La Vida Nica

Landon had his last day: As of December 31st, Landon no longer works at Harvest House Publishers, ending just shy of 15 years. His last days were filled with a host of mixed emotions. Great joy over the new things we will be walking into in 2016, but also immense sadness. He literally grew up at Harvest House, being hired as an angry young man who wanted nothing to do with the Lord or Christianity, and leaving as a sold out for Jesus, kind-hearted individual. The crew he worked with became like family, sharing in one another’s burdens and joys. If memory serves me correctly, almost every one of them (along with their spouses) were present on our wedding day. So to be at the end of their working careers together was a strange reality. It was a whirlwind of emotions for weeks leading up to his last day, and a bitter-sweet end to an era.

We moved out of the Whitaker: the day after Christmas we moved all our possessions (which fit in one van load) to our friends’ home on River Road. We spent the next day deep cleaning our apartment and just like that, we were done living in the home we had returned to for the past three years.

We celebrated the birth of Jesus with amazing people: not only did we get to celebrate with our immediate family, but also our extended families, which are quite large. It was a beautiful time of sharing and conversation, as well as incredible food. Many of our cousins who now live out of the area came ‘home’ for the holidays and we loved spending time with each of them.

We threw a Christmas party: the group of young adults we meet with on Tuesdays got together for a ‘dress-up’ Christmas party at a local coffee shop, and it was awesome! We are so going to miss these people, as they have become our mini-church in a way.

We left the country: on New Year’s Eve we boarded a plane to LA, and then another to Miami, and finally Lima, Peru. Our nephew, Simon, was born just a couple days before we left for Nicaragua last August and we had yet to meet him in person. Plus, with our upcoming move, our time to see the rest of the Cantrall family was getting less plausible. So we bought the plane tickets, and spent the first eleven days of 2016 enjoying being around our crazy sweet nephews and their parents. The Cantralls are a joy to be with and we were blessed to see them. (I am actually typing this post on the final leg of our return trip to Eugene).

In the next few weeks we will be putting a lot of energy into raising more support (we still have a ways to go on both monthly and one time needs), I will begin covering the maternity leave of a coworker at the hospital and Landon will make a quick trip to the Midwest with a friend to help him drive a truck back to Oregon. We will also get shots taken care of, visit family, and continue working on the silent auction, set to take place on February 27th at Domaine Meriwether, a winery just west of Veneta.

 We are so amazed at what the Lord continues to orchestrate in preparation for this move, and are also so grateful for Him going before us.

 Once again, if you would like to support us monthly or one time, please let us know! No donation is too small, and in fact, a lot of littles equal a lot. So even if you say, ‘but I could only donate $20 a month,’ please tell us. And thank you for continuing to cover us in prayer.