Lots of reflecting goes on in March, a month that has been painful in years past, but this year holds so much excitement all wrapped around the 3rd heavenly birthday for Ivy Raye! We can hardly believe it has been 3 years since Ivy Raye was silently born in to this world, and born full of life in to heaven!
The last time we blogged was just before our move to the Memphis, TN area for Nathan to go to school for diagnostic medical sonography. Let us catch you up on the last 3 years 🙂 if that is even possible!
In August of 2013, we made the trek from NH to the Memphis area and lived with great friends for 2 months while looking for a home. I homeschooled the kids, while Nathan worked odd jobs and worked tirelessly to get himself in to the diagnostic medical sonography program that was to start January 2014. We settled in a town south of Memphis…Olive Branch, MS where God provided a beautiful home for our family! The kids were able to start attending a small Christian school, and everything was going as planned.
Well…at least we thought it was…
Then, Nathan did NOT get in to the program for January 2014. We were devastated! Here we had sold our home, uprooted our family, moved thousands of miles for him to NOT get in the program after all. What was God doing??? If you recall our 2013, the incredible journey with Ivy Raye was very eventful! God knew we needed a year at a slower pace. God’s timing is not always our plan!
God provided in so many ways during that unplanned year! We left family and friends in NH that had walked the most difficult time of our lives with us. It was lonely at first to be in a new place, and finding a new church home was also harder than we ever imagined. If you are unfamiliar with the South, there are churches on every street corner…in some cases multiple churches on one corner! We wondered how in the world would we ever find a place to attend. But God is always faithful, and after visiting a few churches He made it very clear to us where He would have us. We are so thankful for the church where we are planted and for the people most of all that have made us feel so loved! God also provided jobs for both of us to sustain us during that year and beyond.
Nathan re-applied for the diagnostic medical sonography program in the Fall of 2014, and was accepted to begin in January 2015 to study cardiac sonography (echocardiography). It has been wonderful to watch him learn and love what he is doing! I’ve continued to work, and the kids are doing great in school! It hasn’t been all rainbows and unicorns…not gonna lie! We’ve faced exhaustion and a tight budget and days where we’ve felt like we couldn’t possibly keep up the pace. But the end is in sight!!
We are always amazed at the details, and feel God’s love in even the smallest of them. Nathan’s desire from the beginning of this journey has been to eventually be a pediatric cardiac sonographer. While doing his clinicals this past year, he’s gotten the opportunity to work at two children’s hospitals in the area. He’s loved his time spent at both. God is always faithful and has provided again by a job offer from one of the hospitals! We are thrilled for him to graduate on March 24th from the diagnostic medical sonography program, and begin working on March 28th at the hospital. Two wonderful events hugging our precious Ivy Raye’s 3rd birthday on March 26th. God in the details…He is there!
Happy Birthday, Ivy Raye!