Change is truly in the air! Over the past three weeks, our area has suffered some pretty major adjustments . . . between earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes and flooding, there has been a lot of rebuilding and cleaning up! Us Wards have been blessed to have come through all of those events really well. No damage to our home or flooding on the property. Some of our friends were not so lucky. I am constantly amazed by God's provision though. I was with a group of my girlfriends the night beofre the hurricane blewn into town, and as we were all chatting about what to expect, one of my friends flippantly said that maybe they'd get a new roof out of it! Well, they are getting one! No one wants trees to fall on their house, ever, but if there were ever any more deserving people of a new roof courtesy of their insurance company, it is them. God provided a way! It is His perfect provision that continues to amaze me. Speaking of provision, God has brought hundreds of relief workers here to our county to help with the clean up process. They are from the Southern Baptist Relief Teams. They are living in our church building, and sending out teams of Yellow-shirted Angels all over our county. There are chainsaw teams, and chaplains, a cooking team, and so many more volunteers! I have had the privilege to get to know a couple of them as I serve in the kitchen, and their untiring minds, hearts and bodies are a miracle to behold. God is certainly their strength! What a testimony of the greatest volunteer act ever. Christ's love is certainly being made know through them. A nice little side bit is that the relief workers have been saving all their food scraps and leftovers for our pigs! Ham and Turkey have never been happier! They need to get as fat as is possible in the next couple of weeks, as we will be moving very soon. Yes, I know, could this one blog post handle any more info??? Probably not, but I'm going to share anyhow. :) We have received orders to transfer to Whidbey Island, Washington. Karl has been out there over the past 10 days or so, and in that time has secured a home for us to move into. It's a fantastic home, and we are super excited to get there and see it for ourselves. Here's a link so you can take a peek!

www.militarybyowner.com/homes/WA/Oak_Harbor/Volunteer_Rd/MBO203229.aspx

We are very sad to be leaving Southern Maryland. We have been blessed with a fantastic Church Family here, and a huge Friend Family here. We are already having moments of sadness as we process all this move will mean for us. Yes, we are excited to be back closer to family, and farther away from things like Ticks and Chiggers and Copperheads (I killed one in the driveway last night!) but we will be missing this place like crazy. We will miss being able to shoot down to Charlotte for a long weekend. We'll miss our youth groups and choir, and homeschool groups and friends. We'll miss 5 months of hunting deer and practically non existent bag limits. We'll miss know there are friends who will run over, for any reason, at any time - even to check and make sure the Copperhead is dead! and friends who are more excited for first deer than I was! We'll miss a church that is the most warm and encouraging people we've ever had the privilege of serving and worshipping with. God is so good to have provided all of this here, please pray that He will already, be preparing in advance of our move - friends for us and especially the kids, in Wa, and a church where we can feel the same welcome and Love of God.

Okay, so I am going to stop now, before I become a blubbering mess right here at the desk! Just know that if you are here in MD, we love you and will miss you all terribly. If you are on the way to WA, I hope that we get to stop by on our way through and see you, because we miss you too! And if you are already in WA - we can't wait to get there and see you all again! Party at the WARDS house!