soon as we left. We were able to "stop the bleeding" and let a "scab" form. (side note: Not trying to be gross, but I feel this is a very apt way to describe what we've been through). The scab was there, preventing further bleeding, but we knew the wound was still there, ready to come open at the slightest touch. A band-aid was not going to hold forever. We knew we needed to leave the area we were living to be able to fully heal. Liken it to soaking and lancing the disease out of a wound. We had to get to a healthier environment so our wounds could heal.

We made the decision to leave Hillsdale, MI and move to Columbus. You know why. We left not having a place of our own to live, no jobs, no health insurance, yet we knew we were to leave. Dear reader, can I tell you, the healing has begun. We're not just keeping a band-aid in place now. We're healing, deep, thorough healing. The lancing and soaking has started and our wounds are closing up and healing. We have been in our new (temporary) home now for over a week. We still don't know the answers to the above questions, but both my husband and I have said numerous times we feel such peace. I can't quite explain it, other than it's the Peace which passes all understanding. We are happier, more joyful, not on edge, the tension has left our marriage and family, the dog is even doing better! We know beyond doubt that we made the right decision, the necessary decision.

This past Sunday we went to church. To be honest we have not been going to church regularly for the past 1 1/2 years. It was hard to attend one of the churches in our area because we would get questioned about why we had left, etc. And, we were hurting. In any case, we have both yearned to be part of a healthy, vibrant, relevant-to-our-community church. We attended a church which is literally 2 minutes from our house. I'm not kidding when I say the moment we walked in we were greeted and helped by kind people. Nothing was expected of us, we didn't have to explain ourselves. We were just welcomed and made to feel like special guests. Though that was wonderful, the thing that really got me was the worship service and sermon. So full of the Holy Spirit. It was overwhelming at times. I felt the Spirit washing over me. and I could see the same was happening to my husband. All I could think during the entire service was "let the healing begin." Let the healing begin!!!!!!!!!!! Let's start cleaning out those wounds and be healed by the Great Physician!

We are so excited to get back to this church on Sunday. They have a lot happening and we are excited to see how God uses us to serve him in this church. The healing has begun, and I am a willing recipient. Praise the Lord for his healing touch.

He's 30!

My darling husband finally turned 30 on Saturday! I say "finally" because for 3 years he's been jabbing me about being in my 30s. Well, now he is too! :) While still in MI I thought it would be nice to get him a new grill. If you know David at all, you know he LOVES meat, especially steak, and LOVES to grill and is very good at it!! We had accidently left our grill at our old church and so he had been without for a couple summers. It had also been a couple years that we had done anything special for his birthday (just the result of living life in a depressed state of mind), and I really wanted this year to be special. So, we got him a grill, and decided to invite the family over for steak, cottage potatoes, watermelon and chocolate cheesecake!! :) I also had asked (secretly) everyone to bring 30 of something to give David. He received 30 army men, 30 superhero stickers and 30 $1 bills! We had a wonderful time with family, and I think in the end David felt loved and special! Enjoy a few of the photos I took!

"Meat is murder...tasty, tasty, murder" Yeah, no vegetarian here!

Playing with his army men!

Oh, did I mention it was also a Spiderman themed party? :)

David with his mom!

The cheesecake, which was delicious, if I do say so myself (and I do!)!

Cousins...

Here are some of the cutest kids you could ever see! One of the greatest things about our move is that Cora will get to spend more time with her cousins. So far in the week we've been here she's seen her cousins twice! Sophia is 5 1/2, Molly (the four-legged cousin) is 4 1/2, Riley will be 2 in August, Cora is 13 months and Haddie is 6 weeks old. I hope you enjoy these little ones as much as I do!

Double Trouble! These 2 could pass for twins!

Sophia is the oldest and does her best to keep "the babies" in line!

We have yet to get a good "cousin" photo!

The Little Mommy--Sophia

Our Little Man--Riley

Miss Twinkle Toes--Cora

The Littlest Cousin--Haddie

The Protector--Molly

Just Breathe

Ahhhhhhh...isn't it grand to take a deep breath of fresh air? Isn't it the best feeling ever to breathe deeply after swimming under water or holding your breath? Isn't it is relaxing to breathe deep to relax yourself? This is what we've been doing this week--breathing deep. We moved from MI to OH on Monday and though things did NOT go well with the movers, we're here now and breathing deep. My husband and I keep saying how relaxed we feel, how happy we feel, how at peace we feel. It's pretty crazy, because we're living with family, neither of us has a job, and we don't know when David will get a job, but we're breathing deep. God has brought us out of the valley, our season of winter has turned to spring and things are already looking up. Perfect? No, but life on earth isn't perfect.

What have we been doing? Well, we've been running around hither and yon trying to get stuff situated. Our movers did a terrible job at putting everything in storage so we have to figure out how to get to our beds, etc. I had everything marked with a yellow piece of paper that was to come to the house. Guess they didn't think that made things easier. In any case, we're making due. David went to a job fair yesterday. It wasn't all that great, however, he was contacted by one of the companies today to continue the process! So, that's encouraging!!!! We still need to get a bank account set up and change our car insurance and plates, etc. That'll probably have to wait until next week. We've even had dinner with my sister, BIL and their kids! It's great only being an hour away from them!

We are loving being in Ohio again and love just being out of Hillsdale. As we were eating lunch at a restaurant today I noticed how nice it was to be sitting there and not having to fear seeing certain people and wondering how awkward it would be. It's nice to go shopping at the grocery store and not fear running into one of the people who was so terrible to us. Yep, life is good and more importantly, God is good. He loves us and is giving us a time to rest and heal.