Our New Place

A few of you have been asking what our new place is like. Well, we are still not completely moved in yet (note the lack of art on the wall), but here are a few pictures to give you a sense of what our new Floridian home is like.

The Kids' Room (As you can see, Kate thought it would be a good idea to put her own art on the wall... :)

Our Bathroom (& Me at 29 weeks :)

Mark in the Kitchen and an Unpacked Patio

The Kitchen & Patio

The Kids'/ Guest Bathroom

Our very undecorated Room :)

The Living Room

More of the Living Room

As you can see, it's a work in progress, but we're pretty happy with it so far. The pool is just across the parking lot and we swim almost every day. Oh, and of course, the dishwasher and washer and dryer are a dream!!!

Settling In

We are finally settling in to our new life in Boca Raton. It has been an incredible month and a half! Our coast to coast road trip was an absolute blast. You can see pictures here. I have to say, the kids did amazingly well. Of course, we did break down and buy a double screen car DVD player and it was a LIFESAVER! There were plenty of times it wasn't on though and the kids really did thoroughly enjoy much of the drive. Our main stops were Tucson, Carlsbad Caverns, San Antonio and New Orleans. All amazing places, none of which we had been to before! The last night on the road we drove from New Orleans to Siesta Key where Grandma and Grandpa Dunk were waiting for us (well, really they were sleeping and expecting us the next day, but we woke them up at 4am instead). We had a great time relaxing in the sun and hanging out with them before we had to head across the state to our new home.

Mark had to begin work on the 15th of August. We knew we wouldn't have our stuff from the movers yet and that Mark would have long days starting his new job and finishing his dissertation, so Grandma and Grandpa decided to come over and help us after their vacation in Siesta Key. They were so generous and we couldn't have done it without them! The day they left, Aunt Katie came to help. We were still without our stuff, so she had to rough it with us on air mattresses. She was quite the sport about the whole thing. Aunt Katie was here for the whole week and we had a great time exploring Boca. It was so nice to have a familiar face when everything around us seemed so unfamiliar. And, true to form, the day that our stuff arrived from California, Papa showed up just in time to help unpack! He was an unbelievable help and was so kind to pack us up in California and then meet us in Florida to unpack.

Over labor day, Mark traveled back to California where he successfully defended his dissertation, officially becoming Dr. Bullio! Or as his current students call him, Dr. B! We've spent the remainder of the month trying to unpack and settle in to our new normal. We still have plenty of boxes (mostly books ;) to unpack. We have been incredibly blessed to meet some wonderful people already! More pictures to come!

Goodbye Kidd Family! And Goodbye Verano!

We just said goodbye to this beautiful family and we are very bummed, to say the least. Hope and I became friends in the Fall of her first year here, six years ago. She was pregnant with Ethan at the time and I wanted to be pregnant. Being married to philosophers, we became fast friends. Our children have grown up together and been "besties" since they were born. Mark and I became the children's godparents when they came into the Church this past Easter. They really are a wonderful family and it's hard to imagine life without them so close. We will miss you dearly Kidd Family! Best wishes on your new journey!

It's also hard to imagine life without Verano. Mark and I have been here our entire married life. We have grown as a married couple here, had our children here and experienced the ups and downs of grad school life together. All seven of our married years have been here. I think I'm simply at a loss for words and have not quite processed the whole transition. I am truly grateful for this community and all the friends we have met here. I wish I could thank you all individually before we go and I will try. From sharing meals and children's birthday parties to being at at many of your children's births, our time in Verano has been incredibly blessed and rich and that is because of all of the incredibly wonderful people here. I hope each of you know how much and how deeply you touched our lives. Thank you for that!

IT'S A BOY!!!

We just came back from the doctor where I had my 20 week ultrasound and found out it's a BOY! We are very excited over here! Well, it took quite a bit of convincing Kate to get excited, but I think we've finally convinced her that another little brother might just be alright. Everything looks great!

Florida Here We Come!

It's official! We're moving to Florida in August. We're moving to Boca Raton, which from what I gather is a bit like the Irvine of the East Coast. It's also fairly far South in Florida, between West Palm Beach and Ft. Lauderdale. Mark got a teaching position at a prep school there and we are eternally grateful for the opportunity and of course, for all of the prayers!

We have known this for a long time now, but with all the moving craziness, it's just been a bit too busy to blog, not to mention I had a very hard first trimester and Mark has been working like a mad man! Please pray for Mark as he finishes his dissertation (working at least 12 hour days, no less). And please pray for us as we prepare for this new chapter in our lives! It's very exciting!

We are also planning on shutting our babyhomepages site down in a few months. This blog will become our family's main blog. I will spend the next few months figuring out how to have a picasa or flickr link, so that we can still post a bunch of pictures!

So, I haven't posted in FOREVER because....

We've basically been sick over here since the beginning of January. Not to worry though - I'm updating lots of pics over at our babyhomepages site. In the meantime, a couple of quick takes to bring us up to speed:

1. We celebrated Mark's birthday by going to the San Diego Wild Animal Park on Saturday. Sunday, we watched football (Go PACK!) and had an impromptu German themed birthday party complete with brats, potato salad, beer and of course, a German chocolate cake . I think it's safe to say it was a rocking time.

2. Kate told me the other day that the blinds were, "trembling in the breeze." They were indeed blowing - pretty cute, huh?

3. We are very excited about the Packer win! Pretty sure we're the only ones out here though, so in that way, it's all a bit anti-climactic.

4. Both Kate and Luke have eye infections, ear infections, fevers and the like. Poor little ones, they've been sick so much lately.

5. Mark is getting ready to attend a Conference in DC called The LINK. I can't remember what it stands for right now.... Anywho, it's a conference for hiring at independent prep schools nationally as well as internationally. Slowly, it's come to our attention that there does exist opportunities beyond the world of academia!!! Mark and I both feel good about the decision to pursue this possibility and believe that the Lord has a plan for us. Please pray that opportunities will open up for Mark and that the Lord will place us where he wants us.

6. For some reason I have been thinking about adoption a lot lately. It's all so new that I won't say much yet besides this: I know that we won't adopt (if we do) for some time. I think what has really been pressing on my heart in prayer lately is that there are 147 million orphans in the world. That is A TON of kids without moms and dads to love them. Often, these orphans live with hunger and disease, they don't have medical care or someone to hold them when they're hurting. Many of these children die from starvation and neglect. I know that adoption is a special call, a ministry really, but Christ calls us ALL to care for orphans.

There are so many stories gripping my heart, but one thing I have learned in the past few weeks is that in the Ukraine, there are many babies with special needs, especially down syndrome. These Down Syndrome children have until they are 4 years old to be adopted. If they are not adopted by 4 they will be place in a mental institution where 95% of them will die! I also found out that many orphanages in the third world separate children with special needs. The children in the special needs room might get little to no care and be drugged (often on adult sleeping pills! around the clock!). In China, there exists a stigma with children diagnosed with Autism. They believe that you can "catch it" by touching and interacting with them, so autistic children are left alone with no one to care for them... All of this touches me to the core. It breaks my heart and causes me to ask what more I can do to help. If you're interested, here are a couple of wonderful blogs on the topic:

Katie at Amazima Ministries in Uganda

No Greater Joy Mom

147 Million Orphans You can buy those awesome magazine bead necklaces here. Check em out!

Hello Kitty + Spiderman = True Love

Today we celebrated Kate's 4th birthday and Ethan's 5th birthday. There was a pinata, bounce house, pizza, cake and plenty of merriment to go around! Here are some pics of the event.