December Update

Merry Christmas my friends! Happy day before the day before Christmas. It has been so long since I have had an opportunity to share that I don't know where to begin.

The leaves have all fallen and the community land seems more beautiful to me bare and brown with frost coating the ground. It is such a peaceful place to be. I awaken every morning and head out to feed animals and take my time returning to the warmth of the camper. I just look about me in awe.

So far our progress has consisted mostly of adding to our animal collection. Our herd is now up to eighteen hens which free-range through the day, three roosters, one pig, four rabbits, two dogs, and seven pygmy goats. They are so much fun. I never thought I would enjoy watching chickens, but the hens come running up to greet me and seem to check in on me throughout the day. The girls have leads for the goats and love to take them for walks and even carry around the baby billy goats, Cody and Bolt.

And it has rained...and rained...and rained. I admit the rain has dampened my spirits as much as it has dampened progress. The lots have been staked out since nearly Thanksgiving, awaiting perc tests. But it has rained bucket loads, and the soil is saturated. We have attempted to get a crew out to put in the road, but the rain rained on that little plan too. So we have been slipping and sliding in mud. Most days we park the van out at the main road and walk through the mud and back to the camper.

Little things like taking a shower and doing laundry now take up much of a day as we need to travel elsewhere (mostly my mom's house) to do them. So we have felt like we are chasing our tails a bit.

Boy, have we ever needed to shower and wash clothes! All this mud. I think God loves irony. He takes someone with some itty bitty obsessive compulsive tendencies about neatness and cleanliness and puts them in a small space in the middle of a mud hole with no washing machine or shower. And we have to get muddy to get to a washing machine or shower...isn't that funny? One day we will laugh about this...one day very far off.

Yet we know we are where God wants us and take incredible peace from that. See, we have been unsure before, but now we KNOW. That is an incredible feeling. That means we will be victorious. And it truly is an amazing plot of land. I feel God's presence and can witness so much of his creation from my vantage point. So many trees...and the creek...and the deer...and the birds. I love it.

And our girls love it. They think they live the most blessed life. Oh, the stories they will have for their own kids one day. They also encourage me greatly when I lose my feeling of contentment.

We have to come up with names for two roads - the one leading in from the main road which will be dedicated for public access, and the one that circles through the community residences, which will remain private. We think we have settled on their names. The public access road will be Koinonia which means fellowship, sharing, contribution, and participation. The residential road will be Allelon which means one another, reciprocally, mutually. Both are Greek words from the New Testament.

Well, I must get to work on my tamales for Christmas, but I am house sitting for my folks through New Year's day, so I will be posting more while I can. Have a blessed Christmas. Enjoy your family and friends and tell them you love them. And relax and think about Jesus and the babe he was when he was merely our Lord, before he became our Savior.