Home Sweet Home

Some long overdue updates... :)

Our move went as good as can be expected. We had lots of help and I said more than once that day that I'm really glad I'm not a guy! They worked so hard, carrying heavy stuff up and down steps and in and out of the truck and houses. It was exhausting just watching them! Everything went smoothly, but it was a long, overwhelming day. I don't think I realized how much work it was going to be, but we did it and it's over :)!

Our first week in our new home has been wonderful!! The kids have adjusted so much better than we anticipated. I am so surprised that none of them have asked to go home or that they haven't been talking about our old house much. My mom kept saying before we moved that they will adjust fine because what makes it home is our family. I guess she was right because they have amazed us :).

Unpacking has been going pretty fast and everyday I feel more settled and organized. Jim's parents were here for a little shy of 2 weeks and they were a huge help! Between my mom and my in-laws, they all worked and have been working so hard to help us get everything just right :).

One of our new neighbors brought us some cookies the other day :). Everyone that we've met so far have been so friendly. We love our neighborhood!

And here are a few pics of our new place :). We still haven't hung much on the walls and have a ways to go, but we're getting there. We are painting the living room and dining room right now so I'll post pics when we're done with those rooms.

Great Room

Foyer (we're painting the dining room pictured in the back)

Kitchen

Our Bedroom

And a few pics of the peanuts :)...

The Crew :)

Caleb & his second mommy

Caleb pulling up on everything :)

And I wanted to update on our old home and how God so amazingly pulled that all together for us. There is a family from our church that is moving in in a couple weeks! We couldn't have hand picked a better family to love, care for and be blessed by our old home. God's timing is so perfect and we are so excited for them and so thankful for how perfectly it has all worked out :)!

And lastly, the video that I put a clip of in my last post at our church went great! It is such an encouragement to us when we see God using our story! Our church has some big plans for the future with taking our story to the community, but more to come on that soon :). If you'd like to see the video click HERE.

Thanks so much for checking in and hope you all are enjoying fall :)!!

Abbey's Story

*Be sure to pause the blog music*

Western Reserve - Grace Church

1066 East Aurora Rd.

Macdonia, Ohio

Saturday, September 25th - 5:30 pm

Sunday, September 26th - 9:30 am & 11:15 am

This weekend our church is doing a documentary on our journey through Abbey's leukemia. Our Pastor (Pastor Jason Haymaker) is doing a series called "Our of the Ashes" and it's about pain and suffering and why bad things happen to good people. There are a very talented group of people working hard on the video and our prayer (as it has been since the day Abbey was diagnosed) is that God would be glorified through this journey that we have been on. We know God is going to use our Abbey in big ways as we share about this great trial in our lives and the way that God has loved and cared for our family in huge ways over these past two years. If you live in the area, we would love if you could be there! If you have any questions, please e-mail us at colbert06@yahoo.com. Above is the trailer that they showed this past weekend in church so I attached it so you could see too :). We hope to see many of you there :).

I will soon do an update of all going on here in our new home. We have been busy, busy, busy, but all is going so well and we are blessed beyond words by this gift that God has given us :). The kids are adjusting beautifully and we are just so very excited :). Hope this finds you all doing well!

I totally should be packing...

By about 10 p.m., I have been hitting a brick wall and have been too tired to do one more thing. I should be packing right now, but I'd much rather sit here and veg while the kids all sleep peacefully in their beds and I wait for Jim to get home from work.

We have gotten a lot done, but there is still a lot to do. Last time we moved, was 8 years ago and it was just Jim and I moving from a tiny apartment to this house. I think we were able to pack our place up in an hour. Now, with four kids, we have accumulated so much more stuff and the packing is a little overwhelming. Jim keeps reminding me that we need to just take it one room at a time and eventually it will all be in boxes. I roam from room to room way too much and end up having projects started all around the house. We'll get there!

Things at the new house are coming along beautifully! I will post some pics of the inside once we are in :). Yesterday I spent the day painting Jacob's room (along with my step dad and dear friend - thanks John and Marcie :)) and it was so much fun! Painting is so rewarding because you can see the progress so fast. His room looks great! We did three walls tan and the accent wall is a greenish/brown. Jacob is very into anything camo/army so he thinks it's pretty sweet.

Thursday, Jim's parents are coming into town which will be so nice! We can't wait to see them! The kids are itching with excitement and we all can't wait to show them our new pad! This Friday is Abbey's clinic/chemo day. We are going to be accompanied by a couple guys from church who will be videoing some of her visit. They are doing a story on our journey for an upcoming video at church and they want to get some footage of her at the hospital. Should be pretty neat!

Well, thanks for checking in on us :). We sure do love all our blogger friends out there and are so excited to walk with you all through these big changes for our family :). I'll update again soon!

(and a few pics, just for the fun of it!)

Giddy With Excitement!

So all of you guessers were right! Yes, we're moving!!! We are giddy with excitement here!

Jim and I bought our first home 8 years ago and it has been a wonderful little house for us. We started as 2, then a year later went to 3 and now eight years later we have filled this 1300 sq. ft. home to the max with the 6 of us. We have had a couple go's at trying to sell this house over the past few years, but nothing had panned out to sell it. We've had some interest and even an offer, but after hearing nothing after 2nd showings, then a buyers loan falling through we decided to think about renting. A few months back we got hooked up with an awesome realtor (if you're looking for someone, let us know because she is amazing!) who has shown us the positives in renting in today's market by making our property work for us and by allowing ourselves to move into something else while interest rates are so low and while so many great deals are out there. There are tons of bungalows for sale in the same town that we live in and stuff isn't selling much, but is renting like crazy, so we decided to rent this house out for now and then eventually, down the road we will try to sell it again.

So, all that said, we bought a new home!! It's a dream come true for Jim and I :)!! It's beautiful and just perfect for our family. We are going to have so much more room and the layout is exactly what I've dreamed of having for years. The neighborhood is everything that we were looking for too with a community pool, sidewalks and a quiet cul da sac street.

I can't even tell you all the ways that we feel like God perfectly worked things out for us to get this exact house and every minute we spend there we find more things to love about it! We closed last week, but we are spending lots of time there getting everything clean and ready before we officially move in. Next Saturday is our big move day when we will move all our furniture so it will be our first night sleeping there. We can't wait :)!!!

Not only will this be a new house, but in a sense it is a new chapter in our lives. Abbey is almost done with her treatment and we are almost done with this whole cancer thing. As much as we have loved this home, it will always be the place where we brought our precious little cancer patient home to. It will always be the house that we made into a bubble to protect our family from germs while Abbey was in her intense treatment. I will always remember vacuuming up hair from these floors and crying in these bedrooms. We have lots of wonderful memories here too, but we are ready to move on with our lives and be done with this cancer journey.

God has been so very good to our family and we truly feel blessed beyond words with the way that He has cared for us and worked this all out for us. We can't wait to get in our new home and fill it with love, laughter and memories :). Thank you for crying with us through the hard times and being excited with us through the good. It's so fun to be able to do these posts and get to share our blessings and excitement with all of you :)! I will leave you with recent pics of each of the kids since they are growing right before our eyes :). And more pics to come soon as we make memories in our new home :)!!!