Memory Lane Monday #5-It's Official

As of yesterday it became official that we are moving on to a new chapter in the Panda Family's life. We announced to our church family that the Lord has told us to move on to new ground and start a new work for His glory. For the past three years PandaPop has been the Preschool and Children's Minister at a Southern Baptist Church. We have fallen in love with the people here. Learned how to become parents while here. Helped form our most amazing White Swans playgroup of Chinese girls. Watched our baby go from complete shock of entering her new world, new language, new smells, new looking kinds of people, new sounds to a little girl who asked, "But what about our old friends? We will miss them!" as I was explaining why and when we were moving.

As we are so excited to begin our new adventure, it is soooo bittersweet to leave people with whom we have developed relationships. For those of you reading right now from HRBC....you KNOW that you are dearly loved!!!! You all have been huge blessings to us!

PandaPop has accepted the position of Children's Pastor at a large Southern Baptist Church about 50 miles north of where we currently serve. That is not too far for occasional visits! Yea!! The huge tear-jerker and killer for me is leaving my adoring playgroup. God's hand put us together one by one and connected us through these amazing little daughters from China. We moms probably would never have met if not for our girls. What a missed blessing that would have been for all of us. We have truly made a life-time bond. Thank you, Lord. I think I am going to try to make our Monday Playgroup at least once a month so PandaGirl can continue to grow with memories of her "sisters".

The pictures above are from three years ago when we came for our official introduction to our current church. PG had been with us for ONE month! The little toot was in the hotel room bathroom just quietly giggling and we walked around the corner to find that she had taken ALL the tissues out of the box on the side of the counter and was on to the toilet paper!!! She was soooooo adorable! The bottom pic was the night in the hotel at our new church's introduction to the congregation. She was totally comfortable sipping on a chocolate malt and talking about her "new church, friends, and home".

It's the life of a minister. We don't want to move alot, but it's part of the "sign-up plan", if you will. We have wanted to put roots down at each place we have served, but it just was never the right time. Hopefully, this new church is going to be our "family" for a long time. We want PandaGirl to grow up in one area and not move around alot. She already has had enough change in her little life already. She needs stability. We have used this change as one more opportunity to show PG God's love for us and how His ultimate plan is for our good even when we don't understand the changes. We can trust His heart.

The next two weeks will be filled with lots of packing, emotions and busyness. Please keep us in your prayers as we transition to a new chapter in our life. Thanks!