Home.

Home is something that's becoming an increasingly relative term to me lately.

I have always been someone who takes great solace in my physical home, wherever it may be. If I have some family pictures up, a good Glade plug in smell, some color and good decor, and most importantly, my family there with me I'm good to go. It's a refuge in a busy life. It's probably a woman thing- we take pride in our homes. It's an environment we work hard to create and maintain, and we long for others to feel the warmth and love of our labor when they step foot into our territory.

Externally speaking, I'm a little out of sorts right now. My current home is beginning to pile up with boxes. No more pictures on the wall. No more personal touches. No more warm, inviting atmosphere- oh, on the contrary to be exact. It's a little chaotic around here. I can even sense it in my children- it's not feeling like home to them, either. Not to mention that Chris is gone. So in every sense of how I defined home above I have suddenly gone from all I've known for eight years to feeling like a stranger wondering around in a foreign land.

And on top of the sudden feeling of being a square peg in a round hole, there is no security of a physical place for us to go to at the end of this week. Yes, that's right. We are still trying to find a place to live. Nothing like getting down to the wire! So you can see my dilemma here. Externally I feel more out of place than I've probably ever felt. And if you've ever felt that, then you know it's a little unsettling.

But internally something wonderful and unexpected has taken place.

In the midst of all of this, my heart has been transplanted into a place I've never called home. Yet. My feet are longing for streets I've never walked down like it was pavement from a familiar and wonderful memory. My heart is beating with the pulse of a city so large it's completely overwhelming, but feel drawn to it with the intimacy of a small hometown. From the first time we stepped foot into Houston, we just felt like we fit. We've never lived in a place even remotely that large, yet we felt like the vibe of the city resonated within us. It's something I can only describe as the spirit of adoption, coming straight from the heart of God, allowing me to experience feelings that surpass anything that would make sense to our minds. I suppose when God calls you somewhere and gives you the honor and privilege of serving a people, a church, and a city, He supernaturally plants a love for that place in your heart like it was what you were born for. I guess it is what we were born for.

So even though I don't know where we'll rest our heads in just a few short days, and I am feeling unsettled and uncertain externally, my heart is ready. Ready to be home.

Buried With Christ...

and raised to walk in newness of life.

Sunday, May 16th, was a very special day in our family. As I shared on the blog earlier, Addison expressed the desire to be baptized on his own accord, and he even picked the location. Which, if I were to pick the perfect location, it would be this one. It was on the ACU campus at something called "Jacob's Dream". It's full of rocks with scripture words engraved in them and a huge iron statue of climbing Jacob's ladder. The little fountain was designed specifically for the purpose of being able to do baptisms, although I don't know if it's used that often for that reason. It's such beautiful place.

The weather had been rainy and stormy all weekend long and we were so concerned we wouldn't be able to do it there. But wouldn't you know that God opened up the skies Sunday just for my son so he could have this special moment. When I told him that, in true Addison fashion, he said to me: "Well, it wasn't just for me. There might be a lot of other people getting baptized today, too." Always thinking about other people, too. That's our son.

So enjoy the pictures and video of our moment. The video is short and sweet- when you're baptizing a six year old, it can't be a long, drawn out process. We were just glad he didn't freak out too much from the water.

Jacob's Dream, set in the middle of the beautiful Abilene Christian University campus

Closer pic of the ladder statue- it's really huge up close

The baptism fountain

Example of the many rocks all around with words from scripture on them

My personal favorite- posted a closer version of this in the last post

All of our family that was there with us. (There were several people from our church there also besides family)

I lost some quality of the video when I exported it for the blog, but you can still get in on the action. To quote my dad on the video, "Glory!"

The Beginning of the End and the Beginning

How's that for a confusing title? That's pretty accurate right now (confusing and crazy). It's been so long since I've been able to post because our life is turned completely upside down and then some right now. To be expected, of course, but that doesn't necessarily make it any easier. Some things that have transpired since the last post:

*And I should make this disclaimer now that posting might be a little sparse during this transition, so the chunks you get might be a little longer than is good blog etiquette, and might be highly charged with emotion as I process, so I'm just sayin'. You've been warned.*

A trip to Houston to find a home. I'm sorry to report that we did not come home with a home. I don't want to say it was a waste of time because it was still good to be there and be with City Life Church (henceforth to be referred to as CLC) people, and we also got to spend time with some wonderful family. Our little trip to the zoo was also fun, and I'm glad we took time to do a couple of things for the kids because they were such troopers through it all. However, it was a little disappointing that all of the hours spent driving around Houston looking at houses ended up with us now in Abilene scrambling in the eleventh hour to find a place to rest our heads in a week and a half when Houston becomes home. This has been consuming a majority of my time, and it's proven to be much more stressful than I had anticipated/planned for. Trying to find a place when you don't know anything about the areas, and having several different opinions from people that all are wonderful and are offering their help but everyone had different things to say, is tough. Not to mention I didn't think I'd still be having to deal with all of it after the trip when I now have so many other things to do. I hope that by this time tomorrow we will have a home. There is something in the works as we speak.

