we're here! we're okay!

So much for trying to keep up with blog posts on a regular basis.  This morning I received an email from a friend in Greenville saying that he'd noticed that we haven't updated the blog recently, and he guessed that meant that life in L.A. was keeping us busy.  How right he is...

So, in a nutshell, I want to let our friends know that we are doing well and that we are so happy to be fairly settled here in our new home in Los Angeles.  We arrived on the afternoon of Sunday, January 22nd, after a long and fun-filled trip across the country (blog post on that coming soon--I hope).  Once we spent a couple of days unpacking and getting set up in our new living arrangements, we were free to check out the city of angels.  We enjoyed a beautiful bike ride along Venice and Santa Monica beach, visited a cool science museum, had some delicious Thai food with friends, and learned more about our kids' school and our surrounding neighborhood.

Our arrival here at the Mission House confirmed the wisdom of and need for our extensive downsizing before we left Greenville.  Our life here is simple living, indeed, and we love it!  My husband and I reside in a small room that contains a bed, a desk, a sink, and a very small closet.  Our room is connected to Madison and Caroline's room by a bathroom and shower.  Joshua has a similar set up and he shares a bathroom with another boy close to his age, whose family is also here for mission formation and preparation.  We've had to be creative with our unpacking and our storage, satisfied with existing in mighty tight quarters, and fairly obsessive with keeping things clutter-free (there's just no room for extras!).  This house was, after all, a convent in years past.  Despite these apparent limitations, however, we are truly loving our time here, and are so grateful that we still have over three months to soak in the experience.

Our fellow missionaries-in-training all arrived later that same week and we slowly got to know one another.  Slowly, that is, until our first week of classes began on Monday, January 30th, and we were all asked to take turns and essentially tell our life stories to our fellow classmates.  At that point, our knowledge of one another grew from superficial to deep, surface to very meaningful, in just a matter of days.  It was one of those retreat-type experiences where you speak with absolute authenticity and vulnerability, sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly, taking the risk that you might be judged, but not really caring since you'll all go your separate ways at the end of the retreat weekend...except we are all  sticking around here for a while.  I have to say that that time of opening ourselves up and learning so very much about the others number as my favorite days here thus far.  Our group is a beautiful motley crew of individuals, including two families of five, two couples, and three single gals.  In our adult class of eleven, our ages range from 21 to somewhere in the 60s.  Our group includes marrieds, singles, newlyweds, divorced, and widowed.  The stories that we heard (and continue to hear) brought peals of laughter, gasps of astonishment, and many, many tears.  It is a true privilege to be walking this journey with such a diverse, interesting, and faith-filled group.

Another experience that has been filling our days has been negotiating the basic survival details of occupying a house with 17 other people (there is also a house caretaker who lives here and has become a good friend of ours).  Over the course of the first week, we managed to make schedules for the cooking and cleaning responsibilities, grocery shopping each week, and the use of the washer and dryer.  So far communication on the inevitable bumps in the road has been good, but we know that we are all human and therefore so very far from perfect.  But we also know that we are in this community because of a Call much greater than any of us, and we are committed to growing and learning through this experience.

I know that many dear friends are also wondering about our sweet kiddos.  By the grace of God, they are doing wonderfully.  Despite some resistance before we left our lovely lives in Greenville, they are thriving both at the Mission House and in their new school.  Though the transition to a local Catholic elementary school has had some challenges, they are all making lots of new friends and have great teachers to guide them into the new semester.  They are also very lucky to have playmates right here in the house with them: the other family that is here has a boy and two girls, all of whom are very close in age to our kids, and that has made for lots of fun (and sometimes pretty loud!) evenings and a much easier movement into their new school setting.  Again, we know that it won't always be smooth sailing, but we are grateful for the many blessings, small and large, that we see each day.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28