First of Lasts

This month is beginning our final things. This is our last month in Hart Hall. This time next month, we will be figuring out how to celebrate our daughters 6th birthday (WHAT!) and moving our 9yrs of living into a new space (we find out today about that condo! oh Lord, please!!)

It occurred to me last night as i was cranking out 12 loads of laundry, pushing my laundry cart down the hall of Hub in Hart to our apartment, that I think i'll be doing this 2 more times, then i'll hopefully have my own washer and dryer. With each passing day, moment even...I keep thinking of these things being the first of our last things. Our last all hall is tonight. Our last bbq was last week (oh man...no more free chicken, seriously, I've bought a bag of chicken maybe 7 times in 9 years....i'll have to adjust our grocery fund!)...

I want to / we want to finish well. But not just that because I have the sense we will (meaning, not leaving this place with fists raised unable to ever revisit), but as I type this, I want to be present to what is going on right now. My dear friend/professor and her husband gave us a weekend away at their retreat center (the place I always take my classes up to for retreat, but actually never have the chance TO retreat!) (THANK YOU SO MUCH JUDY AND GENE!), and I kept asking the Lord to have our future known to us at that time. Now, much can happen between this morning and tomorrow afternoon prior to departure, but I want to be present to what is going on now and not miss it. I want to embrace final hugs, soak them in, cut some roses from the Hart hall garden, play in the courtyard, enjoy the students in the lobby (Dan!! Marcia! Chris, Heather...and the many other lobby folk!), let the kids run up and down the stairs... soak in the last all hall...celebrate with our RAs next week...and just soak in the moments in our little place that I love so much....we started a family in this place...we fought, prayed, loved, laughed, cried countless times in this place...had hundredes of cookies made and gallons of coffee and hot cocoa served in this place....prayed over students on our couch...pre marital counseled, relationship counseled, countless RA meetings....the list goes on....how can I stop waiting and being frustrated with not knowing our future so I can be ever present to our present? Please pray this with me and for me.