New home

We have officially moved into our new home this past Tuesday. It was a very crazy day with lots of activity and boxes everywhere!! It is funny how the movers box up everything even large plastic bins with things inside. We continue to organize things more everyday. Making a house your home definitely doesn't take overnight. :-) We are having the house painted which is slowing things down a little but we think that it will give our house more character. Two of the bedrooms have been painted already and our painter is very good!! Lily and James are adjusting to the new house well and love their playroom and bedrooms. Things are going well here and we love exploring our new home state.

Moving in

We arrived in Shiprock on Monday, July 26. We were very busy that day with setting up our new post office box, getting a storage unit and getting the key to our new home. The kids were so tired that they finally we able to sleep a full 12 hours!(Something that they hadn't been able to do in several nights of travel from one hotel to the next.) The first thing that Lily said when she stepped out of the car to see our new home was "Sandcastle!" because our entire "lawn" - front and back yard - is sand. She quickly busied herself along with James sitting down in the sand and playing in it. We also have a neat sand box with a thatched "roof" and built in seat in the back yard that the kids quickly attached themselves too as well. They seem to really like their new home and are finding all the positive aspects of it!

The movers came the next day at 7:00 am to bring in all the boxes. Wow, what a job to unpack everything! We worked non-stop on Tuesday from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm. We tried to unpack as many things as possible with the movers help so that they would take as many of the boxes with them instead of us having to dispose of the boxes and packing materials. We are so glad that we sorted through and disposed of many things that either we didn't need or didn't have room for in our new house before we packed up in Indiana. We can't imagine how much more overwhelming the unpacking process here in Shiprock would have been if we wouldn't have started downsizing already. God had really been working on our hearts for our move in terms of letting go of things that we really didn't need. Now the fruits of this change in heart have blossomed in that we feel that this is now our new home. We have complete peace that this is where we should be at this point in our lives.

We are very happy with our new home! It is much smaller than our home in Indiana but it is still big enough for the 4 of us. We have 3 bedrooms in which we were able to fit all of our bedroom furniture. We are especially pleased that we were able to fit our entire bedroom suit in the master bedroom and didn't have to part with any of it. We have a gentlemen who is the spouse of one of the internal medicine doctors at the hospital painting all the rooms for us. Lily's room will be a pale yellow which will compliment her Tinkerbell theme and James' room will be a subtle blue which will compliment his Thomas the Train theme.

We encountered our first dust storm late on Tuesday afternoon right after the movers left. Thanks the Lord that it happened after we had all the items inside the house. How perfect God's timing always is!! A thunderstorm was rolling in and we noticed that the sky was beginning to appear brown. Ryan noticed right away that it must be a dust storm approaching. We made sure that all the windows were shut and it quickly passed in about 10 minutes followed by some much needed rain.

Thank you for all your prayers during our move. We praise God for our safe travels and smooth moving process. The moving crew both in Indiana and here in New Mexico was outstanding. The driver, Matt, and one of the moving crew, Rodney, were both Christians who spoke openly of their faith. They were truly an answer to our prayers and watched over us as Christian brothers during our big move. This is yet another example in our lives at how God not only answers our prayers for a safe move but goes above and beyond what we ask for to provide our needs and give us comfort and peace in times of uncertainty. To God be all the glory and praise!!

Almost there!

We are now staying in Gallup, New Mexico. We finally took the kids swimming in the hotel pool and they had a blast. It has been a long 4 days of 5-7 hours of riding in the car each day. They have been such troopers and have done very well so they deserved a long-awaited dip in the pool! We are very excited to be less than 100 miles away from our new home in Shiprock. It will take us less than 2 hours to arrive in Shiprock from Gallup on Monday.

We have been traveling along Highway 40 along the northern edge of New Mexico. The scenery has been breathtakingly beautiful! When we stopped in Albuquerque for lunch on Sunday, it was 95 degrees. Then we starting driving to Gallup when a thunderstorm rolled in. The temperature immediately dropped 30 degrees! The rain storm was really cool to watch because you could see enormous bolts of lightning in the distance and how sheets of rain came down sideways in the strong desert winds miles away. We encountered our first construction delay on the entire trip outside of Albuquerque but it only pushed us back by about 45 minutes. The red rock formations just outside of Gallup are beautiful. We will download a few of them on our website - what a beautiful example of God's perfect and beautiful creation. It is amazing how the New Mexico landscape that it is so simple is also so beautiful and awe-inspiring. Looking out at the landscape, it brings about both a sense of adventure and calming. It sounds weird to say but, if you haven't been out to the Southwest, you have to come out and experience it for yourself. :-)

We made it to New Mexico!!

