Week #6

Boat Show Wrapped.

10/18/2024

Chris-

“Starting Over”

When we left Colorado two months ago, we were leaving our entire support network. Our family (my wife and I and our 5 children) had lived in the same town for the entirety of family’s story; starting with Crystal and I getting married in 2003, and continuing through the birth of our five children, all the way through to the day we left town. We arrived in Annapolis, Maryland on September 1^st with no friends, no church, no income, no reputation, and no idea that we would be staying in the area for 1 ½ months. But here we are. Unless something changes, we will be leaving town in a few days, so I have been reflecting over our time here, and realized a few things. In just a short amount of time, we have found a loving and supportive church to attend. We have friends in the area that are trying to convince us to stay because they are sad to see us leave. We have had jobs, and built up a reputation which has led to multiple job offers in the area, if we wanted to stay (and a couple that have said that the offer will stand if we ever make it back to the area). This new town now feels more familiar, and we even run into people we know around town. All of this to say, “Wow! God is faithful!” It is a crazy feeling to uproot our whole lives and feel like we are headed into complete unknown territory. It feels a little scary. We have always said that God would take care of us, and that He would provide, but now we have SEEN it happen!

Now, before anyone gets themselves too worked up, we are still planning on leaving Annapolis in the next few days. We feel like our time here is coming to a close. And, while it feels a little sad to say goodbye to another community, our faith that God can (and will) do it again is growing. I feel less afraid, and less anxious about “starting over.” We are excited to see where God leads us next.

The tentative plan is to head south towards warmer weather and a new pool of boats to shop through, but we will see where God leads.

We love you guys and want to thank you for following along with us on this journey. I have been better-but-still-not-great at telling people about the blog so they can keep up with us, so if you can think of anyone that I have missed, please let me know, or share the blog with them so they can follow along as well. Have a great week and God bless you and your family!

~Chris

Crystal-

Who EVEN are you?

looking up on the back deck...breathe in

Over the years, my role has shifted and morphed and evolved. My contribution to the family budget has never been primary. At times, I worked more and earned enough to cover groceries- which if you’ve ever bought food for a family of seven, is actually significant. 🙂At times my contribution was sloppy bunned, stretchy-pantsed teacher struggling to educate our kids and get leftovers on the table for dinner.

Each time that I’d transition into a “paid position” I’d feel a little lighter- like my drain on the family budget wasn’t quite so frivolous. Every time I cut back to refocus at home, I’d suddenly second guess every purchase. Suddenly I felt compelled to do everything “better” at home. Then the anti-perfectionist in me would sabotage the whole thing and I’d fall into a spin of identity crisis and go in search of new ways to validate my time. (All the mamas know what I’m talking about) Guess what! Being unemployed, homeschooling kids who are becoming more and more independent, in a home that isn’t yours to project- it doesn’t really scream “ you matter!”

As I struggle though to believe scriptures that say I’m worthy and loved anyway, I find myself surrounded by wildly intelligent, overly educated, ridiculously financially successful people, who are also annoyingly fantastic!! It’s like they are rubbing their awesomeness in my well-humbled face and they aren’t even trying. 

That’s beside the point….

1 Corinthians 12 talks about all the different roles we play as individual pieces of the global body. It talks about the significance of the seemingly insignificant. Ecclesiastes 3 talks about seasons. The rest of the book talks about how we’re all just here doing the same stuff that every other bloke has done before us, until we die. 

We’re all offered the same gift of redemption, bought by the same blood. All made worthy not by our contributions or our net worth or even by how hard we try- but by His declaration and indulgent grace, through His self-sacrifice. And in return, he just wants us….unhindered by our own judgements, to live out that identity- his chosen.

“Jireh”- by Elevation Worship - is always a good reminder for me. I’m never more or less valuable. The things I do or don’t do, the dollars I earn or spend don’t change my worthiness. He’s enough. He chose me. He chose you. He’s got a good plan. For us, it’s going on a sailboat adventure with no jobs secured and a laughable budget for the boat we need to fulfill the vision He’s given us-He’s got it. For you? What’s He telling you you’re worthy of? What thing is he calling you to that’s “more than you can ask or imagine”?(Ephesians 3:20)

Ellis-

The winter. . . she comes.

Bruh-ddleing. Aww....

     This week has been mostly the same as last week, lots of working and not a whole lot else. We went sailing once with our landlords and we looked at some boats but we haven't really made any progress in finding a boat yet. We are finishing work here in Annapolis this week and the plan is to head south starting Monday. A little part of me is sad we're leaving, we've met quite a few cool people here and for the most part, they want us to stick around but we don't really feel like we've been asked to stay here and there are a lot of good opportunities farther south. Also it's been getting really cold and working outside in the morning has sucked! You'd think that since I'm from the mountains I'd be fine, but my cold tolerance has been terrible this year for some reason. So for that reason, I'm really looking forward to going south. 

Conrad-

B-Day

Climbing and Cake and Conrad!!!

