It’s really coming to an end. We have so many things to be thankful for. We are very exited because Erika is graduating from grad school today. She has put in two long years to earn her Master’s in Clinical Social Work. I am so proud of her! This is something that I could not have done. God has definitely helped us to get through it. And now looking back it’s hard to believe it’s already over.

This afternoon Erika’s parents arrive for her graduation. We are excited to share this great event with them tonight, but we also know that with them comes a moving trailer. We will finish packing the rest of our belongings today and finalize various details so that we can make our first big move tomorrow to Ohio. We praise God for their willingness to help us move.

We are trying to wrap our heads around knowing that we have to say goodbye to the city we have fallen in love with over the past 8-10 years. I will miss the traffic (well maybe not that so much), the skyline, the lakefront, riding my bike in the streets, the accessibility of everything in the city, my Tony’s grocery store, and our home of 5 years.

Most of all we will miss our home church here in the city and all of the friendships that we have made. We will miss doing life with our New Life church family. They have been with us through so much these last 6 months when our journey to Italy began and have been great people to lean on. I will miss all the people from New Balance, which I came so close to over the last 6 years. They became like a second family to me. Thanks New Balance family.  I know Erika will miss the kids who she grew to love from her internship at a south side school. She invested so much heart, time and energy as she counseled them over the past year and now she has to let go of them and her ability to be involved in their lives. She also made great relationships there with her co-workers. Not to mention all of the other people we’ve met and friends we’ve made the past several years along the way. It is going to be hard for us to say goodbye. We are in the process of mourning through it all. It’s bittersweet because we know that God has called us to this. We are sad, but are also exited all at the same time. We know that with saying goodbye also comes new hellos. We will have to wait and see what God has for us after Chicago. But for now we will enjoy the last 2 days with the city that we love and the people we care so much about.

We appreciate your prayers this weekend as we make this big transition!

Thank you Lord for the last 6 years You gave us in Chicago and for all the people you brought into our lives. You have taught us so many things through each and every one of them. We pray that you may bless all of them and keep revealing yourself to them each and every day. We praise you for who You are and know that You will do your will in our next stages of life. You are so good! Amen.

Pictured above is a picture of our beautiful city. This past week we took a walk on the lakefront and wanted to capture the view one last time. Enjoy the view, I know we did! And as you can see below we enjoyed our last date day in the city before the move!