this house, our home

As we begin to think about moving to Virginia this summer after Eric graduates, I am getting sentimental about this wonderful place we have called home for these almost 3 years. We haven’t lived anywhere this long in our nearly 7 years of marriage, and I have loved so much about being here.  One of my favorite things is that by the time we leave, I will have seen my youngest be born and grow to the age my oldest was when we moved here… Kinda crazy. (Hopefully that statement will be proven wrong, though, if we can get our new youngest here before we leave… Please Lord…)

I love our big tree out front, it's just perfect for three swings. And I love our corner yard, it's just perfect for adoption yard sales

We have so many sweet memories in this house. Starting with the day we arrived one rainy summer afternoon, we shared many meals with Jonathan, Maggie, Annie, and Lily in our kitchen.  Eric’s mom and dad helped to move us down, and I will never forget the sweet blessing of their staying a whole week to help us settle in while Eric began Summer Greek  Madness.  In fact, I always think of my precious mother-in-law when I look around the girls’ room and see the sweet things she made to make it beautiful.

She made those curtains, the bedskirt, and a pillow with old curtains from the girls' room in Japan.

these girls have had endless hours of fun in this little room. Oh, and Laura, Eric's sister, is proficient in sewing like her mom. She MADE those adorable monkeys in the top left corner!

One of my favorite things about this house is that we are a “golf-ball hit” (in Eric’s words) away from the seminary.  Between that and Eric getting to work from home for his job with MTW, we’ve been able to make it quite comfortably with our one car.   I’m also thankful that we don’t lose husband/daddy time on a commute.  Goodness knows we’re already missing plenty of husband/daddy time with the crazy schedule he’s had to keep this season of life.

Another wonderful thing about this home is that it has 4 rooms – two bedrooms for us, an office for Eric, and an extra guest room, which we have gotten tons of use from!  We’ve had both Sachiko and Sayaka, Japanese friends from Japan, live with us for 4 months and 3 months each.  It was SUCH a joy to have these precious girls join our family for those seasons.  We were also able to have Danny (my brother) and Kimberly and their 3 (at the time) kids live with us for 6 weeks when they first moved here, before they found a house.  Eric moved his office stuff into our bedroom for that period and it all worked out quite well. We definitely have sweet memories of that time.  We’ve been able to have Annie and Lily (my nieces) and DJ, Trinity, Katy-Grace, and Benjamin (my other nieces and nephews) for extended stays while their parents got away.  That would have been a lot harder without an extra room.  Agnes, our dear sister from East Asia who is studying at seminary has lived with us for over a year, and has practically become another Noll.  AND, we’ve had almost all of our stateside siblings (just waiting for Laura this summer!) come and stay at different times, and both of our parents several times. What a blessing it’s been to have the extra space so that our family could be blessed by these special people coming and being part of our everyday lives here.  Knowing we are moving far far away, and that we probably won’t get a chance to host our families and friends much in the future has made these opportunities even sweeter. I’m so thankful.

Our trusty guest room... it's ready for YOU if you want to come and visit before we leave this summer

I love having a kitchen with a kitchen table in it – I spend so much time in the kitchen that it is just perfect to have a space for the girls to be in there with me, either eating, or crafting, or helping.

And our living room and dining room – the places where we’ve really gotten to sit and talk and get to some dear dear people; the places where we’ve played and relaxed, where we’ve worshipped as a family and with our community; the places that have made this house more than a place to sleep and eat, but a place to live and grow as a family.

I am so so so very grateful that God provided this wonderful house, that has been our family’s home for this blessed season of seminary life. We are so blessed and we give HIM the thanks and glory for this gift.

*All the photos in this post are ones I took over a year ago to include in our dossier to send to Ethiopia.  My house isn’t ever as clean as it was when I took these.    I’ve been talking to a friend who is moving here this coming summer, and telling her about our house because they may rent it next.  I was going to send these to her, but thought I would share them here too.

Sing to God, sing praise to His Name, extol Him who rides on the clouds.  Rejoice before Him, His name is the Lord.

A Father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.

He sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing, but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

I wanted to get caught up on a few things we’ve been up to recently:

A visit with Grandma and Grandpa Kuehn and Aunt Carolyn while she was in town! It’s been such a blessing living so close (relatively speaking ) to them during their winters these last 3 years.

A day at Leu Gardens with the cousins:

Kimberly and I ventured out with our 7 littles and had a sweet time at the gardens, made even more fun when we got caught in a downpour.

(Doesn’t Katy-Grace’s smile just make you want to go run down a hill?)

Noa thought the hill was just perfect for singing her favorite, “the hills are alive” from the Sound of Music.

Martha and Trin trying to stay dry:

happy and wet

Noa’s Preschool had Winter Wonderland day.  I volunteered so I was able to capture this classic:

HAHA! It was so hot that day too… And, we didn’t even have gloves for the poor girl, she had to borrow some from her classmate.  I’m glad to know we’ll get one good winter up north before heading to hot and humid South Asia next year.

Double Date Night with Greg and Christie:

Christie and I planned and executed a sweet surprise date for our hubbies.  They had both mentioned several times how they just wanted to play a good game of monopoly before their semester started. Well, we couldn’t do it before the semester started, but we still surprised them with a fancy & yummy dinner and fun [looooooooong] game of monopoly.