We're Home!

View from the plane arriving in NYC

On Friday evening January 11th, all four of us finally arrived in New York City. I came up on Tuesday to start getting the apartment ready and to meet our movers. Katie, PJ and Natalie all arrived Friday evening. It is such a surreal feeling to think that the journey that we have been planning for over the last year has now begun!

The day after I moved in I received a call from a new friend, Kareem. He is an associate pastor at our partner church here in the city. His first words to me were, "Welcome Home!" I so appreciated that greeting because that has been the prayer of our hearts over the last couple of months. We have asked the Lord to not only make NYC our physical home, but also our emotional, relational and spiritual home. And I can tell you that He is answering that prayer.

The ride home in traffic

Our first weekend here in the city was filled with new experiences. Even though we didn't bring a car with us, I rented on to go pick up Katie, the kids, the dog and 9 bags of luggage. But I can tell you, after one experience of driving in NYC traffic, I am so excited to know that I do not own a car in this city. We also got to our first glimpse of the weekend subway experience. We made a trip to Ikea to finish some home shopping. It took us 2 hours to get home because certain subway lines weren't running or were running in weird patterns!

But even in spite of the many new things we are experiencing, God is truly making our apartment, our neighborhood and this city feel like home! Thank you so much for your prayers and partnership. It is such an encouragement to know that we have so many people praying for us daily! I've included a few pictures of our new apartment below.