Moving Forward

I recently found this picture, which spoke to me about the many changes that have gone on in my life over the past few months.  It made me realize that whether I wanted to or not, I needed to keep moving forward.  Move forward with sorting the house for relocation, moving to a new state, a new church, a new way of life...20 years of Army life has certainly kept us moving forward!  We've spent the past seven years in Europe so returning to the "norm" of living in the U.S. has been a HUGE change for us, especially the kids, who have essentially been raised overseas.  And now that we're here, there's still more movement, more change.  Joe is getting ready to deploy again, Alex is looking at attending college away from home, and Jordan is now in junior high school...it's those moments that make me want to stop time or slow it down rather than move on because I don't want to miss something important.  I'm excited for all the changes and the new adventures life holds for me, for my family.  So here's a few upcoming changes for the Nigg Family:

*Joe's deployment is imminent...obviously I cannot give particulars but I ask for prayer as we transition to being Joe-less once again.  The kids have been wonderful throughout our move here but we have still not found a church home or that special group of kindred spirits which we seem to find at each duty station.  (Well, there's Mike and Kati but they're kindred spirits from Hawaii so they don't count as making new friends. They're family now so that's different!)  I really need to get Jordan involved with art classes or music lessons or sports and Alex is still searching for a job.  The move has taken its toll on our time and finances so I'm hoping that things will settle enough that we'll be able to get involved with more activities.

*In two weeks, I'll be resigning from Stampin' Up! and starting a new job.  SU! has been a huge part of my life over the past seven years, with so many wonderful experiences and wonderful people met along the way.  For quite some time, I have wanted to take my papercrafting business in a different direction.  The time and attention I've had to dedicate to our move to Georgia meant temporarily putting those plans on hold.  Phase One:  I've been hired by Michael's Arts & Crafts as a scrapbooking and papercrafting instructor, as well as working in the store part-time.  With Jordan still in school, I didn't want to re-enter the corporate world and work full-time, plus I wanted to work somewhere doing something I love.  Working for Michael's means I can implement Phase Two sometime after the 1st of the year:  open my own Etsy shop!  At different times I've had requests to sell my cards and crafts, as well as kits to make some of my projects.  Having a Michael's employee discount certainly won't hurt that goal :)

*In just a few short weeks, I'll be taking Alex to tour a college that she's super excited about attending next year.  It's only four hours away from us, which means visiting back and forth will be easy, and the music program is phenomenal!  She seems to finally have her feet on the path she wants to take in life, which is exciting, but nerve-wracking for me as a mom.  Parents joke about pushing their kids from the nest but the reality of seeing our babies spread their wings and fly is no laughing matter.  So much has to happen between now and when she leaves for school, much of which I will be handling without Joe to support me.  Alex and Jordan are very close so it will be a difficult transition for him as well.  I pray for wisdom and strength as we look ahead to the next chapter in Alex's life.

There's more I can say about other changes going on in our family right now but I've attempted to restrain myself with the highlights.  Verbosity is certainly one of my many weaknesses but I can never be accused of not communicating, that's for sure!  I'm excited to revive my blog and use it as a means of keeping my sanity over the next year.  Hopefully, you'll hang on for the ride!  Thanks for dropping by and sharing in my latest musings.