A place to call home

We are all moved in to our new place in Hilton Head!  We are thankful that God has provided us a place within walking distance of the church and pretty close to everything else as well.  I am thankful that Andrew persisted in waiting for the "perfect place."  I was determined to decide and have things done, but he felt that we should wait.  Glad we did!

A spacious living room! 

Dinner and music, anyone?

I am hoping to *finally* have time to actually plan meals and cook more. 

Master bedroom

A sweet kitty

We have a guest room!  Please, please, please come and visit us!  This place turns into a nursery in January!

My favorite part of our new place is our back porch, complete with turtles and an alligator that live in the "lagoon".

A big summer (in Instagrams)

 It was a big summer for the Shanks!

June 

We traveled to France, Spain, and Italy with 17 SLCA students.

The packing begins!  Andrew has LOTS of books.

Baby Shank will be joining us in January!

July

Our *amazing*  Life Group help us load the U-haul that carried all of our things to a storage unit in Hilton Head.
We have WAY too much stuff :(  As we loaded, I found myself making mental vows to reduce future clutter and unnecessary items: "One thing in, one thing out," or "Give one thing away everyday."  We will see if this actually happens.

My last Cross Country event was our 3 day summer camp in Hendersonville, NC.
After 7 years of coaching, it is hard to imagine a fall without crunchy leaves and running through Latta Plantation.  So many of these students have impacted my heart and my life for always.

 We said goodbye to family and friends in Charlotte, including my sweet niece and nephew: Dakota and Cheyenne.

August

Andrew arrived in Hilton Head to begin work in July, and I joined in August.   It is hard to believe that we live in a place that most people come to vacation.  We both find it a little ironic to be living at the beach, since the place we most love is the mountains of Virginia.

Roomies!  We stayed with Tim and Stephanie Pitzer for 2 weeks
while we waited for our new place to open up. 

Visit with the Vickerys!  Some sweet Charlotte friends happened to be in Hilton Head with their family.  We hope to see lots more Charlotte friends soon!  (Note: please take that as a hint to come visit us!!)

We are finally moved in to our new place.  Every thing is unpacked and decorated.
And no home is complete without a kitty (Jemimah Butterworth)!!  We adopted her from the Humane Society.

During a short trip back to Charlotte, Christina and Camilla helped me register for baby items!  I am thankful to have sweet friends who have just recently had babies and can point me in the right direction.

It's a girl!!!  In a family full of boys, Shank girls are rare.
We are keeping the name a secret for now, but I can't wait to share!!!

 I am thankful to be making new friends in Hilton Head, especially friends who run!!!!

Antsy

I am starting to get antsy.  Why haven't we heard anything from RUF yet?

This summer, Andrew and I got approved to do RUF, the university campus ministry of the PCA.  During our final assessment meeting, we were given the stamp of approval, but we were also told not to put all our eggs in one basket.  They told us that they would be evaluating what campuses would need ministers, but that we would need to wait patiently during the process.

Well...we have been waiting...since July....

We are excited about the future.  Moving to a new place feels like an adventure.  Andrew and I both are looking forward to being "the Shanks" somewhere new.  Not just Andrew and Trish, still with our separate sets of social circles and obligations, like we are here.  We can't wait to have a new home with space in the backyard for a garden and maybe some chickens.  We are excited about having college kids in our home for Bible study and Wednesday night dinners.

But we haven't heard anything.  Not a peep.

I am getting antsy.  Not anxious antsy.  Excited antsy.  Can't wait to know where are going antsy.

Just the other week I was looking out my classroom window, thinking about the future, and admiring the bright red tree that sits close by. There was a little bluebird sitting on the end of a branch, looking out to the sky.  It hopped around on the branches.  It played with another bird.  It was beautiful.  It made my heart happy.  As it flew away my mind was filled with a gentle reminder:

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? - Matthew 6: 25-27

Uh oh!  Maybe I am not just antsy, maybe I am worried.  Busted!

