Moving (Again)!

After a lot of thought we have decided that we need more room when our 4th little girl arrives. Our townhouse right now is great except for 2 things: super small bedrooms and a small eat in kitchen. The living space is great, but those other 2 things are kinda important. So we began our search again for a 4 bedroom rental, since we aren't comfortable buying right now due to the market and our unknown work status in 5 years- we could be here, or we could be in London for all we know. To afford a rental like that we knew we'd need to move to Southeast Maryland, Woodbridge, or Manassas, VA. Since we don't feel like changing state status again we focused on Woodbridge. It has many transportation options (bus, train, sluglines), good schools, cheaper housing, and our friends the Smiths! After a few weeks of searching, some reshaping of priorities, and lots of prayer, we have signed a lease for June 1st! We'll double rent the month of June so that it will be less stressful (with the baby coming around June 9th) and so that Grace can finish school. Then we'll have July and August to get settled before Grace and Liliana start a new school in September. Here are some pictures of our new 5 bedroom, 2 full bath place!

Happy Easter

Great Falls

Kaylon took off 2 days this week to spend some time with us for Grace's spring break. We had wanted to go camping, but I had to veto that due to a very pregnant belly. (I can't sleep all night in my own bed- there's no way I'm gonna sleep on the ground away from a bathroom!) So instead we decided to go camping without camping. We started our day with a small hike at Great Falls National Park (as a bonus, it was national parks week, so it was free!).







After a short break at home for a Moira nap, we headed south of Woodbridge to the national forest there. We rented a campsite, built a fire, and had hotdogs and s'mores. We enjoyed the beautiful weather and the girls put together a pile of leaves to jump in. We stayed until after dark, telling stories and singing songs around the fire. We headed out at 10pm with the younger two already asleep (and the oldest following quickly). It was a great compromise for us- Kaylon got a day totally outdoors, and I got to sleep in relative peace.

Grace Fieldtrip

I got to go with Grace on her Spring field trip to a public garden in Alexandria. They taught the kids about nature, pollination, and compost. The rain held off long enough that we could go outside for a nature walk and to see their compost pile. It was fun spending the day with Grace and her friends!

Liliana's Kindergarten Orientation

Yes, it's that time, can you believe it? Liliana will be 5 before school starts in the fall which means that she will be heading off to kindergarten! We've been debating for the last 6 months on whether to hold her back or not, but in that time she has matured a lot and we've started to recognize her learning style. Liliana does things when she feels like it. If I can twist an old saying- you can try to teach Liliana the alphabet but you can't make her learn it. She refused to learn anything for years- colors, letters, numbers- nothing. But in the last few months she has learned them all! And she enjoys in now too. With those things behind us, we've decided to move forward with school, with the plan to pull her out if she doesn't take to it, since she will be a very young kindergartener.

So, back to orientation. Liliana was excited as soon as I told her (the day before). She kept asking when we would be going (over and over and over). Finally we got to go- just the two of us- and she ran up the hill to school. She loved her name tag and pencil. She said hi to people and was outgoing. When they took the kids to the classroom, she left me with a quick "bye!" and hurried off with the others. I saw them taking their tour of the school, and she was the line leader- holding the teacher's hand. I'm not sure if that was because she wasn't listening, too excited, or just a coincidence. She looked soooo happy. She just loved being a big girl. When we joined back with the kids, we got to take them outside for their first school bus ride. Another huge thrill for Liliana. She had a huge grin and waved from her seat. I had been so afraid of school since she has such a hard time at church, but she proved me wrong. Of course I realize that after being at school for a whole day she might change her mind and we might go through some growing pains, but that's all part of growing up. The important thing is that she had a good experience :)

Happy Update

I guess if I'm updating on the scary times of mom's illness, I should update on the good things too! Mom was released from the hospital on Thursday (I think it was Thursday, anyway). She left with two extra appendages- a drain in her right lung and a port in her chest for her chemo, which starts this week. She was able to recover some from those procedures and nail down her treatment schedule before she left. Her chemo will be every three weeks and will be pretty aggressive, as long as her body can handle it (if not, they'll drop the second medication and keep going with the primary). We hope that by starting this aggressively that her tumors will dry up quickly and she'll get some more time with her grandchildren (and her kids too, I guess). Even though chemo is NOT what she wanted to do, she's in good spirits, and her faith in the Lord is stronger than ever.

Thank you for your love and support. It means the world to her and us (her kids).

:)