Life...

Oh the up and downs of life. Life has been very up and down over the course of the last two months. Where is Kevin going to work? Where am I going to work? Where are we going to live? Should we move to the city? Lots and lots of questions. Many questions for the Lord.

We did get one answer to one question. Where are we going to live? I know...many of you may be thinking..."didn't they just move to the dairy farm?" Yeah we did. However, the Lord has a much higher plan than ours. Here is the story...

When we were in the hospital deliving Elijah we got a call from our tenants saying they were wanting to move out of the house that we own on East Chestnut Street in Lancaster City and that they were putting in their 60 day notice. We were cool with it..a little overwhelmed with everything else going on at the time, but glad to know that we had at least 60 days to find someone else to move in. Then the journey began of do we sell it? Do we rent it out again? Or...at the WORST do we move back into it? A couple weeks home from the hospital we had officially decided that we wanted to keep it and to try to find new tenants for it. We advertised it in the paper and sure enough we found tenants that we were excited about. They had the lease signed, security deposit paid and a move in date of November 15th. Overtime I had not heard from the new tenants, so I called them on Nov 12...no answer...so I left a message. Called them on Nov 13...no answer, so I left another message. Called them the day before they were suppose to move in...left a message and eventually called me back. Only to say "I am sorry we can't move in." WHAT???? I was SO overwhelmed. We had just moved to Pine View Dairy, had a baby and now we have no one to live in our house in the city. Oh the ups and downs of life! November 16th we had house church at our friends Jonathan and Janelles house. Jonathan was speaking and was reading an article from awhile back about two guys that moved into lancaster city, which then started a wave of young people moving into the city. Simply for the purpose of community living, relationship and for the purpose of seeing Lancaster City taken over for the Lord. As he was reading I was being reminded of why I (and Kevin!) had first moved into Lancaster and why we bought the house on Chestnut Street. I was looking around the room and realized that we were the only ones that did not live in the city, but were a part of this church. Not only a part of this church, but also beginning to step up into a leadership role. Now, I am not saying that you have to live in a city to be a part of that church. However, I do feel like the Lord clearly spoke to me that night that we were to once again move. I freaked out at first, but could not wait to come home to talk to Kevin to see how he felt about it. We came home and I start out the conversation saying, "Hey babe, I think we should pray about moving to our chesnut house again." His literal response was, "I think you should pray about never saying that again." :) Needless to say we both had things to work through. So after MUCH prayer and consideration we both felt like it was the right thing to do. We are TOTALLY excited about living here. The Lord really did a work in us to get our hearts to the place of excitement, but it is awesome being back in the city. So, without further ado...here is our new house. This is where Kevin and I are currently living and plan on living for awhile! (Unless the Lord has other plans!)

We still have many questions on our hearts for the Lord, but we know that he will answer those in his timing. We are trying to be patient and wait upon the Lord for his plan for this next season of our lives. Pray that we would continue to rest in the Lord and find our life and joy in Him!

NC Part #3...Fort Macon

Ryan and Denise were so gracious to take us to Fort Macom State Park. What a piece of history! It was cool to walk around a place where actual battles took place. You walk around the fort and can just picture men running around loaded with armor and decked out in camo to defend our country. It was a neat experience for sure! Michayla of course had fun pushing a real baby in a stroller! Thanks so much Ryan and Denise for everything! We had such a good time with you both. We love you and miss you!

NC Part #2...The BEACH!

Our friends Mark and Heather live on Emerald Isle about a mile from the beach! When we were down with them we had beautiful weather to go and play in the sand and romp around in the water a bit (at least the kids did!) Thanks for playing with Michayla, Sarah! You two will be great friends as you continue to grow up. :)

Michayla's first sight of the ocean!

She did not know what to think of the sand AT ALL! She literally just stood in place for probably over five minutes. As you can see below the Buckwalters already had everything set up and was playing well before we got there. It was so fun to introduce her to the ocean and to sand!

Isn't she beautiful?!

All worn out and ready for dinner and then to bed!

Must be a two-year old thing, sucking on the fingers!

Silas and Michayla are just eight weeks apart!

NC Part #1...

As many of you know, Kevin and I traveled down to NC for a week the beginning of November. It was such a wonderful time of great weather, time with some of our best friends and a great time as a family. This was our first time traveling with two kids! When we arrived in NC we went straight to Matt and Naomi's which is where we were staying. Here are just a couple pictures with them. Thanks so much again guys for letting us stay with you! Zion, thanks for playing with Michayla! :) We love you all!

In this picture, Michayla has only slept for 20 minutes all day.

She was awake from 4am till 8pm. Hardly fussed at all! She is such a trooper!

The House

Just a few pics of the new house and farm...

The back of the house.

This is a cute little shed in the front yard.

The farm from a distance. Our house is on the left side.

