It takes a village

Life update: We bought a house!! And I cannot begin to tell you how extremely excited we are about it.  Like seriously- we love love LOVE it.  Ben had this last week of work off and we hit the ground running getting the house ready to move into.  We closed on Monday and then moved all of our stuff over yesterday.  So that's why my blog post is super late this week.  But totally worth it.  We woke up every morning and then did house stuff until midnight or later every night.  It was crazy but so so good and so so worth it.  Yes we spent way more time at Home Depot than I originally planned (and I had planned on going a lot), but I'm so happy with the progress we have already made. I will post pictures and such once we get a little more unpacking under our belts.  Most of the work we did this week was painting.  We decided to paint the entire inside of the house.  Literally every room. We even ended up painting the ceilings, which put us behind schedule, but it was definitely worth it.  It looks great now!  We still need to paint our master bedroom and bathroom, but other than that, we got it all done! I'm still amazed.

But that brings me to my topic for today.  Community.  Unity.  Zion.  When I first moved to Danville, I was so so afraid of being away from my parents.  Because they did SO much for us while we were living close.  Helped us with anything we needed, I could always trust them to take care of Flint if I needed them to, and they were always feeding us like crazy.  What was I going to do without them?  Well although I am not related by blood to anyone in Danville, I have definitely felt a part of a family.  When people found out we were moving, I was overwhelmed with the amount of people asking me how they could help.  I could not believe it! Since so many people asked how they could help, I sent out a group text to my church peeps just saying we would do a painting party for anyone that wanted to come. So many people showed up and we got the entire house's first coat done in mere hours.  I still can't believe it.  And then yesterday, when we were getting ready to move again for the 3rd time in Danville and in 2 years, 16 people showed up at our door step to help.  And some kids even came and helped out! I am seriously blown away.  We got the entire move done from start to finish in 2.5 hours.  I can't believe it.  I seriously can't believe it.  And I'm overwhelmed with gratitude and love for my people.  The people that took Flint during the week so we could get more done, the people who brought us food so we did't have to eat yet another frozen pizza, the people that painted with a smile on their face, and the people that offered help and I didn't even take them up on it because I already had so much help.

To sum it up, I think I felt a little taste of what heaven is going to be like.  Lots of awesome people, knit together in love and unity, and helping each other.  Seeing a need and filling it.  That's what I think heaven is really going to be like.  And what a glorious feeling it was to get a taste of it this week.  Once again, God knew what he was doing when he sent me to Danville.  He knew that although I would be away from my blood related family, I would still have a family to lean on and boost me up when I needed it the most.  It takes a village of people to raise a family.  That's what they say at least.  And I definitely think that's true.  All I can say is that I've been surrounded by angels this past week (or all along really) and I couldn't be more grateful.  What a wonderful community I have become a part of.

I hope I can be better at seeing needs in others and filling them.  I hope to become like the people that helped me this week.  God is good, people are good, life is GOOD!