The state of the Templin Ashford family union

I've had this blog post in my head for months and months.  By now you have likely figured out our life and family has had many changes.

I left my job at Oxford Presbyterian at the end of November 2011.  It was extremely bittersweet.  For the first time in my children's lives I would no longer have to juggle every second, miss bedtime, work through the night, be away all weekend, and leave them for long trips.  But, on the other hand, I believe that I was designed to do ministry.  I love teaching about the bible, I love helping people to grow in faith and find their path.  For years I had been preaching about simplifying your life and making time for spiritual growth and yet as my schedule was overfull I was not practicing my own rhetoric.  It was certainly a nerve-wracking decision and not an easy one for me.

We have been "settled" in our new home for a little over two months now and we are finding our new normal.  Everyone asks me how I like being home.  And really, it isn't that much different than before, except I get to be done for the day when the kids go to bed and we have our weekends together which is amazing.  Our pace has slowed considerably.  I have time for long runs, Paul has time to mountain bike.  The kids can play for hours without a house that has to stay ready to show and without living in someone else's house.

Paul was promoted to a new position at his company and now oversees several teams of developers and manages many projects.  He enjoys his job and has received many accolades from his bosses and his employees.  It is certainly a time for him to flourish in his career.  We feel very lucky that his company is hiring and growing in these unsteady economic times.

Our new home is beautiful, however it is also a mental stumbling block for me to live in a "cookie cutter" home in a development.  These are things we never saw in our future.  But as the repairs of an old home loomed, we always felt that our money was not our own... that it belonged to our house! We loved having a walkable community, but that also meant teens getting in trouble (i.e. fighting and drugs) right in front of our house.  We didn't have any children nearby for our kids to play with and we had concerns about the schools that Noah would enter.

Now we have a "model" that we will see replicated several times on our street and I am learning to be okay with that.  Because we have neighbors we can share a drink with....and almost everyone has children that play outside every day after school in the same way I did growing up.  There is almost no traffic at all on our street so the kids can ride bikes and run free.  We have the most AMAZING sunsets I have ever seen (almost as good as beach sunsets) that we can see perfectly as we eat dinner on our deck.  We can choose to do projects in the house or just leave it just like it is... there is nothing that NEEDS to be done for fear of a ceiling caving in!

Our development is very large which is another tough thought for me, but with that comes 10 miles of hiking and biking trails, lots of preserved forest and open space, a community playground down the street with basketball and volleyball courts and a sense that you are all knit together.  The other amazing dynamic that I am in love with is that there are families of other cultures and races in our neighborhood.  Noah will have Asian, Indian, and African American children in his classes and that will be part of his norm.  So, even though everyone has the same mailbox and one of four different homes, we have a wealth of new opportunities here.

And the big question we get all the time is what we are doing about church.  We went to a ton of churches and really didn't love any of them. We had our heart set on going back to the UCC but the local church just wasn't right.  So we ended up at a huge presbyterian church in West Chester.  5 services on Sundays.  4 clergy and countless staff.  But, for a little while I can be anonymous and just grow and pray and learn.  Nobody needs me at this church to fix anything or lead anything and for right now that is perfect.  The preaching is awesome, the choir is 200 people strong, there are choices and options and contemporary and traditional and tons of children's programs.  One of my goals when I left OPC was to take a year sabbath and I feel confidant that I can do that here.

So, there is our update.  Pray for our suburban journey into the wilderness!  Thanks for all of your love and support and well wishes during this very hectic time of transition! And.. .come over anytime!!!