Community

All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Acts 2:42

So here we are this little family preparing to go on a crazy adventure - packing up our two babies and moving across the country. Life as we know it is no longer. Nothing about our life in NYC will be the same. No big huge cart full of groceries to load up in the car to drive home. No carrying laundry "all the way across our apartment" to clean our clothes - there's no washer and dryer in our new apartment! The list can go on and on. Yes, these facts are intimidating, but as I sit among my boxes this morning what is heaviest on my heart is the community that's embraced us and spurred us on toward this next move. I can't help but document the many things that have been done to help meet our physical needs during this time. The list is lengthy so for time sake, I will do bullet points!

• Many friends and family donating belongings to sell in our garage sale where we were able to make enough money to cover our moving costs!!!!
• Friends eagerly asking to meet with me to tell me about life in NYC - down to maps and lists of favorite places right in my new neighborhood.
• Family gathering "From Texas to NY" with food from both places, a slide show including our new home, and cards to send us off
• Any incredible gathering of women where each woman chose a charm that represented our friendship and gifted me a beautiful necklace packaged in an incredible custom made mahogany box with the same cross from my church's welcome center.
• A friend dealing with me in my extreme annoying nature to make this move organized and still coming over and essentially packing me up while I handed her things!
• Friends discerning that I might need help with feeding my family in this time and spontaneously bringing meals to us!
• An awesome grandparent that's taken my little Austin once a week for over a month so Momma could tend to things at hand.
• Various friends taking Jonathan while Austin was with his G-daddy so I could be kid free for one day a week.
• An incredible prayer team who has thanked us for the opportunity to serve as our advocates as we go into this next journey.
• Grandparents willing to be whatever we need them to be and take kids, move things, host garage sales, allow us to move in, and much much more to support us in this move!

This is by no means exhaustive. Typing this out is just overwhelming. What I love about this list is that these things were volunteered to us. People in our community perceived needs of our family and stepped up to fulfill those needs. I feel as though we are living the Acts 2 church as the scripture above tells it. WOW - what an incredible privilege to live among these people!