The Next Leg

So, our trip to Peoria turned out to be very fruitful! We saw 22 houses in a day and a half and finally found just what we were looking for! After seeing 19 homes, neither Corey nor I felt convinced that God was leading us to any particular one, we had prayed diligently for clarity. Before starting day two of our house hunt Corey spent some time in silence trying to listen to what the Lord might be telling him about which home to choose. The answer kept coming back as "Wait." The problem was, at that point we didn't have any houses left to look at! Not sure what we were waiting for, we made the 40 minute drive from Havana to Peoria, hopeful that clarity was to be found. Our realtor also had the same uncertainty about the homes we had viewed, but graciously scheduled a second look for one we thought might be the one. With our very handy and knowledgable uncle in tow, we scoped out our choice. He was none too thrilled.

We decided, in faith, to wait.

Then the realtor tells us that one of her co-workers was selling her home, in our price range, near Corey's hospital and that she wanted us to take a look. She found out about it's recent place on the market (6 days!) from another realtor in their copy room! So...we checked it out and loved it! Even our uncle in all his detailed inspection couldn't find anything alarmingly wrong with this house despite it's less than youthful date of origin. Without further ado, here is a small preview of our new home on E. Frances Ave.!

We close on the house June 3rd and will get settled in to make Peoria our new home! More pics to come as we travel the great midwest!

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Alright folks, this blogging business is getting really difficult! For the next month we will be staying in 4 different houses, doing various things, in and out, over and under, and the computer is just going to have to wait. I want everyone to be able to keep up with our goings on, so I'm going to be posting to Twitter so that those of you interested in knowing when we land in Illinois, updates on the new baby coming in October and thus can follow us there. You can choose to get texts sent to your phone or to log in and view my page just as you would the blog. To follow us directly go here.

transistion

Nicki has a fantastic camera that I COVET! I LOVE her camera, these are a few of the shots she's taken recently of Ash and Will. Above-Ash's real smile vs. what he does when we tell him to smile. His little personality is really emerging and he is SIL-LY!

Tub time fun with Will.

Pillow fightin'

Ok so it's been a LONG while. We found out on March 19th that Corey matched to his first choice for residency in Peoria, IL!! We're incredibly excited to start this journey but also melancholy about leaving our friends here. It's hard to believe 4 year has come and gone and that the incredible men and women who have loved us and taught us so much about ourselves, our marriage, our faith, will have to be left to long distance. I try not to dwell on it.

Living in Weatherford with the McGees has been lots of fun, but has also made the reality of separating Will and Asher all the more glaring. They really enjoy one another and will surely feel the void when we leave. They have been sharing a room and sleep really well together for both naps and night time, I think they actually sleep better together than they did apart!!! Nicki and Matt have been so kind and hospitable, this blessing they have bestowed on us means a great deal, I know that God will bless them in great measure for all they are doing for our family without any expectations of getting rewarded in return. Though I think I'm getting a little spoiled by living in such a nice house!!

So now we've started the daunting task of house hunting for the first time. There are some incredibly cute homes at affordable prices in Peoria, so I'm faithful that we'll find a gem there. I can't believe we're going to be home owners!!! I'll try to post pic of the final options when we get narrowed down. We'll be traveling on April 15th to see a few options and hopefully lock in something! Exciting and scary all at once!!!!

More to come...

Daniels Family Thirft Store

Well folks, the move is underway. We've sold many of our bigger furniture items thanks in part to the glorious wonder that is Craig's List. We LOVE Craig. Each room of our house is now disassembled and broken down into departments with towers of various items available for the lucky garage salers who will be gracing our purging endeavor this weekend. The hope is that we make enough to buy a king sized bed when we move to our new residency home (just a few more days until we know the spot!!!), the rest of the furniture will be bought when the price is right. In truth, we're pretty excited about roughing it for a bit, learning what our tastes really are as thus far in our lives we've made style of other people's hand me down furniture and accessories. We've decided to travel with just a handful of possessions; Corey's recent art work, pots and pans, Asher's crib and dresser. The rest will come as time and paycheck allow. This is a fun time for us, but also disheartening with the impending upheaval upon us, it's hard to believe we can't take our amazing friends and family with us!!!

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On a lighter note, here are a few of the words Asher has added to his vocabulary:
cracker
pooh
bear
pow pow (our word for punishment)
nana (banana of course)
ball
owee
car

He has also learned to say "share" and "thank you" in sign language. 15 months is so much fun!!!

Toddler Hysteria

Seriously folks, something of this nature happens every single day. It is such a joy to have these boys growing up together. They are ridiculous!

Gaps

Well folks, things have been busy around here. With Match Day fast approaching we are trying to make decisions about how to "make it" until Corey gets that first glorious paycheck. In doing our budgeting we discovered that we only had enough moolah to support us until May at our current standard of living, but really it needs to last until JULY! So, we embarked on an adventure in prayer and faithfulness, asking God to provide us a new place to live for free where I could still watch sweet little Will. We had several options, but took two days to pray and be still, listening for God to speak some form of wisdom to us regarding what the next phase in life should be. All we kept hearing that day was "wait." We had a couple that we wanted to approach, but for some reason God kept whispering...."wait." And then, at 930 that evening, I get a call from Will's mom, telling me that her husband suggested that we move in with them!!! After a good talk last night to ensure we were on the same page, it looks like we'll be selling all of our stuff and settling down in Weatherford for a few months. It just goes to show, you never know who God as an answer to prayer.

Also, here are a couple of pics from Asher's first deliberate art experience. It's a very good thing that crayons are non-toxic as I think he ate as much as he colored.

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