week TWO in sunny California

Sunday officially made it 2 weeks since arriving in California and the time is really flying by. This week felt so great though, despite having a little city life cultural shock initially, we all started to feel a little more settled and comfortable this week. I drove quite a bit, even on the big fast interstate haha. I can find my way to Target and back as well as to the grocery store without the GPS.. come on now, that is good right..? I have had several friends and family members tell me that they were praying that I wouldn't be fearful. These people know me well, I am the biggest wimp when it comes to trying new things, high things, dark things, fast things, wet things... well the list could go on but you get it. God has done amazing things in just two weeks though because I can honestly say that I don't feel afraid. Jade is still working nights for now, but I have slept really well the past few nights. I made several outings with the kids this week while Jade slept and I actually enjoyed exploring, getting lost and finding my way back. God is so good. I know that I will still have unexpected things happen and I will probably have to continually be in prayer over it, but for now it feels good to not be battling fear. God has blessed us so much though, the town/suburb that we are in is so great. I have heard so many people say how safe it is here and how much they love it. I haven't seen any sketchy people or house anywhere near our apartment and everyone has been so nice. Another huge blessing has come in our tenants. We have people from all nationalities, all ages, all vocations.. it is quite a mix.. but I guess that is LA for ya :) The amazing thing is that so many of them are Christians and are doing their best to live for Jesus here in Glendale. I am so excited to get to know them better! The people here are so different than what I expected. You always hear about "those Californians"and how crazy they are.. But Jade and I have been absolutely blown away by how kind, generous and friendly we have found them to be. I went to borrow soy sauce from a lady a few doors down... this is SO not like me, but I literally had the veggies and chicken stir fried, the rice ready and then realized I had no soy sauce and nothing to even substitute.. so anyway, this woman ended giving me a whole 1/2 gallon of soy sauce as well as a big thing of ice cream for dessert.. I was totally blown away. We found out a few days before coming here that there were no other kids in our building and I was worried of how people would take our kids, but another neighbor brought them popsicles and came down just to meet them :) I also met another tenant that just had a baby 3 months ago and is going to stay home with her baby! So there IS another kid here.. :)

We got to visit Santa Clarita Baptist Church where our good friends, Scott Basolo is the pastor. They had a music group from The Master's College called Messiah perform an outdoor concert on their lawn. It was so incredible! It was so special for me to see my kids smile and go straight to "Auntie" Karyn Basolo. It was a really encouraging night for both Jade and I!

Our boxes are all unpacked, there are just a few pictures still to hang, but we are getting close. We were able to spend a little more time just hanging out with the kids.. we took them both swimming yesterday and they LOVED it. Below are a few pictures from our week..

This day Will was sleeping so I just took Halle into the pool, she thinks it is pretty cool to have a pool! So do I :) She was cracking me up in her goggles.. and no, she didn't ever put her head under the water to actually use them :)

Happy girl on a hot day

It is a small pool, but so so great!!

Jade had good intentions of coming swimming with us, but he had worked the whole night before and once he laid down he was sound asleep haha...

The black door to the left of the plant is our front door.. pretty close to the pool eh ?? :)

As I have said before, we have all had to get use to spending more time in the car as everything seems to take so much longer here :) I pulled the camera out to entertain the kids are Jade went into the bank to set up our new account.

"so big"

haha

Riding bikes in the parking garage under our building :)

Big boy wanting to ride all by himself :)

Halle being bored in the car

So here is the courtyard.. this is about directly above where we were riding bikes in the garage. :) Our apartment is on the bottom floor in the back right corner.. kind of down the little hallway.

Halle exploring a little

A little room to run :)

Hopefully I will have pictures of the inside of our apartment by next week :)