My worry was uncovered a few days later as Andrew and I were on a walk.  As we talked RUF and the future, he mentioned how we would have to move in June to wherever we might be called.  What?  That soon?   I panicked.  My heart and my mind began to race.  My true feelings about the future bubbled to the surface.  We don't have very much money saved.  We will have not had time to raise all the money we will need.  What if there is a little Shank on the way?  What if we don't like where we are going?  What if they don't like us? What if, what if, what if?

Matthew 6...don't worry, your Father knows...

Maybe I am antsy because if I knew where we were going I could start looking for that house that has room for chickens and college kids.  And we could start looking for our new church where we could be "the Shanks."  If I knew where we were going I could at least start dreaming about it and planning for it.

Look at the birds...

Maybe it is a grace that we do not know yet.  If I knew, perhaps my mind and my heart would begin to move on from Charlotte, from my friends, from our church, from my job.  Maybe not knowing is a gift that allows me to continue being present here, to keep teaching, to keep investing, to keep living.

I don't want to check out mentally and fail to live fully in every moment of my last year of teaching at SouthLake- my students deserve better, my colleagues deserve better, the Lord deserves better.  I don't want to spoil sweet times with friends because my gaze has moved from them to the future- These moments with them cannot be regained.  I don't want my heart to move on, forgetting what is in front of me- There is so much now to be had.

I don't want to miss the now.  I will keep looking at the birds.

Good wine

Jesus performed his first miracle at a wedding at Cana in Galilee.  Two years ago, I was beginning to wonder if Jesus could perform a wedding miracle for me.

The parade of gentleman that had come in and out of my life had brought a lot of longing and hope and disappointment. But none of them was "the one."  They didn't like me.  Or I didn't like them, but couldn't let go, fearing that there would never be anyone else.  The dating rollercoaster was not much fun and it felt endless.  Hope, sad, hope, sad, Hoooooope, disappointment, sad.....hope? 

In the fall of 2011, I read about Jesus and the wedding at Cana.  In the middle of the wedding festivities the wine ran out.  When Jesus learned this, he told the servants to get six stone water jars and to fill them with water.

Just water.

That's what my best efforts felt like: water.

Just water.

I couldn't make marriage happen.  That's all I could offer: water.

I had tried everything to find the right man to marry- praying, meeting new people, dressing nice, going on lots of dates, being open and friendly.  Nada.

Just water.

I tried to talk myself into marrying a man that I only liked as a friend- "No one promised fireworks.  There are arranged marriages every day. Why not just settle?  You can grow to love him.  You can make this work."

Just water.

Trying to make a guy like me or make myself like him, was like trying to turn water in to wine...impossible.

Just water.

Back to Cana.  Once the stone jars had been filled to the brim with water, some was drawn out and taken to the master of the banquet-

When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now. John 2: 9-10

Jesus turned the water into wine.  Not just any wine, the BEST wine.

That's what I felt He wanted for me- the best wine. He wanted to bring wine to my wedding!  Wine, a symbol of joy and gladness and blessing.  Wine, a sign of abundance and fruitfulness.  I could wait and trust in Him to bring the right husband for me.  A good husband.  A godly husband.  A husband that I didn't have to talk myself into marrying.  The right husband.  Good wine.

And though I knew that it might be God's plan for me to remain single, I found my heart confessing: God, even if you never bring me a husband here on this earth, I know there is a much better wedding that awaits me, that awaits all who trust in Christ. One day there will be a wedding and a feast and  our true husband will celebrate the homecoming of his beautiful, spotless Bride.

I am thankful that Jesus performed the miracle of a wedding in Charlotte, North Carolina on September 29, 2012, bringing good wine and joy and gladness and blessing into my life.

And I look forward to the day when He will perform another miracle, a forever miracle, finally bringing His Bride home to the place that He has prepared for us.

You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.  Psalm 4:7

For your love is better than wine.  Song of Solomon 1:2

I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”  Matthew 26:29

 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,

“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
    the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult
    and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
    and his Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to clothe herself
    with fine linen, bright and pure”—

for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”  Revelation 19:6-9


Come quickly, Lord Jesus!