Locusts and Lightening Bugs

Well, we arrived at my parents' house on Sunday afternoon. By "we" I mean me and Bryson. Jason had to go to Dallas for the week for training at his new job. He came into town late last night and will work in San Antonio today. From there he will head straight to the coast for a weekend full of fishing. Then Sunday it will be another trip to Dallas for a week.

Leading up to this move we have had some of the craziest weeks of our married lives- without question. It went something like this-->

Jason applied for a job in San Antonio and had three interviews over the course of a week and a half.

Jason got offered the job and met with his Floratine bosses. We prayed that God would make this an easy decision and that His way would be made clear to us. We have been wanting to live close to family for a while now, but we truly have the best friends in College Station. Not to mention that we have lived there for 11 years. We were married and lived in our first duplex together in College Station. We joined our first church together in College Station. We welcomed Bryson into our lives, and suffered the unimaginable loss of Caroline and one other sweet babe in College Station. We have had struggles and suffered through change, but we have also had constant faith that we were exactly where God wanted us.

When this desire to be with family started stirring, it was scary. We were comfortable in College Station. We had made a life and it was the only life we had ever known as Mr. and Mrs. Jason Ruple.

So, we prayed that God would make it clear. And He was SO completely faithful in that. Don't get me wrong- it wasn't easy to leave this life we loved and knew so well; these friends that we love just like family.

But, we knew that a move was in order.
So, the day after meeting with his Floratine bosses Jason gave his two weeks notice at that job. The day after that I told my job and notified Bryson's daycare (that he had been at for all of 1 1/2 weeks!). That weekend we spent taping and painting, and painting some more. Luckily we have the BEST most AMAZING friends ever who made the painful process of painting for 13 hours in one day much more bearable (one who even called it "therapy"- I am looking into therapy for her! ha!). We worked in the garden, made a few trips with borrowed trailers loaded completely down to storage in New Braunfels, and then met with one of our favorites Mrs. Cheryl Free to see about putting our house on the market. We knew we had missed the buying season of summer and wanted to act as quickly as possible. The next day we had a sign in our yard and our house was officially on the market.

All of that took place in approximately 1 1/2 weeks! I am tired just typing about it! I cleaned out our house and had a garage sale pile, storage pile, CS house pile, and Mom's house pile. It was crazy!

Amidst all the chaos we had several going away celebrations and get-togethers. I shared sweet time with my home church girls from Grace, we enjoyed a dinner with everyone from that home church, and had many late evenings with our besties {some including guitar playing and late night calls to St. Louis :) }. I had several lunches with friends so that we could catch-up before we left. Our days and nights were packed with friends and blessings greater than we could have ever even asked for.

This was again a great testament to our time in College Station and all that it will forever mean to us.

Sunday we went to church for the last time as College Station residents and then loaded up and went our separate ways. Jason will be spending 2-3 weeks in Dallas and Bryson and I will be staying with my parents. They live in New Braunfels which is where we will be looking to settle once our house sells. It is working well so far. My parents are such great hosts. Their home has a hallway with three bedrooms and a bathroom, and my Mom put up a curtain so that we would have privacy. She made one of the bedrooms into Bryson's room- and as you can imagine- he is in Heaven!

He has his tractor here and is enjoying the huge yard. I will post pictures soon.

In the meantime Bryson started Wee Care at my Mom's church. My mom actually works there and is really good friends with Bryson's teacher. Tuesday was his first day and he had the best time while I enjoyed some "me time" by myself at the outlet mall. He will be going from 9am-2:30pm on Tuesdays, and from 8:15am-2:30pm on Thursdays. He will be participating in gymnastics during that first 45 minutes on Thursday mornings and he is pumped! We will see...  :)

My Mom has also graciously volunteered to keep Bryson on Wednesdays so when I do eventually find a part-time job I will have childcare Tuesdays-Thursdays each week. This in itself is a huge blessing!

So, I can say that everything has gone really smoothly so far. One of my friends prayed that God would go before us and clear our path, and I have to say that he has definitely done that.

The one thing that has been hardest on me {besides being away from my husband} has been being without our friends. We have been so spoiled with the Kenleys living right around the corner, the MacDonalds being a mile and a half down the road, and the Browns being less than 10 minutes away. We also have several other friends that were really close as well. This lead to many evenings of texts saying "Meet you at the pool in an hour!" and "Lets grill tonight!" We were with friends literally all of the time. This is the life that Bryson knows and judging by how often he asks to go to Sam and Reagan's house I am guessing that he misses it too. I am actually thinking of finding Jen Hatmaker and crawling into her lap and begging her to be my friend.

Ok, I know Jenny {who happens to be a counselor} might be slightly freaking out right now. I am obviously not going to do that. That would make me a stalker, or at least would put me somewhere in that category. I am not good with the title of stalker. :)

So, we will do it the old fashioned way. We will start going to churches and try to get plugged in somewhere. We will hunker down and focus on our little family and all of the blessings that God has put right in front of us.

We will spend time in PawPaw's back yard, filling in holes and serving up "chicken nuggets" to Grandma through the window of the play house.

The first night we were here the sound of the locusts in the trees was almost overwhelming. Bryson asked me what that noise was? I couldn't help but smile. I hadn't heard that noise in so long, yet it was the sound of my childhood. It was a sound I didn't even realize I had missed, and it brought so much unexpected comfort in this time of chaos. Locusts...

Last night Jason got here late and we took a stroll down my parents' street with Bryson on his tractor. It was getting dark and the breeze was blowing. That's when I saw it- a little flicker of light. First just one, and then two, and then three all at once. It was lightening bugs. Lightening bugs! I was definitely more excited about it than Bryson was. Seeing these little bugs took me back to lazy summer river days and catching them by the volley ball courts. We used to smear their tail ends on our skin and run around showing everyone how our skin was lit up. (No one call PETA please!). We chased them, and put them in jars. We watched them light up the night and used them as flashlights. Seeing them last night just reminded me that this move is right.

Yesterday in the car my mom and I heard the song "One More Day" by Diamond Rio. Every time I hear that song I think of my Grandma Shirley sitting in her chair in the living room after my PawPaw died. She loved to watch CMT and every time this song came on she would cry. I have never talked about that, but yesterday I mentioned it to my Mom. She said she remembered that too, and said that she can't listen to the song "The Greatest Man I Never Knew" by Reba. I immediately thought of being at Reba's concert and becoming keenly aware of my Grandma's quiet tears during that song about a woman and her dad. My mom and I both had the same memories even though we had never talked about it.

I spent so many days at my Dad's work with my Nan when I was little. I remember her taking me to the coffee shop so that I could get money from my PawPaw Strawn to go buy popsicles at the store. I remember riding around in that old red car he had, and standing up with my head out of the sun roof. :)

I remember going on adventures and fishing at my grandparents' tank. I remember swimming in my Aunt and Uncle's pool on hot summer afternoons after fishing all morning. So. Many. Memories.

Why all this reminiscing?

It is why we moved.

It is what we want for our children.

We want them to know our families in an intimate way. We want them to have that security net that will never go away. Don't get me wrong- families aren't perfect- and our family has trials just like everyone else. But in the end, we are FAMILY. .

I love knowing that Bryson will have that. He now has Grandma, PawPaw, Granny, Grandpa, and several aunts, uncles, and cousins within an hour's drive.

I also truly understand that not everyone has family like this, and that their "family" looks different. We are also so blessed to have that type of family in precious friendships that I have no doubt will always remain.

So, this morning, after watching B at gymnastics and peeking in on my mom on the way out the door, I am thankful for the little things God has given us.

I am thankful for the reminders in locusts and lightening bugs...