Finally an Update!

Well, needless to say, it has been a very long time since we have updated this blog. Our life has been quite busy the past several months!


We've been living in our new home in Paducah, KY, since February and continue to be busy updating the house and trying to keep up with yard work. So far, our projects have included painting, creating a vegetable garden and a garden bed around our deck, changing nearly every light fixture and ceiling fan, and numerous other odd jobs. Our big project this fall will be refinishing our kitchen cabinets and installing a new counter top. We joke that we have to continually re-evaluate our "priorities" with house projects...realizing that our ambitions and time frames might be a bit lofty!


Nolan turned 18 months old this week...wow! He is running around, trying to climb up on furniture, opening nearly every drawer and cupboard, and keeping us entertained with his latest discoveries of how to imitate our words and actions. Aaron has been working hard with him the past few weeks on learning to say "touchdown" (complete with the hand signal) and "Go Bucks". So far, he's mastered "touchdown" and loves to say this while watching Saturday football with Dad. He brings us so much joy and laughter every day.

Aaron's job at St Matthew Lutheran has been filled with joys and challenges. He just started a youth night and has been busy putting together the stewardship campaign. Lots of new events have occurred recently, including a summer farmer's market benefiting a local hunger organization, a fall picnic & festival, a weekly coffee hour, and a new Bible study. We have also hosted monthly gatherings of small groups of congregation members at our home and have enjoyed getting to know the St Matthew people.

Lindsey began working 3 days a week at an outpatient clinic in April and has been busy keeping the OT department "afloat" during several staff changes in recent months. A new part-time OT will be joining the staff this week which should help with managing the occupational therapy caseload. Although it was a bit of a rough, hectic start, things have settled in now, and she is enjoying working with the children and families. One of the best things about this job is the incredible variety of clients - not only children with autism, ADHD, sensory challenges, and learning disabilities (what she have primarily worked with in recent years), but also a few adults with physical disabilities/injuries and traumatic brain injury. It is definitely challenging and keeping her very busy!

We're not going to make any more promises to provide regular blog updates, but we will certainly try!

A Home!

Well, it has been quite the week! As the snow came down last Friday, we looked at several homes in the area around Paducah and found one that really stood out for both of us. Luckily, the house had been on the market for quite a while and was vacant. After making an offer and quickly getting a home inspection done, we decided to inquire about the possibility of renting the house until our closing. Surprisingly, the seller decided to allow us to rent it!

There have been several emotional ups and downs this week with searching for both a home to purchase and a rental as well as contemplating our "last-minute" options in case we didn't come up with anything. Thankfully, we will not be continuing to stay indefinitely at the Drury Suites hotel (although it almost feels like home now....all the staff know us and have even been asking about how our home search is going!). Tonight we got our keys and garage door openers (haven't had one of those before!) and are amazed at the miracle that seems to have happened in a week. Quite the blessing to be able to move directly into our place when the moving truck arrives on Saturday. We hope to add some pictures here of our home in the near future!

In the midst of all the home details, Aaron began his job as the pastor at St Matthew Lutheran on Monday. He has realized that his office might be a bit quiet (he's the only staff there most of the time during the day), but has also quickly learned that a good portion of his time will be spent making phone calls and attending meetings. He is looking forward to meeting some of the pastors at local churches in the next few weeks.

We are all looking forward to Aaron's ordination and installation on Sunday and are excited to be celebrating the day with many family and friends traveling here. Pictures will be coming soon!

The Big Move

After a long four days of travel we have arrived safely in Paducah. Here's a quick rundown of our travels:

The trip started on Sunday as a group of six men from Desert Cross helped us move out of our apartment (thanks guys, couldn't have done it without you!). Our first stop was Flagstaff, which happened to be blanketed with a few feet of snow. One of the most beautiful parts of the drive occurred during twilight as we drove past the endless snow-covered pine forests. With the sun setting and the temperatures dropping, a layer of fog rose from the snow and reached up to the purple sky. It was eerily beautiful.

The second day we drove from Flag to Tucumcari, New Mexico. The only real eventful part of this drive happened one hour away from our destination when we called the police to report a drunk driver who passed us on the freeway. How did we know this person was drunk? It was a combination of the extreme swerving between the lanes and even off the road, the random breaking, and the drastic variations of speed. Even if they weren't drunk, the deserved to be pulled over. Aaron commented that he almost hoped the driver was drunk because the alternative would be that the person always drives like that.

The next day we woke up to weather reports declaring that the winter storm of the century would soon be barreling down I-40, directly towards us. We decided to drive as far as we could so that we could stay ahead of the storm. We ended up making it to Joplin, Missouri. Worth mentioning is that even with all these hours of travel, Nolan was a great passenger. He cried very rarely, and when he would start to get upset we could usually buy a few more miles by giving him cheerios.

We arrived into Paducah at 7pm on Wednesday, one day earlier than expected. And here we sit in our hotel room, only vaguely aware that we have "arrived." It's a bit anti-climactic to move to a town and be living in a hotel room. Our first goal is to secure a place to live for the short-term. There is not much of a rental market in the city, so our options are very limited, even with the whole congregation looking for properties on our behalf. We're simultaneously looking for a home to purchase; however, our options remain very limited.

And now to top it off, the storm has finally caught up to us. Depending on who you talk to, Paducah is expected to get anywhere from 3 inches to 1 foot of snow tonight. Quite the welcome back to winter!