A few pics from the zoo (I have lots more, so I'm going to throw my pics on Shutterfly if you want to see them later):

This guy was being so funny. He was right up against the glass and was playing with the kids.

Saying my goodbyes to lots of wonderful people at Hendrick Health Club. My Active Living (the older adults) class gave me a party last Friday, and then another party after my farewell Jam class last night. Having my last classes was a bit surreal- hasn't quite hit me yet.

My sweet little Active Living class. They are so fun.

The beautiful cake they got me :)

A massive garage sale this past weekend. We spent half of Thurs. and all of Fri into the wee hours of the morning getting ready, but it was worth it- we made good money and got rid of a TON of stuff. Yay for us. It was a win that I desperately needed, even though it was a pain.

This same weekend also had Chris's final message at our church here (newly known as Grace Point, formerly MSCC), our final Sunday here as a family, Addison's baptism that afternoon (which will have its own stand alone post following this one), and then a leadership meeting where we were prayed over and then had a big reception for us afterwards. It was very sweet. I don't know that I've ever heard Chris preach like that. It's podcast worthy, if anyone out there would like to give it a listen. (Go to mscc.tv and go to the media section) Since the kids and I will be here one more Sunday, it didn't quite feel like I'm leaving yet. But I don't think it will all really sink in until that U-haul is pulling away and Abilene is in the rear view mirror.

The priceless expression of shock from coming up from cold water! What a special day.

My amazing life group, Chrysalis, at our reception. They gave me a beautiful book that they all wrote very kind and generous words in.

It hits me in waves. Ebb and flow. Waves of emotion about leaving, waves of anxiety about all of the things to do, waves of excitement for all the things to come, etc. What is a constant right now is both exhaustion and emotion. Those are there in some form at all times! And Chris leaves tomorrow for Bootcamp in Nashville, which is exciting, but also crazy for me as I head into one of the biggest weekends of the year for me- the APAC dance recital which includes both me and my children. Extra rehearsals, big show, and packing up my house and finding a new one in between, without my husband here. I'm going to stop talking now because I feel another wave coming on just thinking about all of that and it's not a good one!

Obviously lots going on right now. If you have a moment, say a prayer for the Pates as we make this massive life transition into a new (large) city, new jobs, new culture, saying goodbye to eight years of life that happened here, and the craziness happening up to that point otherwise known as moving. We'd sure appreciate it :) Peace out from the Pate house.

So...

As promised, the continuation of our story.

I know that some of you will be randomly coming to this blog from Facebook or wherever else and don't really know everything that happened leading up to this point, but let's suffice it to say that God has been crafting, forming, and aligning things behind the scenes over these past several months as only He can do. And we've been patiently (um, well most of the time!) allowing Him to do just that. It's been quite a process, but to make a long story short, here's what you're wanting to know:

The Pates are moving to Houston, Texas, to join the work of City Life Church as Lead Pastors.

Wow. The official-ness of typing that felt really heavy. In a good kind of way. Are we excited? Beyond. Feeling the weight of it? Oh yeah. Sad to leave Abilene? Abilene is the past eight years of our story and represents the beginning of our family and people we love and cherish. Of course we're sad. But it's bittersweet because even though we're leaving what we know and love, there are some awesome people in Houston waiting to write a new story with us. The story that is City Life Church, and the setting being one massive (and I do mean massive), amazing, beautiful city full of people that are waiting to be found. Waiting to find purpose. Needing to be connected to God. And God got this crazy notion that we were going to be a part of that. And sometimes I do think He's crazy, but you know what? We're a little crazy, too :) Crazy enough to do what He says to do, believe He's with us and know that there's plans we can't even imagine. So here we are. Actually, there we'll be- in a month exactly. Yep, a month.

I'm sure you'll be hearing lots more from us along the way, but that's enough major life news for now :) Peace out from the Pate house.

(BEEEEEP)..........We interrupt your local broadcasting for a special announcement...

The Pate family is currently working on some technical issues, such as their entire future, and is experiencing the inability to put one single cohesive thought together worthy of cyberspace at the moment. They are unavailable to make comments at this time, but they wanted to assure the four (okay, we have more family than that I guess) people that read this blog that they will be back soon to unveil the season premiere of the next chapter of the Pate Family Chronicles.

It's a good one. You will want to stay tuned.

Until that time, please enjoy the momentary reruns and mindless time fillers which will be randomly provided to keep your interest. Thank you. We now return to your regularly scheduled programming...

and of course peace out from the Pate house.

