Our simple life in Charleston

I'm remembering lately a lot of what our life was like a year ago in Indiana... before we made a big move to Charleston, South Carolin to help with a church plant.

What weeks looked like then and what they've been looking like here are very different. For starters, we were involved in A LOT of things back home. Mostly every night of the week was pre-scheduled with some event or meeting that was happening. There was  nothing wrong with that, and Ben and I both even enjoyed our lives fully scheduled, but moving to a brand new city will take a cut out of anyone's social schedule and that's actually been really nice for us.

In Fort Wayne, we knew everyone. In Charleston, we knew 6 people- 4 of which are under the age of 7. So once we got here, we just didn't have a lot of community to choose from like we did back home.

Eventually a couple more friends from Indiana moved down to help with the church too and we got to meeting our neighbors and starting jobs and such; but having such a small pool of nearby friends to choose from made for some interesting and really good times for Ben and I.

As you can imagine, we have had lots of evenings to ourselves. We've watched every episode of The Office ever made, we took beach trips and dinners out just the two of us, we explored our new city together and went on adventures, and we've grown closer together than we ever have been.

We've also had lots of time to TALK. And this has been so good for us. We've been able to learn more about what it means to communicate well and we've been able to strengthen our friendship and dependance on each other.

It's been so great for Ben and I to get out of the rhythms of life that seem to sweep over every spare bit of time. We've grown in our marriage and in our love for each other so much and we have a greater appreciation for the good that comes with a slower pace of life.

We also have been able to really focus our time and attention on the few relationships (outside of our marriage) that we do have down here. We've gotten to learn how to love our neighbors really well and have been blessed to grow very close with our community of others involved in the church.

There's a big part of me that naturally resorts to feeling unproductive with a not-full schedule, but I've definitely seen and learned that that doesn't have to be true. These past several months have proved that and more. I'm very thankful  to have been forced into a slower pace of life, and I hope Ben and I can continue to make times like these a priority in the whatever busy seasons are sure to come.