what we thought was just a random day off…

tuesday – june 5th – bill had one more day to burn for his vacation this year and I was adamant that he took it before he lost it (like he had last year). so he took it today.  we had a laid back morning and I went to workout. then when I returned we took the kids to Oxbow Park and went for a hike. charlie was walking, ellie was on my back in the ergo and bill had claire in our backpack. let’s just say hiking with kids on your back is easier than hiking with them loose. charlie did great, but it was just a different sort of hiking experience. when I hike I like to keep a quick pace and cover some ground – a 3 year old doesn’t necessarily have the same goals. we had lots of stops to pick dandelions (for me, which was so sweet), a bit slower pace and a much smaller route, but it was still great to get out together.

you can kind of see claire here.

after hiking, we went to the zoo that is in the same park. we did a quick loop of the animals as it was getting close to lunch time and we were slowly losing the kids. we came home and had lunch, got the girls to sleep and as bill was about to put charlie to sleep he said “I should check my phone for emails” (because we have been waiting to hear from the NZ fellowship about the position). I was cleaning up at this time and thought – wouldn’t it be awesome if we found out today because bill is off work and if he got it we would be able to celebrate?. a second later I hear “we got it”. my response was “what?!” “are you being serious??” then “we got it” so basically…

WE’RE GOING TO NEW ZEALAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Praise God! HE has truly orchestrated EVERY detail about this opportunity for Bill and our family. It is humbling to watch the God who created the universe also craft our next steps. How awesome that Bill and I were able to find out today and celebrate during naptime by talking about NZ and different details that we hadn’t really let ourselves talk about until we had concrete plans. I am SO PROUD of weyam for all of his hard work and incredible patient care, which has paved the way for this fellowship. there were 20 qualified, good applicants from around the world that were up for this job and they said in their email to bill that “although there was a lot of competition for this position the ultimate choice was easy in the end”. way to go weyam!

we don’t know a lot of specifics yet, but basically we will start at the beginning of July 2013 (probably the day after we are done here it will be that tight) and then finish the following July (2014). it seems both far away and right around the corner. I can’t wait to start purging!!! we ended our day with a BBQ with the Ekbom family. Dale is an ENT consultant at Mayo and friends of ours. it was great to talk things through with them and get their insight about the many decisions we have ahead of us. what a wonderful day!

this is random, but an adorable picture of bill with his girls under the water mushroom at the RAC last night.