the not so secret announcement!

maybe you have heard through the grapevine, or read it on secret fb posts..... but really it's no secret. we are currently in the process of setting our sites on moving home to the kansas city area. i use the term "home" loosely b/c "home" has become so many places for mark and me. before i married mark, i lived in one city my whole life (all wee 20 years of it). i only had lived in two different houses. after marrying mark, i have lived in 4 different cities, (olathe ks, florence ms, starkville ms, and now king george va) 4 different homes (our apartment, our love shack at TL, our tiny house in starkville, and now our 1970's split level). these numbers don't include our 10 week summer in french camp in 2005, and our 10 week summer in king george in 2008). needless to say, home has been so many different places for us. and the journey has not always been fun... being the new kid on the block can be deeply painful and tirelessly lonely. forging new friendships can be draining and slow going. but not for one single second would i trade the last 9 1/2 years of sojourning with my best friend. we have developed friendships that represent deep ties like family, we have seen God's amazing creation, we have witnessed His sovereign plan for our little family time and time again, and in the midst of the lonely days we have learned how to be the Mark Littlejohn Family. We have identified ourselves more clearly than ever before. We have learned how to create community in and around our home simply by being involved and being vulnerable. We have learned how to lay down roots in a short amount of time. But something we have not mastered, nor desire to master, is saying, "goodbye!" it never gets easier, always more painful. this time will be no different for us. we came to king george knowing we would only be here 2 years. we were going to come, commune, and be where God put us, but never in a million years did we intend on staging a life here that now, we can not imagine doing without. with that said, we know that we WANT and need to go home to kansas. i use "we" because mark wants it to be clear that i am not dragging him back to kansas, we did not have some deal that if i lived in his "home" for X amount of years that we would then return to the promise land of kansas :)  that's not how we work. mark is just as excited about the potential of moving back to kansas as i am. the opportunity has presented itself that with mark's degree we can move to another state and potentially find work there. we can also be another set of helping hands as more helpers are needed in my mom's care. we do not envision ourselves as swooping down and "saving the day" like a super hero, merely, we want to be there. we desire very strongly to be there. i want to have breakfast with my mom and dad. i want to see my sister's face as she tells me a story, rather then having to hear it over the phone. i want to see my nieces grow up, i want go see movies with my brother, i want to win countless games of pinochle against my brother-in-law, i want reconnect with friends that i left nearly ten years ago. i want to touch my mom, look at my mom, hug my mom, kiss my mom, hear her voice, listen to her laughter, as many times as i possibly can. i want my kids to know my family. i want my kids to know kansas.

with that said, we are beginning the process of looking for employment in kansas. please say a prayer as we know this could be tricky. we do not intend to move with out a job. so this is the first piece of the puzzle for us. ideally, we would like to be in kansas this summer. however, we are totally at peace with the timing God has for us. God has always been faithful to us. Never once has He disappointed us with His intimate knowledge of our hearts desire. i will not put my God in a box and limit Him. rather, we will eagerly wait and see what He has in store for the next chapter in the the Mark & Sara Littlejohn Family Story!

thanks for the prayers!
~s