Pate Children Musings

Well I guess my kids are just on a kick of good material, because they have been constantly making us laugh/think this week! Here's just a few things from the week:

We were leaving the gym Monday morning, and I was asking a question to Cadence that she wasn't answering. Addison looks at her and says, "Cadence, if you don't answer Mommy, God will reveal our deepest darkest secrets. And if He doesn't reveal it on earth, when we get to heaven all the deepest darkest secrets will be revealed." Is this guy intense or what???

Another funny car story- yesterday Addison helped Cadence with her seatbelt without asking him first. I thanked him for helping with his sister and he says, "Oh you know, just being like Jesus." Priceless.

Cadence got a couple of barbies this week from Nana, and she picked out an African American barbie of her own choosing. That's my girl! Glad to see that she is already embracing diversity! But why wouldn't she- it's a reflection of her real world and what she already sees around her. But the greatest part was her reaction when she saw it for the first time. Her little eyes lit up and she said (in a very excited voice), "Ohhh, she's brown! She's so beautiful!"

Perhaps the sweetest moment this week came from Addison having a conversation with Chris last night. They were talking about spiritual matters, and Addison brought up the subject of baptism. He had mentioned to me a while back that he wanted to be baptized, but at the time it was when we were watching others doing that and wasn't sure if he really understood what was happening. It hadn't been brought up in a while, but last night he spoke of it with Chris. So Chris asks him if he knew what it meant to be baptized. He responds, "Well, it's dying with Christ and being resurrected to walk with him in new life."

Um, yeah son. That's a good answer.

So we are in the works of trying to make this very special thing happen. Addison mentioned that he wanted his entire family there with him, and we told him we didn't know how possible it was to be able to get everyone here, but we're certainly going to put the word out there. So, family, we all need to get together and see what we can work out! We'll be in touch...

It was just so touching to hear Chris relaying this conversation that I got tears in my eyes. At six years old, my son has such a desire to know God more and to follow Him. His heart is tender to the things of God. I wish I could credit it to good parenting to make us feel better about ourselves, but it's not. It's mostly just the sheer proof that God has written the things of the Kingdom in our hearts when we were in our mother's womb, and we are the ones that talk and reason ourselves out of it the further away from pure, childlike faith we get. We have to work much harder to be convinced and tell ourselves that there is no God than to believe that there is. It is such a joy and blessing to see this journey unfolding in Addison's life, and it puts the fear of God in me to do everything I can to guard his innocence (in the right way, not an unrealistic sheltering from real life kind of way) and continue to try to point him to the Kingdom and the King.

I'm telling ya- all the money in the world cannot buy the kind of entertainment you get in the Pate house!! I always have so many things to talk about with them that I hardly talk about the things that are floating around in my mind and heart. But it's a balance- and I do feel a season approaching that more of that is going to come. And some of that comes with what this next season is going to bring- and the fact that I really can't say much about it yet!! But make no mistake- as the Word said Mary did, I'm pondering some things in my heart........ Peace out from the Pate house, yo.

Easter Weekend

Well of course you would expect a traditional post following a major holiday, now wouldn't you? We certainly did a lot of traditional things that go along with Easter. Did the hunt. Dyed the eggs. Took the pics. Had a fabulous Easter lunch at the Country Club with family (there was actually lamb, complete with the green jelly and everything- tried it for the first time!)

But we really don't place a lot of emphasis on the egg and easter bunny part of the holiday. What we really want our children to understand and embrace is why the holiday exists in the first place. So this year we tried out the resurrection eggs. We enjoyed doing that. For those that don't know, there's twelve eggs each with an object inside that help explain the story of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection and a coordinating verse and little devo for each one. After doing it this year we know that for next year we need to tweak a couple of things. 1) 12 eggs in one night= too much information! Next year we will split it up more. 2) Probably not right before bedtime. Cadence actually did not last for the entire presentation. She was already tired, some of it was over her head, and she ended up being banished to bedtime before it was over!! But it was still a good experience.

Enjoy our pics! I was actually thrilled at our little photo shoot this year. For those that know, it's like pulling teeth to photograph my children- they've both been in that awkward fake smile phase and it's been hard! Daddy still had to turn on his charm and humor to entertain them, but we sure did end up with some precious pictures. Gosh, they're growing up though.

As long as Cadence was in her dress, we had to refer to her as "Easter Cadence". Kinda like Barbie, I guess... I don't know!!

To view the rest of this album, click here

A few with mommy that weren't in the Facebook album

(Daddy didn't want to put his Easter clothes on, so we had to go with what we had! And didn't get a family shot the next day, either!! He was perfectly coordinated in an aqua shirt, though :)

Starting with this...

A little bit of "magic" crayon

Some of this...

Some waiting- Boring!

And Voila- masterpiece!

Posing with their treats.

The Resurrection Eggs- we will continue to do this in some form. It's a great thing.