Five Months

This past weekend we helped our cousins move into a great new house just down the road.  They moved in with us the day after Christmas, so their move marked the end of a five month stay.  What can you say about five months of two families sharing one house?  I don't think I'm a good enough writer to sum it up - but I felt that I needed to document how amazingly gracious our God is for our family to look back on in the blog book for years to come.  His goodness started with preparing us for the adventure in the first place.  This past fall I started making plans for some of our rooms... I would find myself thinking about where we could put beds & how we could move furniture around to fit in more people.  I had no idea who God planned on us hosting, but I was sure that our house was about to become home to more than just the 5 of us.  Thankfully, I talked with Tom about what I thought God was putting on my heart on a date night in November & he said he was on board.  Just a couple of weeks later I got a call from my cousin that they had unexpectedly needed to make a job change to the metroplex.  They were unsure about where to relocate to, and needed their 6th grader to start a new semester right after the break.  After talking with Tom & much prayer, we asked them to move in with us & they joined us a few hours after we got home from the ranch for Christmas - my cousin, her husband, their 11 year old son, 1 year old daughter, 2 dogs, & a hamster!  God continued to be so good to us as we figured out where everyone would fit, how cooking & grocery shopping could work, & how to manage 5 kids under one roof.  The two babies - Judah & Ava - are just 10 days apart so we suddenly had twins who loved each other one minute & drove each other nuts the next!  We were so blessed by God trusting us with this challenge, and He definately grew us in so many ways over the weeks & months.  We praise Him for His faithfulness & pray every blessing over the Sierras family in their new home!