month two

8 weeks.

that's how long we have been at this new way of learning. well, actually 9 weeks, cuz there are 5 weeks in october, but hey, who's counting, right?!

we are starting to (perhaps) hit our stride. :)

i finally feel like i am no longer drowning.

the slowed pace is catching up to us, and it feels so nice!

we have enjoyed early morning treks, field trips on trains to get yummy "dairy fresh" milkshakes, pumpkin patches and hay rides, biking to the park, cooking together, cleaning house together and grocery shopping "family style" (not for the faint of heart!).

we are also starting to hear better...listening more clearly, to each other and to His voice...

during our 6 years in LA we gathered tons of community, love, support...family! we were rooted, invested, planted and blooming!

here in fresno, i feel completely uprooted...my soul feels bare and vulnerable, especially as the cooler weather settles in. i'm realizing that Our Great Gardener is busy pruning us back, preparing us to bear even more fruit for Him. but the process is painful, slow, lonely. being transplanted into a new climate, different soil, odd surroundings...it often feels like we may just whither up and die.

the central valley has so many trees that change colors with the seasons, an artistic object lesson for my spirit. watching the leaves willingly give up all the sunlight they have soaked in over the year, yielding to the changing temperatures, falling quietly to the ground, it reminds me how our lives, too, are seasonal.

there must be this giving up, falling into Him, an accepting of His wise pruning, if we are ever to bear more fruit. so much trust is required to allow our fragile souls to be planted again, and again, in strange new soil. there really isn't much else for one to do, but to trust. the watering, the sunlight, the pruning, it all comes from Him.

just to trust...and turn upwards to Him...if we are ever to bloom again.