Back at the Blog!

Well, needless to say this blog has been neglected for a while and a lot has happened since my last post. Now that life has settled down a little bit, it’s time to catch up, refresh the blog and start writing a bit more. After this re-cap, I hope to keep a bit more up-to-date on goings on with the Gobles and learnings from life. The blog look is changing too, so have patience as I get it updated!

Without further ado, here is the re-cap:

Chris Came Home from Afghanistan!
Yes, this is as amazing as it sounds. Four months earlier than expected, we had an amazing reunion. It was everything we could have hoped for…there was the rush of planning and getting to the airport with only about 9 hours’ notice that he would be home, Chris running off the plane and the boys running into his arms. To wake up that next morning and have Chris beside me and to see him and the boys snuggled up on the couch watching cartoons…really, I couldn’t have asked for anything more. We prepared for whatever re-integration would look like for us and we were so blessed that we fell right back into rhythm quickly and easily. It was just amazing to be a united family again!

We moved to Colorado
We had about three weeks after Chris arrived home to get things ready for our move to Colorado so that Chris could take a full-time position with the army. It was a whirlwind of reconnecting with friends, me finishing up work, re-acclimating to being together, finding a place to live and prepping for the movers to come. There were bumps along the way as I think there is with any move and I can confidently say that I don’t think we will ever use a moving company again, but we made it along with our things (mostly) and have a wonderful home that we are renting in Aurora.

We are Settled in (Mostly)
Despite a few things showing up damaged from our move and not having the hardware for our beds or the boys’ play structure, we are mostly settled in. The first week in our house was a blitz of cleaning, unpacking and organizing. We now have almost everything unpacked, have painted two rooms (with two more to go) and feel at home. Transition is hard, particularly for me and Brody, but the number of times Brody says that he misses our old house are getting farther and farther between and we feel more settled in every day. We are waiting for our claim to be processed with the moving company to fix our beds, the few damaged items and the boys’ play structure…hoping that is a smooth process that gets resolved quickly.

We are Getting Out
Each week, the boys and I are discovering new fun things to do in our area. We have a water play park just a few blocks away which is great with all the sunshine we get! We found a fun kids outing up in the mountains, a nearby lake with a kids swim area, have summitted the tallest mountain in CO, and just recently had a great experience at a wildlife museum. There is a lot to do and we are getting out and having fun!

We have hopefully found a church for our family just recently. It is close to our house, has a great kids ministry that the boys loved their first week, authentic worship and relevant, bold teaching. We are excited to learn more about the church as we attend more and get plugged in.

I am particularly excited about the boys starting AWANA this coming week. I attended AWANA for a few years growing up and it was a great experience and does a great job of getting the Word of God into kids. I can’t believe the boys are old enough to start programs like these, but I am so excited to partner with AWANA in growing the boys up into passionate followers of the Lord!

Life is Really Different (in a great way)
We knew that to reach some goals for our family (the ability for me to stay home with the boys, take some financial steps forward, etc) that things would have to change dramatically and they have! Chris is now working at a job that, while it is not necessarily his passion, he is good at. His job allows him to be home around 5pm most nights and be fully invested in our family because he is able to leave work at work. His job also allows me to stay home with the boys. This is a topic for a whole other post as to what that transition has been like, but I am so blessed to be with them every day and have this time with them!

So, all-in-all, life is drastically different than it was just a few months ago, but we are enjoying this new adventure for our family and love the time it is giving us together! Hopefully this is an adequate overview to set the stage for moving forward with this blog. I am excited to write and share more from the season that God has us in!