This last year has been a rough one for us as a family. In February of 2020, we decided to look for a new house with some acreage. We loved having a small garden and wanted to expand, have an orchard and I wanted a space that I could refinish furniture without taking over the garage. We put a few offers on places, but we couldn't buy anything because we were a contingent offer. After a lot of praying, we decided to sell our home and live with my parents until we found another house to put an offer on. We put our house up for sale and it sold in less that a week. We moved out and unfortunately things didn't work out with my parents. So, we ended up moving to Union, OR. By then, COVID was in full force--Tyler was working from home and hardly any new houses were coming on the market.
We stayed with Tyler's parents for about 6 months before moving into a month to month rental in Nampa, Idaho. During that time, Tyler began looking for a new job. His work had gotten new leadership and he was frustrated with the new leadership. They expected him to work 60+ hours instead of his normal 40 hours a week and they were putting a lot of extra stress on him as a team lead. He eventually had enough and quit. He feels pretty justified in quitting though. He just got word that more than 50% of the developers in the company quit for the same reason he did. It got to the point a few months ago where they were losing more employees than they were able to hire. So, he got a new job with a company called Vynyl. So far he's enjoying it. He's been working with them since January of 2021 and it seems to be a good match.
During that time, Lydia had unexplained swelling in her ankle and she was limping for months. We saw lots of doctors, did lots of x-rays and lots of blood tests. After a couple months of testing (thank goodness we were in Nampa, close to doctors) we found out that Lydia has Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. It could last her whole life, or she could go into remission at any point. We started medicine twice a day to take down the swelling and she finally started walking without a limp. It was a difficult time for us as parents. I mean, how do you tell an almost 2 year old that she might have this pain the rest of her life and how do you explain that there's nothing we can really do? Tyler and I were both emotional messes. She's doing a lot better right now though, she rarely has enough pain that she cries now and her swelling has gone down quite a bit. It hasn't gone down enough that her rheumatologist is satisfied though, so she will begin steroid shots soon and hopefully that will help her manage her pain more effectively long term.
After moving the Nampa, the people we were renting from allowed us to stay about 6 months in the house fully furnished before they decided to sell their house. So, we were getting stressed trying to figure out where to go next. We had a few options, but we decided to move in with my parents even though they already had a full house. We moved in and within a short time we got a better opportunity for a month to month rental (in case we find a home to buy) that we can be in as long as we need. That is such a relief to us! We will be moving in to the home in the middle of June. The only ironic part is that it is in the neighborhood we sold our house in. So we're very humbled to go back--slightly ashamed--but it should all work out without too much embarrassment.
During this time too, we have had a lot of good things happen. We feel like we were guided and directed in all the places we have lived. We were able to help others and they were able to help us too. Kaylee learned to read (she was 4) and now at age 5 she is reading chapter books and absolutely loving it! We've learned that we don't need as much stuff as we thought. All our stuff has been in storage for a year and we only miss one or two things (our bed and piano). We've learned that the most important things are family and living life every day. Stress keeps us from living life, so it's important to spend every day trying to be happy and not dwelling on bad circumstances.
We're still hoping to find a place to buy and we've put offers on homes. However, we are always being outbid. We might just have to wait a good long while before we can actually buy anything. But, the dream is still there. We pray that God directs our path and that we will be able see where he is directing us.
We love and miss you all!
