Home Buying Trip

Our whirlwind began with a phone call from Jason's old college roommate. It quickly developed into a phone call with the pastor from his church and then an on-site interview/visit. Before we knew it, Jason had received a call from Salem Lutheran Church in Tomball, TX, desiring him to serve as their Director of Children's Ministry. This was a very difficult call for us to wrestle with, as our Billings circle of friends had become such a wonderful family to us over the past 8 years. We have loved living in Montana! On the other hand, we felt a strong pull to serve at Salem, and a move to Texas would bring us much, much closer to family.

After several weeks of much discussion, prayers, and tears, Jason officially accepted the call to Salem, and we started to make preparations for our move. One of our largest to-dos was to find a home in Texas. Right after Easter, our entire family flew down to Houston to begin the real-estate search. This long-weekend visit was full of gatherings at the church and time with our realtor. Thankfully, we had LOTS of willing family members to watch Cody and Jaden during these busy days. Grandpa and Grandma were still in Spring following cousin Isaiah's baptism, so it was an extra blessing to have their help too! Here, Grandpa builds a Duplo castle with Cody...

...and, another day, shows him how to use the toy cash register.

Grandma played cars and trucks with the boys,

and read a few stories to them.

Aunt Kim had some great ideas for playtime with Mommy and Daddy away. They easily filled a whole table up with play-dough activities.

Aunt Chelsea got some great giggles out of Jaden and Cody...

...and read stories to a whole clan of Schleicher boys!

Ryan took his cousins out for a spin in the cul-de-sac. He is quite the accomplished driver for a 3-year-old!

Cody took a turn at the wheel, too. Thankfully Ryan was patient with Cody's amateur driving!

Jaden and Cody enjoyed some cuddle time with their cousin Nathan. We can tell that Nathan is used to being held by other little boys! He was a patient kiddo. :)

Aunt Amy liked having some Nathan-time also. It's fun to hold such a smiley boy!

A big side benefit of our trip was having the chance to meet our newest little nephew Isaiah for the first time. 

Jaden and Cody were very excited about holding their 1-month-old cousin. 

He's certainly a precious little guy!

We are sure that Isaiah will get along quite well with all of his cousins. Look at this group of Schleicher boys!

This is always my favorite part of the kid-photos... seeing all the parents acting completely goofy behind the camera!

Although our time with family was quite brief during this trip, we enjoyed the time together. We even got in on a special Alumni Family Picnic that Jonathan had organized for Concordia. It was our first official Texas crawfish boil.

God certainly worked through the details in our home search... we found a house that we LOVED within just a couple days. (Jason had been eyeing this same house online for quite some time. We were thrilled that it was still on the market!) Because our Montana home had sold quickly (again, another wonderful God-given blessing), we were able to put an offer on this home AND get an inspection done before our flight back to Montana.

This trip certainly made our upcoming move seem a lot more official. We were filled with a mixture of excitement, sadness, nervousness, and exhaustion as we thought about our transition ahead. 

Thankfully, we serve a God who never changes, a God who promises His presence and love despite our life circumstances. Jesus' strength and peace is such a comfort during times of earthly change. We knew we would need to depend heavily upon Him in the months to come. Our new adventure was just beginning!