Home is...

It's dark, after midnight.  The fan is running, pulling the cold air from one of two window air conditioners into the living room, where I sleep.

When I was a kid, we only had one window air conditioner.  Serious upgrades are happening around here.

I love being home.  I just do.  Today, Mom and I went to town with the kids while Dad's caretaker was here, and as usual, when we stopped for a quick bite to eat, I saw someone I know.  Or knew at one point, anyway, way back when.

It's always good to see familiar faces.  Always.  This one was a guy who went to my church growing up, and he told me of how he has never left town, always lived here.

That's how I thought I would be.

I had ideas of how to renovate this very house to the kind of dream home that I and my future family could live in, complete with a balcony and spiral staircase.

Instead, I live at 2319, and that is the place that my kids will always think of as home.

This summer, though, home for our little family of 7 was a 622 sq ft apartment...and it was perfect.  It helped us remember the reality of the cliche that wherever we are as a family, that is home.

(Clearly, I'm not remembering the actual cliche.  Work with me, here.)

In just a few days, the kids and I will return home, where we will be reunited as a family, and we will begin to readjust to life in a great big house.  A house that has hundreds of corners where messes can be made and where sibling rivalry and angry reactions will too often take center stage.  By God's grace, though, this year will be one where grace will abound in our house, offsetting in miraculous ways the sin that will abound there, too.

I call two places home, here with my parents and there with my husband and children.  How blessed I am!  May my blessings be used for the glory of God and the good of others, as the Lord leads....His ways are perfect.

Overrated

In the fourth chapter of John, Jesus's disciples are concerned about his need for food, to which he gently replies, "I have food of which you know nothing."  Further confusion ensues among the disciples until Jesus then states, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work."

Tonight This morning, I'm wondering if it would be okay for me to substitute the word "food" for "sleep."

Because that's how I feel right now, having had not one wink of sleep last night.

We are in Montana, finishing up our biking leg today, and last night, I stayed up late to wash our four loads of dirty laundy.

In one washer.

And one really slow-working dryer.

By four-o-clock this morning, I was finally ready to go to bed.  Enter Cher, my new friend.

It's 6:30 a.m., and I haven't slept.  Hopefully Cher is sleeping by now, but I decided that at this point, a little sleep would be more painful than helpful. (We'll see if I agree with myself in a few hours.)

Besides, I'm not really tired.  Doing the will of God is better than sleep anyway.  Don't get me wrong...He has created us in such a way that we need sleep, I get it.  But isn't it awesome that He can give us the strength we need for times like this when He calls us to a different path than our norm?

Cher is a new believer, coming to Christ, I believe, about three weeks ago after having walked through a very dark, low period of life.  And she's so hungry.  But her culture has. effected. her. so. much.

We started our conversation by talking about basic parenting questions.  About seven thousand smokescreens later, including talking about my view on homosexuality and whether or not Jesus is actually perfect, we finally got to the heart of the matter:  Cher realized that she was needy, and three weeks ago she cried out to a God who has proven to be infinitely personal to her.

(I realize that if Cher, in fact, doesn't believe that Jesus was perfect, it's hard to believe that He has become her perfection, but I think that Cher understands about as much as it is possible for her to at this point.  Either way, God knows her heart, and it wasn't my job to figure that all out but rather to just share the Gospel again, pointing out to her the way to the Savior.)

I was amazed at a few things:  1) how difficult it was for me to argue the very good points she was bringing up (Perhaps my exhaustion had something to do with my lack of clarity?), 2) how evangelistic this young believer was, albeit about some of the wrong causes, 3) how easily swayed by the culture she was and how influenced by it her beliefs are, 4) how eager she was to have a more mature believer speak into her life.

It was, no doubt, a divine appointment, and I'm thankful.  Lord, draw her close.  Guide her in the Truth, and teach her, Holy Spirit.

Sleep, it seems, is overrated, at least this morning.  Today, my sleep was to do the will of Him who sent me...what a privilege.

Family Vacation, the Here

GRANGEVILLE, ID--

We made it.  Phew!  That was a long drive, punctuated by a few...problems here and there, but overall, a really good drive.  I am glad that we didn't have to go much further, though, as we were all ready for the drive to be over.

Tomorrow morning, we start biking.  And by "we", I mean Hoffbeast.  And maybe Rex.  Rex will certainly bike for part of it, but he won't start off right away, and he may only do half or so...we'll see.  Either way, Daddy's dream of biking across the country is back on, after a six year hiatus.  SIX years--so hard to believe that it's been that long since we've been here, especially since Hoffbeast and I both remembered things so specifically as we were driving through today.

My favorite thing we saw today?  The motel parking lot in New Meadows, Idaho, where Rex and Neil both learned to ride their bikes on the same day in 2009!  If the circumstances had been a bit different, I would have had the boys get out and pose with their bikes in the exact same location as a favorite pic I have from all those years ago.

Our room tonight is wonderful--so spacious!  It's so great, in fact, that we are going to attempt to alter our housing for the week and stay here for one more night.

And now, let the Hofffamily Biking Adventure 2K15 commence!

