The Longer Short Version

   

There are some sights I never saw before moving to Montana.

  

Signs to keep your cows and your camping separate, for one.

  

Open range cows by the side of the road, for another.

   

    

There is no fence encircling these bovines. The only thing separating them from us is a general sense of lethargy and ennui ... on their part.

    

  

 

We are moving back to Virginia for a while.

  

That is the short version.

  

The longer short version is that this church in which Ethan has been laboring for ten months no longer has the funds it needs nor the numbers it needs to provide those funds. So, in God's providence and timing, the work has decided to close.

   

The time we have spent here has been invaluable on so many levels. We have grown as a couple and as a family (and not just literally). We have LOVED Montana and her many, many mountains and the way the seasons change them. We have met a small yet powerful group of people that has impacted our lives tremendously.

   

But it's time to move on.

   

Truth be told, we're not sure exactly where we're going. For the meantime, we're heading back east. The hospital system there is much friendlier for birthing twins.  The hospital here does not allow VBACs and will not admit you if you go into labor before 35 weeks. My first set of twins ended up being a C-section, and they came at 33 weeks. In the event that we do have premature babies and have to split time between the children at home and the children in the hospital, there is a large support group to help us in Virginia.

   

And in the intervening time, Ethan is again going through the "candidating" process with various churches with vacant pulpits.

   

So here we go again. It's honestly exciting, although not easy to leave newly forged friendships here. But we know Who holds the future, and we feel our time here has been very profitable for our family and our spiritual walk. Now it is time to move on. We're packing boxes, throwing away bags and bags and bags of trash, and restocking the thrift store shelves.

   

We've finished with the boys' and girls' rooms. They are sleeping on their mattresses on the floor with a suitcase each of clothes. Nothing else, save a hamper, is in their rooms.

   

And they love it. The boys emphatically explained to me this morning that they sleep SO MUCH BETTER this way. And when I told the girls to "clean your room," they pulled their covers up and were done.

   

(Last week. Our welcome back to Montana, after traveling home from Oregon.)