Big News

We are not pregnant again…We are moving to Houston, Texas! This move has been a long time coming for the few who have known about Mike's job search.  Mike's twin brother lives there and he has been on a mission to find a new job for almost 2 years. After several local positions not panning out for the past couple years of searching Mike was getting pretty discouraged. A couple month ago he broadened his search to explore jobs in Houston again. He cold called a company VP off the website and left a compelling message about why he was interested in working for their company. A week went by and the man called him back. He stood in our garage and talked to his guy for a hour about the commercial real estate market. At the end of the call the man said if Mike would be in Houston for a family visit soon he would love to meet Mike. The next day he bought a ticket to Houston. I won't bore you with all the details but basically after 2 months of interviewing, they created a position for Mike! He has accepted that position with a regional bank doing commercial mortgage lending on Monday.

  

We have lots of blessings and prayers associated with this news:

Praises!

1) I am 99% sure that Nike will let me keep my job and work remotely!

2) We have enrolled both kids in a Christian School that offers pre-preschool for Jack and Amelie through a Mothers Day Out program. I am a little nervous but am sure they will like it fine since is just 9-2 each day. It is definitely time for Jack, he loves playing and learning with other kids and I feel he has out grown the stay at home babysitting situation that has worked SOOO well for us for the past (almost) year. Amelie is super social and I am confident she will love the interaction. 

3) We found a lovely home in Houston and just got accepted on our lease there today!

4) We have a wonderful trip coming soon to celebrate my birthday and are looking forward to a somewhat leisurely road trip to Houston.

Prayers!

1) We need to least our house in Portland ASAP! Right now we are attempting to do this on our own. Before the offer we had a great family lined up but they bailed and in the past week the inquires are low.

2) The Move! We are starting to pack up (it is really sad) and are having a moving sale this weekend. I am really trying to get excited and fired up for the move but it is really hard.

3) Mike's job in Portland has been very stressful and now with the news of him leaving it has made for an uncomfortable situation there.

Thanks for praying and celebrating with us as we share this news with you.

On Monday, we took the kids to a nearby family friendly Japanese restaurant to celebrate.

 Jack and Amelie both enjoy edamame.  One of the sushi chefs brought over an orange carved into the shape of a bear with a belly full of pieces of the orange for the kids.

We go out so rarely to eat that it is such an adventure.

Just a sweet little update on this kids: Jack's new favorite thing is all of his animals and dinosaurs.  Dad calls him the animal king, and in response he says, "no daddy, you're the lion king".  Of course, since Jack is so interested in the animals, Amelie wants to play with the animals as well which has presented a great challenge to Jack to learn how to share.  Amelie is just as sweet as can be.  She is just 13 months old and she gives hugs, too sweet.  We think that she says, "Jack-Jack, Dada, Mama, and go-go".

Our little family will soon depart on a new adventure and it will be a very busy month of September. On the 10th we leave for a trip to St Thomas to celebrate my 30th birthday. On the 24th we are having a birthday/departure party and absolutely everyone will be invited to join. We will be in packing and moving mode after that. We will leave by October 1st for a road trip to Houston. Certainly there are lots of posts with updates and photos to come. We are so sad to leave all our dear family and friends in Portland but really excited about our new adventure and all that God has in store for us.

XOXO
Jen