Long Time, No Write!

The last day at our house in Kansas.

Hi Friends and family!

Many of you may be wondering what we are doing. We've kind of been off the grid for a while, not literally, but we usually send out a Christmas letter. Obviously, this year we did not, but we have a good reason. We've moved!!!! Not just a move to another house but completely across the country! We are now living in Fairfax, Va!

"What?" you say. Well, in July of last year, Eric completed a leadership development training through his company and a week later was offered a promotion and a job transfer to the Arlington, Va office to do design management and team building. We prayed about it and decided to go for it! Boy has it been a crazy ride! After some minor repairs and sprucing up of our house we put it on the market on December 4, had a contract on it in 11 days and closed on January 28. In between times, we traveled to the DC area twice to look for houses, to Arkansas and Georgia and packed up our house. This may explain why we did not get a Christmas letter out. I actually wrote one but, alas, it is sitting snugly in my computer still,
a bit out of date. We closed on our house in Fairfax on February 12 and between the end of January and closing on the new house we spent two weeks in Georgia, celebrated all the kids birthdays and had a bit of r&r. Eric spent his first week at work in Arlington during that time too.

Saying goodbye to a dear friend. He says he's going to marry her!

Birthday Celebration!

Our new house - 10900 Milburn St. Fairfax, Va 22030

The first day in we ripped out the carpet and found some maple flooring! Just needed some TLC!

Enjoying the beach in March!

Meanwhile, in the midst of all the preparation to move, we found out we were expecting another baby! This was a lovely surprise, as they all have been. It was a surprise this time because I had given all of maternity clothes away and a lot of baby things thinking we were ready to move on out of the baby phase. But God had other plans! His sovereignty in this is not lost on us at all! For six years we thought we just weren't able to have biological children, that God was just saying no to us for that, that we'd build our family through adoption and He brought us dear Wesley. But then as we pursued adoption again, God gave us David and Catherine biologically! Then when we decided we were finished biologically, God said, "no you're not!" We've learned much through these years that God has a plan, He is in control. We are not. BUT... He is GOOD!

So, I'm now 32 weeks along, due in early August. The great thing about the pregnancy is that I haven't had to go on weeks of bedrest like with the others. With David I started bedrest at 24 weeks and with Catherine at 26. Since 26 weeks in this current pregnancy, I've painted several rooms, taken many walks, gone grocery shopping with the kids, taken my kids to the park, etc, etc, etc! And, I can clean my house and cook dinner! These things were not possible with the other pregnancies and I am so grateful.

Another crazy event occurred shortly after we moved into our house, at the end of February - I broke one of my toes!!! It took substantially longer to heal than I would have ever guessed and really put a damper on me getting things done around the house. In many ways, I am much more able to do things now being 32 weeks along than I was with that broken, purple swollen toe! It was terribly discouraging and with that on top of the mess of a house we were in for a while, things were pretty tough and tearful.

So, that is where we are at now. We are beginning to enjoy our neighborhood and have found a great church very similar to the one we attended in Kansas. The people around here are very friendly (except when driving) and we've quickly gotten to know people at church. We've attended two different small groups from church and are praying through which one is the best for us - one has college students and young married couples with no children, the other has a few families and some post-college young adults.

The kids seem to be adjusting well. Wesley has missed his friends but he's so extroverted that he's had no trouble making new friends. In fact, our new pastor and his family live just down the street and their oldest child is a 6 year old boy! Perfect! David's greatest excitement has been getting to ride the "sub trains" into DC. He thinks, dreams, draws, builds, and reads trains all day, everyday! Catherine just goes along for the ride and has developed interests in anything outdoors and changing clothes frequently!

Speaking of going into DC, this has been one of the highlights of our time here so far. On three different trips, we've been to one corner of the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaurs and went through about half of the Air and Space Museum which was a big hit! We've also walked the National Mall from the Smithsonian to the Lincoln Memorial, passing by the Washington Monument and the World War II monument and climbing a few trees along the way. Then we trekked further on to the White house, passing by the Vietnam Wall and eating a huge pretzel.

We've loved Fairfax. It is an old historical area. The courthouse was completed in 1800. Plus there are  many nearby civil war battlefields and historical markers on every corner. We love the lush, tall trees and woods all around. We have a trail very near to our house and are looking forward to spending a lot of time in the wilderness there and in other others within easy driving distance.

I've continued to homeschool Wesley for kindergarten during all this although we definitely had some breaks here and there. We had some ups and downs with it but we've kind of hit a groove and are enjoying it - once we settled in a bit more and figured out a good daily routine.

And, as for the whole reason why we came, Eric is enjoying is job, learning a lot of new things. It's fun being in the city though the commute is not so fun. In Kansas, he could get to work in 6 minutes. Here it takes 25 minutes in the morning, if he leaves at 5:30am! This means he gets up at 4:30! It takes him 40 minutes to get home, if he leaves no later than 3pm. Since we've left Kansas, he's traveled every month, twice to Ga, once to Oregon and once to Virginia Beach. Hopefully, he won't be traveling again until after the baby is born. :)

Right now our house is a total wreck because our kitchen is being renovated! We've been living with it down to the studs with make shifts cabinets, counters and sink. Finally, just this week we got the drywall finished, the cabinets and the countertops installed. The backsplash is being put up this weekend and it should all be ready to go by Monday! So excited!

That's our life in a nutshell for now. I had more pictures to post but had trouble uploading them. Hope you are doing well!
Blessing!