Family Vacation, the Getting There

ROCK SPRINGS, WY --

The Getting There is sometimes the hardest part...we are well on our way, however, and tonight as my brood sleeps, I think of two years ago, our first night with our Bart.  I can't believe that he's two. CRAZY!  He is the sweetest boy I could have imagined, and I love him sooooo much!

Most of our day was spent cleaning and packing our apartment--I worked from the moment I woke up until the moment we finally pulled out of Ft. Collins at 5 p.m.  It was an amazing summer in FoCo, and I will be forever grateful for yet another year working on the conference team.  It was a special time for our family, and the importance of the topics covered at the conference cannot be overestimated.

Tomorrow, we drive to Idaho.  In the meantime, happy birthday, Bart and Aaron.  We miss you immensely, Aaron, but we again celebrate the joy of knowing that you are in the arms of Jesus, even as we are wishing you were here.

Remembering...as I think ahead...

Twenty years ago this night, I was in North Myrtle Beach having the most life-changing summer of my life.  I loved everything--well, nearly everything--about that summer.  Amy, Anne, and Tanya were the best roommates I could have hoped for, and God clearly chose them for me.

When the staff left, the project got even better, something that was rather surprising to me.  I didn't think it could possibly get better....it was already so wonderful.  But our staff did leave, and they left to join the masses out here...in Ft. Collins...long before I knew that I would be among the masses just two years later.  I would be on staff...and 20 years after that summer, would still be coming to CSU for our staff conference...but with my family in tow.  My children would remember Ft. Collins as a huge part of their growing-up years.  My heart would be challenged, refreshed, and renewed over the years here.

And here I sit again...the night before the masses, the quiet before the storm...full of gratitude for Your very good gifts--friends, talent, opportunities, love, You....the list goes on, and this summer again, I have been blessed beyond measure.

Thank you, Jesus.  You are worthy of my life.  Now. Still. Always.

Colorado Life - Our Apartment

And...we've been here a week.

Okay, I think I'm done with my post.  That's all I can write.  It's not that I don't have anything to write; it's that I have too much to write.

Oh, fine.  I'll try.

Let's start with our apartment.  Our 2-bedroom place (that is 1/6 the size of our house) is just perfect.  I don't know if it's a low expectation thing or what, but I just couldn't have imagined that it would be as great as it is.  We walked in the first day and found a bunk room...that's right, two sets of bunk beds in one room--and enough room for Bart's pack-n-play, too.  The kids are doing well with that, overall.  Once in awhile, they keep themselves up a little too long or wake the baby by their giggles, but that's okay...memories are being made, and it's wonderful.  (Note:  Please remind me of this when the baby wakes.  "It's wonderful, Hoffbeauty, remember?  Memories!")

The other great thing about our apartment is that the world is at our doorstep, and it is a true mission field!  Our apartment complex is mostly international student housing, and there are tons of children that live there.  One day, Neil came in and said, "I just played soccer with a kid from Brazil, one from Korea, and one from Libya."  We have many Muslim neighbors, and they are currently in the middle of Ramadan, their month of fasting from sun up to sun down, so even late at night, kids are out playing on the playground.

Yes, there is a playground...right outside our back door.  Like, I can go to the sliding glass door (that opens to a lovely little grassy space between ours and the next building) and yell for the kids, and they can hear me if they are playing on the playground, and the soccer field is just beyond.  There is also lots of room for biking, and the kids, especially the Littles, are loving that.

It is amazing how little we really need.  Our apartment is filled with our van-full of belongings as well as the things we had in Cru storage out here.  And stuff we've bought at Wal-Mart.  And that is more than enough.

We're having a great time, and we're so thankful for 32-J.  

Thank you, Lord, for exceeding our expectations and giving us more than we asked for.

Summer 2K15: The Adventure Begins

There. is. so. much. that has happened over the last few months. Highs and lows. Joys and pains.  It's nearly impossible (for a person like me) to summarize. So instead, for the sake of my blog and my deep desire to write this summer, I will skip it. Perhaps over time and posts, some of it will naturally be captured, but for now...

...our adventure has begun.

It wasn't that long ago that we didn't even know if we'd get the chance to go to Colorado as a family this summer; granted, we haven't been able to go for the entire summer, and my conference team job is smaller than it has been in the past, but very clearly, God has been in that and all of the decisions leading up to it.

As it is, we will spend a large chunk of our summer in our beloved Ft. Collins.  Currently, we are assigned a 2-bedroom apartment which will be...interesting.  Still praying that God provides a bigger one, but if not, we will survive...and even enjoy it a little bit, too.  :)

This evening, I sit on the couch at my parents', the couch that acts as bed for me when I'm here.  The couch I slept on for three what turned into seventeen nights in May. Today, I drove down with Bart, Tom, and Beth, and I'm so glad to be able to be here for a few days. Dad is signicantly better than he was when I left 2.5 weeks ago; the difference between now and just a month ago is rather astounding, actually.  I am thankful that God knows the future, and by Him we are all fully known. If I tried to figure out what is going to happen, I would go crazy--and I'd get it wrong anyway.  So I enjoy the
days, take each one as a gift, and trust Him with what will come.