arriving

We have arrived...in Lombard that is!

On Saturday, we left Holland a little bit after 9am with the Jeep, van and UHaul full of stuff. My parents and brothers rode with us, Eric and Angela met us there, Andrew's mom met us and my uncle Roger (who also lives in Lombard) came and helped us out. We fit everything in the small apartment and have found a somewhat-comfortable arrangement of furniture. Our bookshelves and display shelves act like walls to separate our "bedroom wing" from the "living room wing." It's definitely cozy!

Today was Grad Orientation at Wheaton, and as a new graduate student, I participated, naturally. The day started with an opening address from Dr. Jerry Root. He spoke about the importance of authenticity in community and how the only way to reach people for Christ is to be authentic. He is also speaking at GradChapel on Wednesday and at an event on Friday night.

After the opening address we had meetings with our departments. There are about 17 people in my Christian Formation and Ministry (CFM) program. I really enjoyed seeing how people came from all over the country and the world. There are five different concentrations within the program and about eight people in my Student Development concentration. I'm looking forward to getting started with actual classes on Thursday! I hope that it's an academic challenge, but also hope that I'm not in over my head.

While I was at Orientation all day, Andrew spent the day in the apartment. He cleaned out our "spa" so it's usable now :) For those of you who haven't been in our apt--our tub has spa jets that are functioning, but weren't exactly sanitary.

The other exciting thing in our lives is that Andrew has an interview with a local Christian Reformed Church on Saturday!!!!! It's from 10am-2pm. We're so thankful right now and are praying that his time with the committee and other people from church will go well!

Overall, we've been feeling a little overwhelmed by the move and are beginning to realize that we actually live here (like when I paid $7 for a quart of ice cream tonight!). We miss our community in Grand Rapids, and I miss my family in Holland, but we are glad to have each other. That's one of the plus-es about being married--wherever you go, your best friend comes too!