A Move and a PRAISE REPORT

Oh boy, do I have some thoughts for you all today!!

It is currently the first week of school, and for the first time in my life, I dropped my kids off, and drove away. I have a lot of feels. It feels….weird. It doesn’t feel all bad, or all good. I’m trying not to feel guilty, I think. I am also thrilled and want to be intentional about my time.

Anyways, this post is actually about something- two things – that happened last week. Read to the end for the update on the pilot that I referred to in my Wednesday post 🙂

On Thursday morning, we woke up early, loaded up the van and drove the 5ish hours to Theo’s childhood home in Michigan. Theo’s parents bought this home when he was 9 and have lived there for the past 26 years. They raised a bunch of children there, and then when the kids moved out, they opened up their home to house medical students as renters. But, it is a big house and recently they have decided that it was time to move.

For now, they will be moving to their lake cabin which is also in Michigan. For the last 10 years or so, when we go up to visit Theo’s parents, we primarily just go to the cabin. None of the “kids” have really been to the main house in YEARS!

We arrived around 11:30am on Thursday morning and jumped right in to helping load the U-Haul and pack/clean up the last minute stuff in the house. It was wild to see the house so empty after it has always been SO FULL- full of life, full of rooms, full of memories.

We scarfed down some pizza for lunch, and continued to load. Around 3, the men had loaded the whole U-haul, plus my van, plus my MIL’s truck. Theo’s Dad had to head off to work so Theo drove the U-haul, I drove our van, and my MIL drove her truck up north. It was about a 1.5 hour drive and we headed straight to the storage unit to start unloading. Once we started unloading, we realized that we couldn’t stop because otherwise all the stuff would just be spread out in the parking lot. We wanted to load the storage unit in an orderly way that would make it easier to access different items, so we had to pull out all the stuff that would go in the front of the storage unit so that we could put the boxes and totes in the back of the storage unit. It was a whole situation, and let’s be honest…I think we were in over our heads! Anyways, it took us 3 hours to unload the whole U-haul into the storage unit but WE DID IT. I was sore down to the bones in my toes. We were SO TIRED and hot and thirsty and hungry. Imagine what a sight we were stumbling into a Chinese buffet at 8pm. Haha!

Before we left the big house, we grabbed some pictures:

I actually got ready for my wedding in this house, and Theo and I had our first look out on the front lawn. We tried to recreate some of those photos!

This was Theo’s room, and the room where I got ready:

First look recreation:

14 years later!

Of course, moving can bring up a lot of feelings! Since we didn’t have much of a connection to this house, it didn’t feel so sad for us. But I know this is a huge change for Theo’s parents!

And for me, it reminds that I will most likely never get to visit my childhood home. I grew up in a rural village in Niger, West Africa. When we lived there, it was a safe place, but since it is so close to the Sahara desert, it is now a target for t*rr*r*sts and Westerners aren’t even allowed to visit. Up until November of 2025, Westerners were still allowed to live in the capital city, Niamey. But in October of 2025, our family friend Kevin was kidnapped from his home (by the afore mentioned individuals- not to name names but let’s just say they are not friendly). He’s a family friend and knows my parents very well. So let’s just say I know their family well. It was crushing when he was kidnapped because that is very scary- but also, it was no longer safe for missionaries to be in the country, and all missionaries were ordered to leave by their home governments. So now not only will I most likely never visit my childhood home, it’s now a closed country and I will probably never be able to visit my childhood country.

I know it seems weird that I’m writing about all this now. Why not write about it back in October when it happened? Well, we were asked to not say anything online because they did not want any attention directed to the matter, or the bribe level increases. Are you following me with this story- I’m being a little bit indirect and hoping you can read between the lines). But I assure you that people in high levels of the American government knew and were on it.

Soooo…this leads me to Friday morning. After all that crazy moving and thinking about childhood homes, etc, I woke up on Friday morning to a text from my Mom that said: KEVIN HAS BEEN RELEASED.

After almost 10 months in captivity, he was released!!!!!!

Here is a news article about it.

We didn’t know any more details, and they asked us to respect the family privacy, but I did manage to see a picture of Kevin reunited with his wife. And then the President posted this on his socials:

I don’t usually talk about politics here, but I’m not a fan of our current administration. But this news?!? Oh my goodness, we have been praying so hard for this and I am so grateful that he has been released!!! Also, I can’t imagine what Krista thinks about the President of the United States calling her “beautiful”! She really is, but I bet never in a million years did she think that would’ve happened!

I mean- just LOOK at this picture:

TEARS.

Here is a short video of Kevin shortly after he was released.

Beyond that, I don’t know much else. I’m sure that Kevin and Krista and their kids will need some serious time to rest and recover and process all that they have been through. Even though his captivity is over, I know that the recovery portion has just begun and I’m sure that they would appreciate your prayers!

Praise.the.Lord!!!!!