Big changes....

Life has been full of “happenings”, but this blog has been very much neglected. Sorry about that :( Things have been crazy, busy and good. Since we last posted, we have had a lot of new developments. The biggest one being that we have decided to move back to Michigan. When we moved to Texas in 2008, we didn’t anticipate that we would live in this particular part of Texas long term. We figured we would be here 3 to 5 years, but we were open to whatever God had for our time frame. Then, 2 months after arriving in Texas, we found out we were expecting a baby. Although we were super excited, we did not plan to start a family so soon after our move. We have missed our families since we arrived, but having Malachi in our lives further increased our desire to be close to family. We want Malachi to know his family and for them to know him. Jermale also wants to be closer to his dad especially after his mother passed last year and I really want to spend time with my grandparents as they are both approaching their 90s. None of these feelings are new, but we were sent here for a purpose and we were committed to doing what we came to do and helping to get Impact United Methodist Church started. We are happy to report that not only is the church started, but we have more than 150 members and it continues to grow. In addition to the church, both Jermale and I found jobs in our career fields and became a part of the community here. There is some level of disappointment because we know that there is more we can do here in Texas and more we can give, but after much prayer, we really believe that moving back is the best thing for our family at this time. A confirmation of this is that the family who was renting our house had to break their contract due to a job transfer and we are now having to pay that full mortgage. There is much more that could be said, but the bottom line is our season here is ending and it is time to go home. We are both sad to leave and excited to go at the same time.

Jermale’s last day at the university is May 14th. After that, he will focus on finishing things up at Impact, taking care of Malachi and packing. I am finishing out my contract with the school district with my last day being June7th. On June 8th, Malachi and I will fly to Chicago. A company will be moving all of our things and Jermale’s dad is flying here to help him drive our vehicles back to Michigan. We will be moving back into our same house and we can now see the fact that it never sold was actually a blessing in disguise. We have been applying for jobs and doing phone interviews and we trust that the right opportunities will open for us in God’s timing.

Malachi is 10 months old now, he will be almost a year old already by the time we get back to Michigan! He is a happy, curious bundle of love. He makes us laugh every day and teaches us to look at life in brand new ways. He crawls all over the place and can stand by himself for long periods of time. He isn’t walking yet, but I don’t think it will be too long. He is reaching developmental milestones right on time, but he remains pretty little as far as his weight is concerned. His blood work has shown a high white blood cell count numerous times, so we will be taking him to see a pediatric hematologist at Texas Children’s Hospital on May 11th. Please pray that we will get a good report and all will be well with him.

We originally set up this blog to keep all our people in Michigan updated on our lives. Hopefully we can keep it up more faithfully as it will now serve as a way to stay connected to all our friends in Texas too. To those of you who have followed the blog from the beginning, thank you for taking the journey with us and keeping us in your prayers! God has truly been faithful and we are excited for what lies ahead.

Love,

~The Eddies

PS The pictures are Jermale and Malachi (10 months), Malachi in his Easter suit and Anissa eatting crawfish for the first time.

Happy New Year!

It seems our blog entries are getting further and further apart. Sorry about that! We are feeling settled into our apartment. It is nosier than our old place with three young boys living above us, but overall it is nice and very much worth the savings!

A major update for us is that I went back to work on Nov. 30th. It is a crazy story, but I was offered a school social work position. This is a huge blessing since that is my preferred career path and those positions are very rare in this area. I serve 3 campuses. Two are 6th-8th grade and one is K-8th. It is very different than my school social work job in MI, but I am enjoying the work. It was so hard to be away from Malachi at first, but a friend of mine kept him for the first 3 weeks and it helped a lot with my transition. After working 3 weeks, I had 2 weeks off for Christmas break :) I go back to work tomorrow (Jan 4) and Malachi will be starting at a new childcare as my friend who was keeping him is having a baby at the end of the month. He will be going to a woman’s house. She has done in-home childcare for 9 years and is licensed through the state. Right now she is only keeping little ones and has 4 other kids in her care. I have visited a few times and talked to other parents. I wish he could go to grandma’s house or something like that, but I know things will be okay.

Jermale also had time off for Christmas break. We had fun relaxing at home and them we spent 5 days in Michigan. It was really nice to spend time with family. Malachi is now 6 months old and he had a really fun 1st Christmas. He is sitting up now and babbling constantly. No teeth yet, but he’s clearly working on that. He is sitting on his own and just starting to push up on to his hands and knees a little. He remains one of the most expressive babies I’ve ever seen and is full of smiles. I’m loving this age b/c he is so fun. Now, if he would just sleep through the night LOL!

Impact is going strong. We continue to have at least 1 new person join as a member every week. January 11th is the anniversary of our very first church service a year ago. It’s hard to believe it has been that long. God has brought Impact such a long way since that time and it is exciting to see all the positive developments. We took a holiday break for the youth group and will be starting back up on Jan. 17th. We are praying that this group will grow and that committed youth leaders will be developed.

Jermale also goes back to Lamar tomorrow. He has fewer events planned for this semester, so things should be calmer.

The next few months will just be focused on church, work and baby. We are looking forward to all God has in store for us in 2010 and we will all of you a very blessed year!

Love,
~The Eddies