See You Back Here Soon

The Guided Transfer to WordPress.org is set to begin in T-7 hours at 5 a.m UTC. That’s 11 p.m. CST tonight!

new beginnings
new beginnings

The Happiness Engineers have asked me not to make any changes to my site during the 24-hour process. That means no replies to comments and no new posts. Had to get in just one more for good measure.

Funny how the freedom to communicate is no big deal until someone tells me I can’t use it. 

The engineers explained to me they are technically setting up a new site, even though it will have the same web address and the same content (we hope) as this one. It will be kind of like starting over from scratch. Or moving to a new house in a new city.

Had a bit of practice with that recently.

As with any move, I imagine some items will need to be fixed or replaced. A share button here. A spam catcher there.

Please bear with me as I move in and set up house. It may take a little time to put things back together. Pray for an easy learning curve for me and patience for the support people at WordPress and Bluehost. I have a feeling I’ll be leaning on them a lot in the next few days.

Pray for my husband and son, too. You get to read about the emotion; they get to live with it.

I miss my old blog already. It has been a Godsend to me. Didn’t expect this change would be so exciting, scary, and bittersweet. Feels like very much like the first time I hit the publish button.

This marks my 225th post. Ready or not, here we go.

May Your unfailing love be with us, Lord,
even as we put our hope in You. Psalm 33:22 NIV

Take My Love With You, new from the incomparable voice of Bonnie Raitt.

Thank you for reading. You are the best!

Bluehost and the Holy Ghost

The time has come for this blog to give self-hosting a try.

pick www.
take your pick

Those of you who have been with me since the beginning of this crazy blogging experiment will remember I told you we’d overcome blogging together. Well, sharpen your pencils. School’s in session.

I adore WordPress; it will remain my blogging platform. But now instead of WordPress.com hosting and in a way owning my blog, I’ll pay a company called Bluehost $6.95 a month to host it for me on WordPress.org.

A WordPress Happiness Engineer will assist us starting at 5 a.m. tomorrow (eek!) in a 24-hour Guided Transfer process. Our engineer’s name is Hew. He’ll move everyday epistle from this site to the new, self-hosted site.

Everyone, please say hello to Hew in the comments. 

Tell Hew how important it is to you that nothing be lost in the transfer and that he has us up and running in no time flat. We wouldn’t want an unhappy blogger girl, now would we?

A few other things you might like to know:

dot come
dot com

1. The Guided Transfer is “transparent” to readers. I think that means you won’t feel a thing. Please let me know if anything seems out of the ordinary—apart from the regular out-of-the-ordinary you’ve come to expect here.

2. Parting is such sweet sorrow. I’m thankful for WordPress.com and recommend it to anyone who wants to start a blog. WordPress.com gave me the chance to write and a beautiful place to do it for free. It’s with much deliberation (months and months of it, ask my husband!) I make this transition.

3. The widgets made me do it. I’m excited to try self-hosting because there is much to learn and be gained—like additional widgets. Widgets are those cool plug-ins that will allow us to do all sorts of cool plug-in things. Self-hosting will give me access to Google Analytics and custom themes. I’ll have more choices if ever I acquire sponsors, allow advertising again, or create something to sell.

I can’t wait to test drive all the bells and whistles. But first we have to make it through the Guided Transfer in one piece.

online able @
online able

Notice that Bluehost rhymes with Holy Ghost, another name for the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Reminds me of God’s care in all circumstances.

Calm me, Lord. Bless Hew as he works. Bless Bluehost as they do whatever it is they do. Go before this process and make ready the widgets. Amen.

See you on the other side.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. Romans 8:26 NIV

Dare You to Move by Switchfoot.

Please give your comment love to our new friend and Happiness Engineer Hew.