Even though we hadn’t been fired at this point, we knew our days were likely numbered. We had four special years in Nebraska and are thankful first and foremost that E.J. was born there. We are thankful for our church and friends and we miss them dearly. Over the summer we heard the song, “Blessings” by Laura Story, quite often. She poses some interesting questions to God in her chorus,
“what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?”
That was certainly the case for us. We were so sad about the circumstances around our departure at Nebraska. We lost sleep wondering where we would go next. We could only hope that the trials we were experiencing were a part of God’s mercy. It wasn’t until the end of the summer that we started to see through the raindrops, tears, and fears that the trial of leaving Nebraska was indeed God’s mercy.
If you would have told me in the day we took these pictures that in a few months I would be living in beautiful San Diego, Eric would be a head coach and our family would be blessed with a miracle pregnancy, I’m not sure I would’ve believed you. But that’s how great God’s mercy is. Simply defined it’s “An event to be grateful for, especially because its occurrence prevents something unpleasant or provides relief from suffering.”
Thankfully, God’s mercy is available to each and every person on earth.
So, we are no longer the “Newmans in Nebraska” but we will forever be thankful for the relationships we built, what we learned and how we grew and matured as a family while we were there.
So long Nebraska and thanks to our faithful blog readers. As Jude says, “May mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.”
