First up...

G'day! I think I've already said that. We moved here to Warrnambool October last year, and I think I will sort of start from there.
Greg got his dream job - Associate Pastor at the Warrnambool and District Baptist Church. So that meant we all needed to move, requiring:

1. me to leave the first full-time job that I've had since having Otis (10years), the first job that I have really enjoyed and felt appreciated in (mostly because of the wonderful people I was working for and with!!)
2. Isaac to leave a great school with great teachers, which is where I would have loved Brie to start (and where I was working as office manager - Sunrise Christian School.)
3. Otis to leave his school where he was about to be suspended from (not so bad) and the first mutual "best" friend he has had (sad for both boys)
4. Brie leaving a fantastic childcare centre (Park Tce., Naracoorte!)
5. me to leave new spiritual mentors and friends I felt comfortable being "me" with (burp)
6. Us to set out on a new family adventure... They can be fun, exciting, scary and always stretching!

I figured: Greg was potentially going to be more fun to live with and less stressed in a job he loved; God always knows what he is doing; so I decided to believe that God moving us to Warrnambool was going to benefit each member of the family, and the things I may have been worried about losing would be replaced in time with things of his choosing.

In our new town - a very pretty, and larger, well-serviced town:

1. I have not worked while everyone settles in, but aimed to get to know people at my new church - [Incidentally, is there a scientific reason for being able to remember only a few names and then not being able to mentally take in ANY more names for another six months? Thankfully I can usually remember my phone number!]
2. Otis and Isaac started a new school. Isaac quickly made new friends and liked school. I will have to trust God re which school for Brie.
3. Otis couldn't stay at this school! But our bigger new town has resources to help that were not always available in our previous town, so now Otis is at another new school, with good friends and a great teacher, and more confidence.
4. Childcare is harder to find here. When the boys started lining up their lunch boxes for school, Brie immediately insisted that she be able to go to child care. We found one day a week to the end of 2007, then had to find a spot somewhere else. Brie seems to have enjoyed both places. She sometimes walks in shyly behind legs but within a few minutes tells Mum or Dad that they have to "go now".
5. Almost immediately, a few people at our new church were inspiring and challenging to me - not that they would have known. I felt encouraged in some of the parenting difficulties we have had, and to pursue more diligently a daily quiet time with God. I signed up for a prayer ministry course at our new church that was very similar to what I had just started to learn about with mentors in Naracoorte (Wow!)
6. Life is an adventure, and all the more exciting when you are being led by the Spirit of God. This is how we learn and grow! The challenge is to continue to be open and listening to God and not to get too comfortable.