Breathing Him In...: Oh for Goodness Sake...

For the past year, I have had Psalm 27 typed out and hanging up in my office to ponder. And there have been a few verses that have always stung my heart strings:
verse 1 The Lord is my light and my salvation - whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life - of whom shall I be afraid?
verse 4 One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gave upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.
verse 8 My heart says of you, "Seek his face!" Your face, Lord, I will seek.
verse 13-14 I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

So I was reminded again of these verses as I packed up my office on my last day of work for Interbank after 7 years to move onto the calling that God has for the Jensen family: a job for Pete, my husband, in Jamestown, North Dakota and a calling for me to finally be home with the 3 children that God so perfectly formed within my womb and so graciously continues to bless us with. God's call came quickly and the move happened without warning, basically. My head is still spinning and still thinks this might all be a dream or that we are just on a vacation or that I am just taking an extended maternity leave. But regardless of it all, it really happened...check out this timeline and pictures of proof:

October 31st - Pete accepted the job
November 2nd - Elizabeth, Malachi and Tracy drove to Jamestown, ND and looked at 12 rental places in 4 hours.
November 7th - I went back to work at Interbank to put my final 2 weeks in.
November 8th - Miracle got headlice...let's not talk about this challenge (maybe this part was a dream....)

Jamestown, ND can't be vacation, Pete and I took a vacation from November 11 through November 16 to Florida we flew so Pete could play drums in the worship band for a youth pastors conference. Malachi loved the ocean!

We said goodbye to our wonderful daycare provider, Michelle. She was a heaven sent blessing from the Lord for the last 3 1/2 years. My tears come quickly with thoughts of her and my love runs deep. She was a lil' of that goodness that the Lord talks about in Psalm 27.

On November 19th, we packed up our 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom house and drove away to move into our 2 bedroom duplex on November 20th.

On November 21st our new reality hit. Pete started his new job and I began to digest that I now get to invest my time into 3 precious treasures from heaven full time...

So the joy and challenges of sacrifices to make this happen began...

3 in 1 Bedroom

Can 2 sleep in 1 crib?

Miracle went from being shy and not ever wanting to go to sunday school or sing at our church in Minnesota to being a dove in the Jamestown church children's christmas program and sang her heart out!

Now Miracle and I rock side ponytails together...And Matthias and I love to wake up before the rest and eat breakfast and then eat some more when Mira wakes up...

Love notes from my man...loving this new move!

I love this dish soap since there is no dishwasher but my two hands...i actually cherish this time as my daily "alone" time. Jesus washes my sins away as I seek His face while washing dishes...

My Caribou Coffee replacement...and if you are wondering my kids and I follow the statement on the mug daily!

This is a picture of my carpeted kitchen...oh dear...but if you seek that black thing on the picture that is actually one of the magnets in the $2 shower curtain that I bought and taped to the floor for easier daily cleanup of spills and messes...

Yes, the nasty challenge - that is a mouse trap. If you want a fun dramatic true story just ask me about the mouse in our house. I never asked to be Cinderella...

I have a bear cubbie in my house now too. Miracle earned her vest at the Wednesday night Awana church program by memorizing 3 bible verses in one week!

My lil' reindeer! I can't believe he is already 3 months old...and he just slept 10 hours straight 2 nights ago...must be because I can feed him lots during the day now. I sure don't miss pumping at work!

So with all the changes that have happened so fast I have started to see more of the Lord's goodness in our lives. It's a richness that money and a bigger house and more space can't compete with.

I am so thankful that God's house can forever be my dwelling place as the Psalm says. I cling to the promise that God can be my stronghold when there are so many things that could put me in bondage or drag my focus into a pit. And I constantly am reminded in my frustrations and tough times of learning the new ropes of everything that I need to seek His face. And so I wait upon the Lord...for more of His ways in our life...and some days I say, "thank you Lord for your Goodness." And some days I say, "oh, for goodness sake Lord help me..now, please."