"home"

First, an announcement: Lent starts tomorrow (that's not the announcement; the calender can tell you that), and I'm giving up Facebook (that's it, and the reason I'm telling you is because I normally stick these new blog posts up on FB). But don't worry! If you want to make sure you don't miss anything, you can subscribe in the box to the right. Whenever a new post goes up you'll get the text and photos in the body of an email.

Now, on to the good stuff. We moved over the weekend. Our new house is three times the size of our old one, which is really convenient since our new family is going to be three times the size of our current one. It's an atypical house for South Philly. It has (listed in order of how delighted I am about it):
1. a big backyard, where I plan to plant kale and snap peas and raise chickens (if the city zoning laws allow, of course)
2. a garage (no more searching for street parking!)
3. a finished basement

I figure with four kids around, I won't have the luxury of caring if people see my house messy. So I might as well start training now. Here are a few pics:

The backyard today. Will the snow ever stop?

The backyard on Sunday. Can't you just imagine a few urban chickens pecking around out there?

Our former house could have fit inside this living room/dining room.

We never expected to live in Philadelphia. A few years ago when a friend mistakenly thought we were moving here, the idea of it made me cringe. Philly? Good lord, no. Plan A after we left Peru in May 2012 was to move to Syracuse to live near our best friends and close to David's parents. When that didn't work out, Plan B was to live in Philly for a year and then move, before the kids arrived, to North Carolina to live near David's sister. Now we're on to Plan C: sign a year-lease on a house big enough for a family of six and stay put for the time being.

I'm okay with Plan C—most of the time. It's been a pleasant surprise for both of us that we really like it here. But we're concerned about uprooting the kids to move again after they make the major transition from Peru and get settled here. And we feel a strong pull to live near some family. It's scary to be heading into this parenting thing without family nearby, and there are many moments of uncertainty about Plan C.

I'm really thankful for the it's-gonna-be-okay message God gave me last week. First, my cousin's wife Lauren came over from NJ to help me clean and set up the new kitchen and keep me company on my first day in our new house. A good reminder that we do have family nearby! Then three guys from our church home group helped us move. A year ago we showed up at this church, uncertain about living in Philly and a bit burned out on church in general. Now we not only know people from the church, but we know them well enough that they're willing to come help us move our crap. Then a neighbor came by to help us clean out the old house, and when she walked into the empty space she made a pouty face (which was exactly how I was feeling at the moment) and gave me a big hug. Then, on our first night in the new casa, some friends (also from our church home group) brought over a delicious meal, a bottle of wine, flowers, and a quiche for our breakfast in the morning. I just about lost it when they walked through our front door loaded down with all those goodies. We sat around the table with our friends in our new dining room with boxes stacked everywhere and ate and laughed and felt loved and imagined the special times that are going to happen in this new house. It's not perfect, it wasn't plan A or even B, but it's going to be a good home for us and for the kids.