Outside it's dark and a downpour but the Son is reigning down in my room

Tonight Marie picks up the keys to our new apartment. Tomorrow we rent the truck, haul the sofa and the beds and the numerous boxes and bags, and move in to our new place. It will be a wonderful day but a challenging one, because for me there are no more intimidating words than "some assembly required." I used to pay ten extra bucks to get the kid's bikes assembled, begging and wheedling for the floor model whenever possible. The old man could dissassemble a diesel engine, and a couple of my brothers once earned their living framing houses, but I was born without the tool-using gene. Austin's bed is one of those Swedish things with 25 different bolts and tabs and connections: my man-job nightmare. But it will be worth it to sleep in our own home and our own beds.

On Monday I'll call the utilities and fill out the mail-forwarding forms. It's amazing after months of talking and praying and agonizing back and forth that it's finally here.

What will be different this time? Well, for one thing, after all the hard work and contemplation, we have a much deeper sense of the worth and importance of home, of how blessed we are to belong to someone and have a family to call our own. These are grim times we live in, with lots of daunting portents, and it's an incredible comfort to have someone to hold when the world outside is bitter and chilling. The very smallest things will seem like a rich reward. Cooking dinner. Saying good night. Sharing a bar of dark chocolate. Multiplying our resources and dividing the problems. Sharing the hope.

On the pages of blog central I have said many times I have never loved or wanted anyone or anything the way I do Marie, and tonight it's amazing to me we came all the way through our darkest days and worst fears and found a way to make love win. I have no illusions that the life ahead of us will be trouble or drama-free, but I'm certain it will be richer and more purposeful. We were put on this earth to care for and comfort one another, to make the lives around us more hopeful, to love and believe and give. These are the surest ways to please and praise the God who made us, and I am full of praise tonight. I'll let you know how it goes.