Life in Bloomington

(In Mexico)

We are officially "townies" as they call people that aren't students and live in Bloomington. :) It's been an adjustment. We finally got to move in at the end of June after a crazy summer of getting back from two weeks in Michigan for work and having 3 days to get moved out of our beloved Broad Ripple home. Then we moved in with my sister and brother-in-law into their new house that they had only lived in for 2 weeks prior to our crazy disruption of their life. Then we had meetings in Nashville, IN for 3 days then off to Booram family vaca, then a quick hiatus at a family friends cabin while we waited to get to close and move in to house in Broad Ripple. Whew... a lot huh? Our kids were troopers, hopefully no long term damage done since everywhere we went Eli asked "Is this my new home" even including our stay at the hotel in Nashville. We have loved being here. The summer was a nice easy way to getting settled here, as most of you may know what Bloomington is like once students show up- pure insanity!! I think we certainly underestimated what it looks like to move to a some what new place and try to unpack our lives with two kids under the age of 3. Slowly but surely we are getting there and loving our house and certain that our dog, Amos, is loving his large wooded back yard instead our of tiny little city yard we had before.

 At the beginning of August, Brandt and I were blessed with the ability to go on a trip to Mexico. After the summer and everything else in life, it was a time that our marriage needed. We had such a great time. Missed the boys like crazy but knew between my parents and Brandt's, they were in great hands.


 It's been fun being able to break in our new house with the celebration of Riley's 1st birthday and Eli's 3rd birthday. Creating great memories already. Eli is loving pre-school with the slight adjustment of figuring out that everyone his age is not as tough and big as him, but have loved getting to see him become very interested in coloring, singing the ABC, and talking about numbers. Things he NEVER let me do with him before. It's a glorious thing how someone new and different can totally get your own child into something like that. I'm thankful that he allows someone to get him thrilled about learning, even if we can't always be that role. (First day of School on the right )
                                                           
Riley is a walking machine. Having a blast trying to catch up with his big brother, already taking            cars and "Vrooming" them along our couch, chairs, tables, etc. Even this morning he was driving his baked oatmeal across his highchair. He has such a fun spirit and is seriously so smiley. I'm sure lots of parents feel this way, but for some reason it feels like baby number 2 grows up faster!
(Left- Riley's 1st Birthday)

         So far the school year has gone well. This is probably our first week of a normal schedule of balancing me being on campus with students and juggling the boys and Eli starting school for the first time. I am feeling very blessed and loving working for Greek IV. I definitely had some concerns about my transition and a little uncertain at times of God's calling in my life, but since I've been with students, I feel more and more at peace at where God has led me and our family. I am thankful for the constant reminder that we live in a broken world that needs God, and how thankful I am I get to be smack in the middle of that loving on people. Thank you for your prayers and love through our journey of life. I will... I WILL, be better about updating on here! Let's shoot for once a month yah?

A Whirl Wind

Well things have been more than interesting around the Booram's house hold these days. We have great news... we have sold our house! Praise the Lord. We are in the midst of the inspection repairs. Even though we endured around 37 showings in 4 weeks, we feel MORE than blessed to have had an accepted offer so quickly. I will say, while we were very excited I think the reality set in a little bit more. Since we have a closing date of May 15th, and they take position on the 17th, our next question was... "WHERE WILL WE LIVE?". We had yet to go down to Bloomington to do any type of house shopping, our finances were still in the pre-approval processes and we or should I say "I" was freaking out. Well sure enough God is always in control yes? So we began house shopping, kept working on our finances and like I said God always provides and He did. We had put an offer on a house we LOVE in Bloomington on Thursday and we accepted the owners counter Friday afternoon. While there are more of those LARGE details that we got to see how God worked, I won't bore you with every little piece. We did take the boys down with us on thursday to look at the house one more time and it was kind of insane, both crying all the there and all the way home, but it was really good to see them in our new house. Not to mention Eli cried all the way home saying..."I don't want to go home Mommy, I was to go to BOOmington." As for everything else, we will have the blessing of residing with Anna and Rob (my sister and brother-in-law) and their two kiddos for 3 weeks admits all our traveling and what not. They are AMAZING to have offered to let us move in their new beautiful home!

Both boys are doing great! Riley is 9 1/2 months now and crawling, pulling up, and generally into EVERYTHING. Eli is heading his way towards 3 (not till September) and pretty much the total definition of a boy. He loves bugs, cars, jumping, being out side, getting dirty and oh did I say cars? They are both nutty and amazing.

Just wanted to keep everyone up to date on our crazy (but exciting) journey. I'll try to post more regularly. As for now, I'm off to go pack for our 2 weeks up in Michigan... and oh ya... I guess I should pack up our house to move while I'm at it!

Bittersweet

WE.ARE.MOVING. As many people have heard by now, we are moving to Bloomington, IN to continue to work with IU Fraternity and Sorority students. I finally finished my bachelor's degree in December, which made it possible for me to join on campus staff work with InterVarsity. This whole process started in December with Brandt and I talking through a few things. We are really tired of him traveling two days a week, every week. It worked for a while, especially since we love being close to family (lots of them), love our church, love our house church and our friends here in Indy it just made sense for us to live here and for him to commute. But with two little kids, it just doesn't feel sustainable anymore AND I really want to join staff.:) Apart from all the logical points as to why it just "makes sense" for us to live in Bloomington, Brandt and I feel very called by God to move. We both really want to see campus ministry grow tremendously at IU and know that will take us living in community and close proximity to students and campus. To have our boys grow up not just hearing about what we do when we go to work, but seeing and living daily ministry.

We put our house on the market on Monday, and have had/will have 7 showings this week already (God is GOOD). With all the excitement with the decision to move, getting our house ready and looking at some houses in Bloomington; I think the reality of moving set in last night. I like change, so when it is on the horizon it's very easy for me to just experience excitement. But as I was driving home with both the boys after spending the day at my parents because of showings, tears quickly began running down my face. All of a sudden it hit me, Brandt and I have lived and experienced so much life in Indianapolis. We met here, came to know God here, got married here, had our kids here, bought our first house here, etc...etc... Indianapolis has been so much a part of our life, especially the people here. I'm sad to move. I am nervous about building a new community, starting over, finding friends. I am certainly in process. God is so good to give us visions and confirmations in hard decisions we make, otherwise it would make the process almost impossible. I am thankful to be able to start recognizing how much these people and this place means to me before we leave so I can soak up every moment. Fully understanding Bloomington is only 1 1/2 hours away, but still not quit the same.As Brandt pointed out to me last night, the one thing we did do in Bloomington was fall in love with each other and grow a deeper love for Greek students coming to know God. So I can't think of a better place to start a new chapter of life for our family.

Last night, as I was crying, I was listening to an old but great song by Fernando Ortega "Give Me Jesus", he simply states no matter what part of my day or where in life, just Give me Jesus. This is exactly how I feel, admits the craziness of selling our home, buying a home, filling out my (long) staff application, raising boy crazy boys and learning how to say good bye... just give me Jesus- because with out Him, none of this will work.