Through Ella's Eyes

We just wanted to let you know that Ella has started her own blog! So, instead of litering this blog with a ton of pictures of Ella, we now have a blog where we can post millions of pictures of her unashamed!

Here is the link for those of you who are interested our adventure to Bolivia through Ella's eyes:

www.ellainbolivia.blogspot.com

Friends

This past week we have been reminded of how blessed we are to have such wonderful friends. We have really been showered with love this past week as we have said our goodbyes to so many people that we will miss living life with.

My dear friend Erin and I have been on an eerily similar life pattern ever since we met 8 years ago. We first met at the Chicago airport as we boarded the plane headed to Africa. We spent the next year together on a roller coaster adventure in Kisumu, Kenya, serving at Agape Children's Ministry. We both have degrees in exercise science, got married within 3 months of each other, both went back to school to get nursing degrees, and our first borns are only 3 weeks apart. It has been amazing to go through life with her and we have been blessed to be living just 45 min apart for the past several years. With the looming realization that we are about to hit a huge fork in the road, me going one way and Erin going the other, we made plans to have a toddler free trip together to Columbus. (Actually Erin did ALL the planning and I just showed up!) We had a wonderful time hanging out and catching up!

This is the most recent picture of Erin and I that I have. It is obvious that we only take pictures of our kids now....

I went from my time with Erin right into a going away party thrown for us by our community at church. We have been a part of this community for the past 5 1/2 years, long before any of us had any children. It has been such a blessing to have these amazing friends to walk along side as we all grew in careers, grew our families, and grew in the Lord. They threw us an awesome party (including a rendition of the "Amazing Race" game through a park) a time of prayer, great food and fellowship. We will greatly miss having wonderful friends at our fingertips.

Us with our awesome Bolivia Cake, courtesy of our friend Willa

Ella and her Buds

The Girls

We have moved!

As of the end of June, we are officially out of our condo! I'm not exactly sure how it happened as the last few weeks of June seem to be a blur in our minds. I DO know that it would have never happened without the help of so many wonderful friends. A special thanks to those of you who allowed us to borrow your trucks and also helped by watching Ella while we packed. We are also so thankful that we have two families letting us store some of our things in their basements. We feel very blessed to have sold all the items we needed to sell before we had to be out of our condo. Thankfully we only had to move our stuff once!

So where are we living now? John's parents have generously shared their home with us for the month of July before we leave. It's wonderful for Ella to be somewhere familiar. She has taken all of this change very well, although we have started to see some behavior in her that we think has been brought on by all of this change. It was hard for her to see some of our things 'walk' our of our home as other people bought our things. I never thought she would start crying as our computer chair went out the door! Every time she wakes up from a nap she wants to take EVERYTHING out of her crib with her, as if someone might take it away if she doesn't keep an eye on it. Overall, she has been so flexible with all of the change that has been going on around her and for that we are so thankful.