a new adventure.

Since his birth I've staring at the wall of Baby Whit's nursery a lot.  (The chair where I nurse faces it, so...)

Upon that wall are these words...

When I first hung this piece of artwork up, I thought - "This is perfect for our new baby!  It is all about having an adventurous spirit and trusting God and being 'born for such a time as this!'" I loved it and thought it could inspire our babe as he grows up.

But I now know these words were actually meant for me.

You see, recently an opportunity presented itself to our little family.  My husband was offered a position in his company that would mean we would have to relocate to Europe - for several years at least.

Exciting!  Adventurous!  Scary!  I questioned God's timing.  Why would this come about now, when we have a brand new baby?  When we have built solid friendships here and a sense of community - both in our neighborhood and church and beyond? When everything seemed so comfortable and safe?

But as my husband reminded me recently:

"Life begins at the edge of your comfort zone."

Such a great quote.  God doesn't give us our best life by keeping things "safe" - he wants us to trust in Him.  I believe that sometimes He pushes us to our limits so that we learn to trust Him and that nothing else is going to give us his level of comfort and peace.  Not jobs, not houses, not people, not stuff...just Him.

So I sat there in the nursery, butt glued to the chair, breastfeeding our tiny new babe day after day, staring up at the those words in clear, bold black and white font...and it was like God was speaking straight to my heart.

I was born for such a time as this.  I needed to give God room in my life to prove himself faithful.  I needed to let faith, not fear be my guide.  All of it.  Speaking to me.  For this time, about this decision, right now.

Hubby and I are no strangers to adventure, or uprooting our lives.  He moved to Minnesota from Kentucky at age twenty -- and praise the Lord that he made that move...as it led us to meet each other!

Then he moved to Jackson, Tennessee for a job after he graduated college, where he began his career and made some amazing friends.

I briefly (brief as in two weeks) moved from St. Paul, MN to Portland, OR before deciding to move right back to continue to date Paul, and see where our relationship might lead.  Then I moved from Minnesota to Cincinnati after I graduated college, leaving the only state I'd ever lived in and pretty much everything I'd ever known...again, to see if a relationship with my now-husband could work.  (It does!)

We survived all those moves, those big changes, and as I look back, each one enriched our lives in some way or taught us something invaluable. In each situation we had each other, so I guess that says something about our relationship and God's plan.

So, after several weeks of prayer and discussion, and me staring up at that the words of that sign, Hubby and I decided to accept the job and move our family across the ocean.  We will move sometime in early spring!

I have no idea how I'll cope raising three small children in a foreign country.

I have no if it will be good or not-so-good for my mental state.

But those are all uncertainties that I will pray about and give to God.

For those curious we will be moving to Amsterdam. We have traveled there together once,  before we ever thought we would end up moving there.  (Read about that trip here.)

in the city.

in the country.

Prayers would be much appreciated, friends, as well as advice from others who have done the ex-pat thing.  We are both nervous and excited about what life may bring!

Have you ever had to move due to a job opportunity?  

Is there a new opportunity in your life that excites you, but you are avoiding because it seems a bit scary or uncomfortable?

Friend, my prayer for you is to pray, trust, and go boldly!

the beach.

Last week we had the opportunity to spend a week at the beach with part of Hubby's side of the family -- our first vacation with them ever!  There is always a little nervousness at the prospect of spending a week with extended family - or any big group - especially when it involves children.

I needn't have worried about this trip, though.  It went about as well as it could go when you have toddlers, babies, and various family units cohabiting in one house for a week!  It was very relaxed, as we didn't really make a lot of plans.  We ate all our dinners at "home" together as a big group, while the rest of the meals were grab-and-go, depending on where we were at the time.

Though the weather was rainy some days, cloudy and windy others, with a bit of sunshine here and there - not ideal beach weather - we still found things to do and enjoy our time together!  We found a big park with huge playground for the kids, tried to get to the beach whenever it was decent out, hit up a couple state parks, and I even got some "alone time" -- which I spent buried in bed,  alternating between napping and reading Harry Potter.  Bliss!  Oh, and I even got in a few rainy runs on the beach.  

Took a ton of pics, per usual.  Here is a small sampling!   I'll let them and their captions give you a glimpse of our week...

en route to the beach - rest area shenanigans.

tiny daisies.

bouquet from cormac.

"Are we there yet???"

we made it!  the first day was the sunniest!

sister pic!

The sand was a big hit with both littles.  Particularly Fin who likes to immerse herself fully in nature.

Paul dragged both kids into the waves.  Neither liked it at all.

our home for the week

Had a few Alfred Hitchcock moments after Finola fed some seagulls a Pringle 

beach snuggles with dada.

Almost everyone loves to swing...

Hugo the turtle got chased around the nature center quite a bit that day.

at the nature center we found during a park outing. 

learning to be gentle with the baby ducks.

the kids put on the sweetest performance of 'Let it Go' from Frozen.

we clearly have some little performers in our family.

"Good night Gulf Shores!!!!!!" 

Despite her cold, Sloane was a joy to be around.  Got my baby fix!!!!

Emmie took this pic of Paul and Fin -- love the daddy/daughter dancing moment she captured.

had to flag down the creepy ice cream truck for a treat!

Date night!  The fam watched our babies so we got a night out! Ate yummy seafood at this little spot on a super windy evening!  Then we went to see a movie...because that is what we do.  Dead Pool was so good!

gumbo and beer.

fat delicious oysters.

Jen is so good at getting cute pics of her girls!!!!  Even on a windy beach day!

Fin - and see Hubby waaaaaay in the background with his boogy board?

These two beauties are only ten months apart and giggled together quite a bit on this trip...especially the night Cormac fell asleep early!

"Can't you see I totally got this, Uncle Ben?"

Fin had fun throwing sand back into the ocean.

Cormac was not into the ocean...but threw his heart into collecting a bucketful of seashells.  Love that kid.

Some of Cormac's beach spoils.  

can I just say that the selfie stick does wonders for getting kids to smile for photos????

I took a run on the beach the last day - despite the rain I still enjoyed some sand in my toes.

after checking out a million beach houses I decided I like the pale pink ones the best.  this beauty needs some love but so fab!

the gulf on that last rainy run.

Bye bye beach!  We had fun!

After saying goodbyes and checking out of the beach house our little fam drove halfway home and did one of our favorite things -- hotel + pool + pizza.  Thankfully our kids seem to love it as much as we do.  Cormac's questions about hotel rules were kinda awesome.  And Finola only called the front desk about thirty times...and wiped pizza sauce on the white duvet.  Good times!

The next morning we drove back to real life.

Renovation.

Routine.

Reality.

I'm blessed to be able to spend both vacation and normal everyday life with some pretty sweet folks.

driving home -- we loved vacay!