The seasons keep changing.

In the spring we closed out a six year season of living in Mexico.  We sold and gave away many of our possessions.  We packed up our belongings.  We said heartfelt goodbyes.  We prepared for the next season of life.

In the summer we moved back to the United States.  We traveled.  We spent time with family.  David started a new job.  We found a new house and began the work of making it a home.  The boys started at a new school.  I began to figure out what it would look like to be a stay at home mom again.

As we have moved into fall, cooler weather has settled in around us.  The leaves are changing and we are preparing for the change of adding another child to our lives. The pace of life has gradually slowed.  We are settling into the new day to day, figuring out what life here looks like once again.  Reverse culture shock comes in waves as the newness wears off and the reality of it all comes crashing around us.

In the midst of it all we prepare for the next season.  As we transition from fall to winter we will also transition from life as a family of four to a family of five.

A full year of change.

Sometimes I feel like I am rolling right along with it all and other times I feel like I am running along, just barely staying ahead of the waves as change after change comes flooding through (picture me running with my 8 month pregnant belly and it becomes a bit more amusing).

I look up at the changing leaves and wonder how all the seasonal changes have affected me.  Am I allowing it all to change me and transform me with beautiful colors, the same way God changes the leaves into new and beautiful hues?  Or am I standing in resistance, like that one last tree not quite ready to give in to the changing of the seasons?  Am I allowing God to ready me for the season ahead?