As you can all see, we are settling into our new home rather well. We are LOVING it for sure! Moving day was a bit of a challenge as not only did it rain, but it POURED almost the whole day. Luckily there are covered porches on both of the houses and we were able to back the truck right up to both of them. It worked out rather well considering the circumstances. I will hopefully get some good pictures posted soon of the new house.

Elijah is continuing to grow for sure. He was 12 lb. 8 ozs. at his one month check up. Almost four pounds heavier then when he was born. He is in the 97th percentile for both his weight and height. It is quite different for me considering Michayla has always been so petite. He is officially out of 0-3 month clothing as has moved onto 3-6 month (At only one month old!) :) Hopefully the growing process will slow soon. :)

I need to get going since Michayla just woke up from her nap. I promised her we would walk over and get ice cream at the store today. We haven't had any time to do it before today so, it is my treat to her. She sure is growing up so fast! Learning new words all the time. She carries her baby around in her baby's car seat just like I carry Elijah. I am always amazed at the things that she learns and picks up from us. She is twenty one months today...only three more months till she is two. Somehow it just seems like yesterday that I had my little girl...

Something I just realized...Michayla was 26 pounds at her check up a month ago. Elijah is now almost 13 pounds. How can it be that a kid almost two years younger can already weigh half of what his sister does? :)

Life on the dairy farm!

Life on the farm is a lot of fun so far. Kevin and I took the kids on a walk to explore the farm a bit last Sunday. Here are just a few pictures of our time...

I love my new double stroller. We take lots of walks with it on the country roads! (Thanks Denise!)

Located on the farm is a store that sells the milk they produce and various other items. This is the building behind Kevin in the picture. I will be working here starting in November. Right outside our back door...how convenient!

When people visit the store to buy milk or ice cream, they can also take their kids to look at the cows. Here is where they keep the calves so kids can pet them!

Michayla is not so sure at first...
Then she loves it! She learned how to "moooo" like a cow. :)

Oblivious to everything going on around him still... :)

First Bath!

These are a few weeks old now, but just found them! Elijah's first bath...

He didn't know what to think of the mirror!

So, how is it REALLY going?

This is a question I have been getting a lot, so I thought I would just update everyone at the same time. I THINK I have a few minutes here while both kids are sleeping, so here you go...

Needless to say, life is a little crazy. Elijah is now almost three weeks old. Hard to believe for sure! He is growing so fast. Almost ten pounds...probably over ten by now. I like the fact that he is a "bigger" baby, because I don't feel like I have to be as careful with him. How is he sleeping? GREAT! I really do feel so blessed. His normal has been about 6-7 hours...wake up to be fed, go right back down and then sleep about three more. I feel really blessed by this because I couldn't imagine being up every 2-3 with everythng else going on. The struggle has been his feeding schedule. Sometimes I feel like a human pacifier with him. We are working on getting him on a schedule, but hmmm...not going so hot. It you have any ideas, let me know! :)

Michayla is doing well. She is feeling the transition for sure, but handling it well. I am trying to stay positive with her and give her a little more grace over the past couple and the next couple of weeks. She really is such a special little girl that we love so much. She likes to "help" mommy with a lot of different things. She especially likes to throw away Elijah's diapers...which is a LOT of! :)

We are getting ready to move in about a week and a half. Pray for MUCH grace over this transition. We are SO excited to be in our new house, but feeling a little overwhelmed for sure.

Well...I know this isn't much, but Michayla just woke up and is crying in her crib, so I should go and get the peanut!

Love you all!

Historic Moment

Lesley and I are proud to introduce you to Elijah John Hurst! He was born at 2:17 am on saturday, August 30. Lesley was due on August 25, so we were very ready to meet this little guy! Except he isn't so little.... he was 8 lbs. 10 oz at birth and 22 inches long. The doctor told us we may have a football player on our hands :) He is usually pretty content and seems to have a gentle spirit. But when he cries, we know that he is also a very passionate little guy. He is very observant and alert and is taking in all the new sights and sounds of this world. Michayla is getting over some jealousy of the attention Elijah is receiving but is warming up quickly to him. She calls him 'lijah'.
When we arrived at the hospital, the newspaper in the lobby was headlined "Historic Moment."
I believe that this was a good word for the birth of our son and it truly is a historic moment. It had not rained significantly in lancaster county for many weeks prior to Elijah's birth, but the day that we went into the hospital the drought was broken and it rained steadily most of the day. We know that Elijah has a unique and exciting calling and destiny and I am very excited to be his father and walk this journey of life with him. The spirit of Elijah draws the hearts of the fathers to the sons and the sons to the fathers. I believe that this is a significant part of Elijah's calling and is one reason that he carries the name of my father, John, for his middle name.

Enjoy the pictures from the past few days!