Yes, we are still alive... (an oldie)

(This is an old would-be post from 2012. I was puzzled to find it sitting in blogger, unpublished, yesterday. I hadn't even remembered that I wrote it. Tonight, I remembered why I wrote it and didn't publish it. The end of the post had a little announcement about another Tromburg joining the family. It was the little Tromburg that God decided to take to heaven before we met them. It happened right as I was trying to complete this post. That season was one of the most painful ones that God has taken me through, but God was so faithful in it and even the little mercies like blogger saving this post are so amazing. I should write more about that later. But, for now, I'm going to go look at the cute, old pictures of my babies that pepper the post below :)
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Hello, friends! We apologize for how long it took to get this little update out to you, but MAN, have we been busy!!! We have had a great couple of months driving back to Minnesota, being back at our home church, and moving back into our house. All of those things have kept us so busy that we have not been good about internet updates. We've been terrible, in fact. But, anyways, we miss and love all of you, and wanted to give you a brief update of what we have been up to the last few months. I've broken it up into a few sections in case you don't have a few hours to read this, ha ha :-) Road trip back to Minnesota: We took a few weeks to drive from California to Minnesota. We figured as long as we had to pay for the gas back to MN, we might as well have some fun and see some new things on the way home! Our first stop was Mesa, Arizona, where we stayed with Marie’s great uncle Wyn, a godly man who just retired from preaching God’s word at 91 years old. It was a blessing especially for Jake to learn from a man who had been faithful in ministry for so many years! The kids loved him, too.

Our next major stop was the Grand Canyon. Wowie, have you been there? We were SO struck by the grandeur of God’s creation! Even little Aviyah got it: she wandered around saying, “Ooooooh, wowwwww!” It was a great reminder to us what a mighty and wonderfully creative God we serve! We were able to camp there and also take a bike ride around the rim of the canyon. It was unforgettable! We did have to put a kid leash on Aviyah… those are some crazy high cliffs!

Next, we headed towards Colorado to visit friends. We stopped along the way to visit Four Corners (cheesy, but we just had to!) and miraculously snapped this photo of a Tromburg in each state.

On to Colorado! First, we took the kids to Rocky Mountain National Park, a place that is very special to Marie, as she went there every year growing up. We drove up to 11,796 feet above sea level, and the boys stopped at a snowfield for a snowball fight. After a few days there, we headed to Fort Collins to visit Marie’s old stomping grounds (she went to college at Colorado State University there). Jude was very excited about their mascot, the Ram, and picked up a souvenir football that he tells people about almost every day. Next, we stayed with a good friend near Denver, who was one of Marie’s bridesmaids. We were also privileged to visit the church of a Master’s Seminary grad, and enjoyed some very sweet fellowship there!

After a great time in our second favorite state, we started towards home. The stretch of road between Colorado and Minnesota was pretty boring compared to the majestic mountains and beautiful deserts that we had gotten used to passing through, but it was so exciting to be so close to home that we didn’t mind much. We arrived in Minnesota at the end of June after a few weeks of traveling. Marie’s parents were kind enough to let us share their home for a few weeks while we waited for our renters to vacate our home. The kids had a great time playing and reconnecting with grandma and grandpa and getting to see them every day. Marie’s mom was especially helpful in watching the kids so that we could work on our house before we moved in to it. We were also able to spend some time with Marie’s grandma in northern Minnesota and the kids enjoyed swimming in the lake for days on end! They are turning back into Minnesotans already! :-)

Home! Finally, we were back in the homeland! God was gracious to transition us in the summer so that we would not shrivel up and die from the cold... Not right away, anyways. We'll keep you updated on that, ha ha. No, but seriously, we were able to move back into our home, which is a HUGE blessing! Having a yard for the kids to play in, a washer and dryer, and a garage makes us feel so spoiled after apartment living! Jake even has his own office~ in California, his office was in the middle of our living room! :-)

The boxes are not all unpacked, but we figure we have a lonnnnng winter to do that, right? We are getting outside and enjoying the cool fall weather right now and the brilliant changing of the leaves. More importantly, God was SO good to us in allowing us to return to our home church, Beacon of Hope, St. Paul. We helped plant the church before we moved to California for seminary and were not sure that we would get to go back. But God was gracious in not only allowing us to return home, but also to Beacon of Hope! Jake is currently a ministerial intern and is focusing on getting a college and career aged ministry started up. It is such a wonderful church- so much like Grace in so many ways! People really love to meet together to study God's word and to serve each other there. Our pastor and his wife are wonderful servants of God who diligently and faithfully shepherd us. Jake did get to preach once already, and a lot of our family came to hear him. It was so neat to have so many of them at our church!

The latest So, what are we doing now? Well, we are well into the swing of things at our church. Jake teaches the college and career-aged Sunday school and helps lead worship for the class Sunday mornings. He also helps lead worship for our Sunday evening service, which he enjoys, because the format is a lot like Sojourners was, singing hymns together.
Marie is learning how to homeschool Jude this year. We weren't sure if we would do any sort of formal school this year, but he loved it so much last year that he begged us to keep doing school. We are a part of a Classical Conversations group in our area, and are often caught singing nerdy (but helpful!) songs about ancient history, prepositions and Latin word endings. We are having a blast :-) Here are a few pics of the kiddos:

Marie also has the opportunity to help lead a bible study group for our bi-weekly women's study, Every Woman's Hope (yep, it is modeled after Every Woman's Grace!). It has been a blessing to study God's word deeply with a small group of women and be able to knit our hearts together through prayer.

If you made it to the end of all of that, you get to read what is really the latest news, hot off the presses... We are expecting another little Tromburg to join us next May/June, Lord willing! Jude is particularly excited and talks about who he hopes will be his new brother constantly. He loves to watch fetal development videos, and likes when I explain to him that God is knitting together the baby in mommy's womb. It is such a joy to be able to explain God's hand in all of this on a daily basis~ he asks every day! So precious.
So, what are you all up to? We miss our California friends so much, we would love to hear how you are doing!