We have finally crossed the border into New Mexico!!! We are staying tonight in Tucumcari, New Mexico just past the Texas panhandle border. The scenery is beautiful - much different than Indiana but beautiful in its own way. Krista was listening to Rich Mullin's songs - Step by Step and others which was the perfect way to enter the New Mexico landscape. (The World as Best as I Can Remember It Volumes 1 and 2 by Rich Mullins - Give them a listen. They're awesome!). We plan to head to Gallup tomorrow and then Shiprock on Monday.

God's providence during the move

We wanted to share with you several ways that God's hand has been so intrigal in our move. God's timing and provision during our times of need is always perfect! First of all, we sold our house and only had to pay 3 days rent before we moved on July 23rd. Praise God that we can leave for New Mexico free from the burden of having to sell the house from so many miles away! Second, the moving crew that we have working for us has been great. The driver, Matt, that has been assigned to us handed me his business card. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the name of his moving company, "The Master's Hand" and a verse from Colossians on the back. We have openly talked about our faith with him during this move and he talks about his faith and his family as well. How awesome that God sent a fellow brother in the faith to help watch over our possessions during this big transition! Third, the air conditioner fan went out in Amarillo, Texas today with the temperatures being over 100 degrees. We only had about 100 miles until we reached our hotel stay. We were preparing to transfer items between vehicles so the kids could ride in the Prius with air conditioning. We decided to eat supper first and let the car sit to see if the fan would kick back in after sitting for a while. Ryan prayed for our meal and asked God to make the air conditioner work again. When we finished eating, we turned on the car and the air conditioner fan worked perfectly. Surely a miracle in the Texas heat!!

The end of an era

It is with great sadness that the Johnson family announces the loss of one of our own - "Bunny". Lily's best buddy, "Bunny", went missing several weeks ago and we feverishly looked for him to no avail. We were hoping that Bunny would come up in the packing but no luck. Perhaps Bunny was packed up without us knowing it. We will keep you all posted as we know that you will all be losing sleep over his disappearance. :-) James' bear is doing quite nice filling in Bunny post as needed for Lily (thanks Aunt Joan and Uncle Don!).

Illinois and Missouri

We left O'Fallon, Illinois on Friday morning and headed toward St. Louis with our destination that night being Tulsa, Oklahoma. We originally intended to go around St. Louis but road construction detours led us through the city. It ended up working out nicely because we drove right past the St. Louis arch!! The drive through Illinois was scenic with old-growth forests on rolling hills surrounding the interstate that cut right through them.

In Tulsa, we stayed at an Embassy Suites. It had been quite a while since Krista had stayed in an Embassy Suites (her senior year in high school!). James was quite impressed with the view from the balcony outside the rooms and the elevators with the glass windows. He said "up" every time that we got in the elevator regardless of which direction we were heading!

It is Saturday morning and we are off to the lonestar state of Texas.

We're off to New Mexico!

We said farewell to New Haven yesterday and are on our way to Shiprock. It was very hard for us to say goodbye to our family and friends. We will miss you all. We said one last goodbye to our first home. Lots of great memories in that house - the excitement of being first time homeowners, Ryan doing such a great job doing all the landscaping, bringing both of our babies home from the hospital, birthday parties and holidays...too many memories to list. But there is a time and season for everything and the time for our stay in that house has ended. As we prepared to depart, we prayed a prayer of thanksgiving to God for the gift that He gave us in our home and prayed that it will be such a blessing and gift to the new owners.

We stayed in O'Fallon, Illinois last night just outside of St. Louis. We had a fun day yesterday making a stop at Ryan's alma mater - Indiana State in Terre Haute. Krista had never been to this campus before and was impressed with its beauty and character. The kids, especially James, was quite impressed with the largel water fountain and the mini ampitheater seating surrounding it that provided the perfect ramp/race track for the kids to work off energy before getting in the car and getting to the hotel. At first, Lily didn't want to go to Daddy's school. She just wanted to go to the hotel. But once she saw the fun that was waiting for her around the fountain, she quickly changed her mind and waiting to go to the hotel was acceptable.

Today we plan to stay in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Our drive has been good thus far. We saw storms in the distance as we drove but they didn't reach us until we were in the hotel. Thank you for all your prayers and support. God bless!!!

Last weekend in Indiana

The final countdown has begun. Less than 1 week to go until we depart for New Mexico. We have been very busy sorting through everything in the house. We continue the hard work of downsizing to half the size house that we have now. We reason that it is easier to give away things here rather than take it with us and figure out what to do with it there if it doesn't all fit in the new house. Hopefully, it will make the move less stressful. We have started to say our final goodbyes to family and friends. We will so miss all of you but we will back for visits...promise!!

Less than 2 weeks to our move!

We are in the homestretch now! Less than 2 weeks before the moving van comes to load everything up and head to New Mexico. All the anticipation and waiting is almost over. Thank you to all our family and friends who have shown us so much love and support through the moving process! We will keep you posted as the day to leave approaches. We love you all!!
God bless,
Ryan & Krista