new

New.

Well, sort of new.

Returning "home" after 4 years isn't really new, but it is different.

It has been one week.

One week since we packed our whole life up in boxes and drove away from Denver. One week since we saw mountains in our rear view mirror.

This week has been weird. Not all bad, not all good. Mostly kind of weird.

We are settling in at my mom's. She has graciously made space for us while we figure out what to do next.

We've gotten to see my in-laws a couple of times. It is SO nice to be fed and to have people chase your baby around for you.

I caught Milo reading a book with his Uncle Matt the other day and it made me swell up with happiness to see Milo sitting on his knees and pointing to animals in his giant animal book. He'd look up at his Uncle Matt and wait to hear Uncle Matt tell him the name of the animal. Then he would smile.

All of this has confirmed for me that I want Milo to have more family than just David and me.

But, also.

I've cried.

I've been sad.

I've felt lost.

I've felt disappointed.

Change is hard.

I don't think I realized how much of my identity was tied up with living in Colorado. How much I liked telling people I lived there. How much of my "story" centered around leaving Kansas and going to Colorado for graduate school.

It was easy, in the middle of the mountains, to sense God's presence.

However, I am convinced God is also present here. In Kansas. In my everyday, ordinary story. I can feel that God is doing something new. That God will somehow knit together the education and experiences I've had into something beautiful. That God can use me here.

I changed the name of this blog. No longer "Life in Denver," but a new title. I'm trying it out. "The Sacred is in the Ordinary" is my reminder that daily life is saturated with God's goodness. With God-ness. If only we have eyes to see it.