This Wednesday October 9th it was my birthday. In the morning Mom made pancakes with homemade blueberry syrup. Our kitchen is lacking an oven and stove top so our cooking is limited, but the pancakes were spectacular. After breakfast I opened a few gifts and cards. Eventually we started to get ready to go birthday climbing.

A few days before we had decided on a place to go climbing. The gym was called Movement Colombia. This climbing gym was massive, it was probably about the same size as Gripstone in Colorado Springs which was where state was held last year. That does not describe it very well but I will try to put some pictures in, they probably won't do justice though. The building could have been a quarter of the size and I wouldn’t have been affected though, because we ended up only climbing in the bouldering room. (bouldering is just climbing without a rope on relatively short walls.) The bouldering room itself was bigger than a lot of gyms back in Colorado.

When we first got to Movement, we had to fill out a few waivers and a few of us got belay certified, which was apparently unnecessary, then we went in. Me and Oli found that our shoes were a little tighter than we remembered but we managed. I decided to start off slow and work my way up to the more difficult climbs. As I had feared, I did lose some finger strength over my long climbing break but it wasn’t as bad as I had thought it would be. We climbed for a good while before we decided that it was time for lunch.

For lunch we went to Qdoba and got burritos. It turns out climbing really makes you hungry so it wasn’t long before I had finished and was eating chips while I waited. After everybody was done eating we went back to the climbing gym and continued for another good bit. In total we were out climbing for about five hours. Right as we were about to leave a crew who were resetting a section of the wall finished, meaning there was a new section of unclimbed wall. We decided to stay a few minutes to try out a  couple of fun looking routes then we headed home for burgers and cake.

Oliver-

Beneteau VS Bali

This week we went to the Annapolis Sailboat show. There were so many awesome boats! The sleek monohulls, and the big spacious catamarans. While we were there, we compared the Beneteau monohulls and the Bali catamarans. We found a Beneteau 51 for sale in Puerto Rico, and wanted to see a boat similar to that one.

The Beneteau boats were probably the most spacious feeling monohulls I have been on. Personally I think we could easily fit. They just feel big and welcoming. The helm space is plenty big to sleep up on deck. Up front there is plenty of space to hang out and watch the waves. The Bali catamarans are definitely more spacious and have better stuff. They are basically like a bigger and more comfortable version of the Puerto Rico boat. We have also been on a Bali before, in the Bahamas, so we know our way around the boat better. The Bali catamarans always hold a special place in my heart. But like I said, we could make the Puerto Rico boat work

We haven’t found a nice Bali yet, but at this point a catamaran is still the dream.

Jasper-

Water Activities

SAIL.

This week we did A Lot of stuff on the water! We went sailing for our landlord's (Nancy) birthday. That was Amazing! We paddle boarded all over the creek we are living in. I fell in, on accident! It looked worse than it felt. At first. We even went to the Annapolis Sailboat Show!(More on these subjects later.)

 We went sailing again! But this time we went under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and around an old lighthouse that had just got a new paint job. It didn’t work any more sadly. But it still looked really cool anyway. After that we went under the bridge again and headed home.

We named the places around our creek. The swampy little cove on the left side(if you are on the side I’m on and facing the water)is called “Heron Cove”, because herons like to fish there. There is also a rocky place that we call “Snake Rocks” because a bunch of snakes lived there. There are tons of fish there too! 

One time I had gotten on our giant paddle board, the Megalodon and I was trying to bring it so that it would parallel the dock so that my bigger brother could get on. I slipped and gashed my knee while I fell in. But I'm doing better now.

Then there was the Annapolis Sailboat Show! We looked at a ton of booths and got a ton of free stuff! Then we started looking at the boats! We looked at the part of the show where the Beneteaus are first because there is a Beneteau 51 in Puerto Rico that we have been looking at and we wanted to see what it would be like in real life then we looked at some other boats. We met with our great aunt Nancy and uncle Wayne, then we walked and talked for a while. Finally we took a picture and departed. Overall I had a great week, and I hope you did too.

Posy-

SAIL LIKE YOU MEAN IT!!!!

Skipper Posy- she's an absolute natural!

We rented out a house that had a private dock. The landlord asked us if we wanted to sail and we said “yes”. Ellis and Dad could not come so we set sail around lunch time. I was called “Skipper.” There were two other people that I did not know. Their names were Debbie and Dan. We passed some boats and got to the Bay Bridge and Jasper took over. We went under the bridge. I ate food and then Jasper called me and told me to take over again. I got to the lighthouse and then tacked (turned into the wind) near the light house. We had to motor because Debbie and Dan had to be somewhere. We motored under the bridge. Jasper had passed out giant pretzels so I steered with one hand. We got to the bay and I steered us in. I'm only eight years old. The people who instructed me went forward I got tense but we were fine. Then Steve got the helm as we pulled into the docks. I had so much fun!

Guys, we’re so glad you’re with us on this adventure! Please be praying for more direction and that God will open up the doors he wants us to walk through. Send us a message or leave us a note here and let us know how we can be praying for you!

Much love from the Mullen Tribe.

CHOOSE AWESOME!!