Changing

A lot has been going on in the Choronzy family. We have kept busy and time keeps flying by, but I think what stands out to me the most lately is how quickly things can change. It has been so fun watching Elijah grow and discover the world. He does something new everyday! Here are just a few of the new things Eli can do:

• Roll over. He can roll from tummy to back and is very close to rolling from back to tummy!
• Squawk like a bird. Elijah has become quite the screecher and has a wonderful happy version and a terrifying mad version.
• Eat rice cereal, and smack his lips adorably while doing so. :)
• Play! This has taken on a whole new meaning for Eli as his hand/eye coordination is improving and his tummy muscles are getting stronger as he works towards sitting up.

Don't let the look fool you, he enjoys eating real food!

What?

 The big changes, however, are taking place for our whole family. Tim's position as Youth Pastor at our church will be ending on June 30. Subbing has also ended for Tim due to the fact that school is out for the summer. He has taken on a new job for the summer working with high school students in Kalamazoo who have been hired to do odd jobs for the summer. Our biggest change is that Tim is applying to Grand Rapids Theological Seminary and we plan to move to Grand Rapids hopefully by this fall. It is a bittersweet feeling, leaving our current youth group where we really enjoy the group of students we have been able to work with, and looking towards the future with excitement as we watch God work out the details for a new job, seminary, and moving to a new city. It is also a bit scary, as change always is, for the same reasons. We don't know how or when God will work out all these details. We have always seen God provide in the past, but not always in our timing or in the way we expected. Please pray that we would seize this opportunity to see God's hand in our life. With all these changes, Tim and I cling to the fact that we serve an UNchanging God. The same God who can part seas, send manna from the sky, and raise the dead can surely handle meeting our needs so that we can live out His plan.

James 1:17 - "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."

I will leave you with a little performance from Elijah...

Perspective

The general mood around our house lately has been one of confusion, weariness, doubt; we have all been a little down. Elijah has been dealing with a virus and eye infection and has been waking up several times at night. Needless to say we have all been extra tired and cranky because of it. We have been dealing for awhile with uncertainty regarding Tim's job and it's been a confusing and sometimes discouraging time trying to discern what God has next for us. I speak for myself, and probably Tim, when I admit I have been wishing for things to be easier, less complicated. Wishing, perhaps, we could ignore God's calling and do things our way. But God has a way of putting things in perspective for us, sometimes hitting very close to home.

Two nights ago, Elijah was waking up at least every two hours. A hungry boy who only wanted to sleep in our arms, not his bed. I was exhausted, grumbling - sometimes out loud - about how Eli needs his own bedroom and if we only had this or that I'm convinced he would sleep better like he used to. Tim was gracious enough to listen and even get up to hold Elijah, all while dealing with a headache (I did not know this at the time) and composing a blog post in his head about how terrible parenting is. We had no idea that outside our window, around 5:00am, a massive fire had started in one of the nearby apartment buildings in our complex. I had heard sirens, but living on a busy street we hear them all the time so I thought nothing of them. We woke around 7:00am to my phone receiving a few texts and my mom calling - which I promptly ignored. All of my texts were the same message "Are you ok?" and Tim had a similar text as well. We had no idea what had happened. We never saw the fire, but we watched the news video online. There was footage of a building, which looked exactly like ours, engulfed in flames. It could have very easily been our building.

God protected us that night. He also protected each person in the burning building. But we didn't loose our home and all of our possessions. Looking around our apartment that morning I tried to think of what we owned that I would be devastated about if we had lost them in a fire. I came up with a very short list - nothing.

Nothing in this apartment truly matters to me except Tim and Elijah. It doesn't matter how many things we own or how big our home is. It doesn't matter if Tim works full time or part time, if money is plentiful or if we have to be creative just to get by. That's not the point. What matters is that we choose to do what God has called the Choronzy Family to do. We may not know what that is right now, but God hasn't left us. He was here protecting us the other night and He will always be here providing for us. If my relationship and Tim's relationship with our Lord is strong and thriving, if we are pleasing Him, then everything else will fall into place.

Please pray for those who lost their homes in the fire. 90 tenants lost everything. Pray that God would provide for them and that they would draw closer to Him because of it.

Here's a funny picture of Elijah since I made you read a lot. Congrats on getting to the end of this post! :)