It's been a while since I've done one of these! We've sent out a few newsletters in between past, sparse blogposts, and Miguel does an excellent job keeping everyone updated on social media. But sitting down and writing a general blog update has kept getting pushed to the back burner for me.
I tend to chalk up neglecting my blog to new seasons of life. Can anyone relate? I've considered revamping the entire thing and republishing it more as a website for our family, but I don't want to make that investment of time until we turn the corner into the next season.
Since the beginning of 2021 (see corresponding pictures at the end):
1. I took an extended weekend trip by myself in Jan. to FL to see my mom and sisters.
2. In Mar. we found out baby #2 is on the way!
3. Miguel took a two week work trip by himself in Mar./Apr. to MI because...
4. We bought a larger vehicle. The process was started before we found out about #2, but it conveniently all happened around the same time.
5. We found a house, five doors down on the same street, to work towards buying. Story details detailed in the next blogpost (coming soon).
6. At the invitation and generosity of a supporting church, we took a two week ministry trip as a family in Aug. to the greater Atlanta area.
7. When we came back from Atlanta, we found out baby #2 is another BOY!!
So, when I say "turn the corner into the next season," I'm referring to waiting until we've moved, gotten through the few teams we have booked for this summer, finished details on the new house, traveled to OH, birthed the baby, enjoyed the holidays, and settled back in at home next year! haha! (I'll reevaluate then how to move forward with the revamping blogging/website idea.) I do plan (hope?) to hop on here, in the meantime, with updates on the house and our family, for our own sake, at least.
I wanted a big part of this update to center around the house we're currently in the process of buying. It's been quite the journey (is buying a house ever an easy thing?), and I need to get it into writing before forgetting all the details. But, as I was writing it all out, I realized capturing everything in writing would turn into much more than one post can handle, so I've split that out into a second part (coming soon).
To conclude this post, I have some optional reading below as a prequel to the house buying adventure.
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We've talked a lot in person about how finding our rental house was such an answer to prayer back in 2017. We knew we wanted to move to Higuey as soon as possible after getting married. We had a long list of specific criteria we were praying for in a place, which mostly boiled down to the following, in no special order:
1. Miguel wanted a house, not an apartment. (I didn't object!)
2. Any place needed to have some kind of outdoor space for our dog. A bonus would be to have some grass and enough space for a small garden.
3. I wanted a decent sized kitchen, which can be hard to find around here. We knew our house would be a ministry tool for us to host people, which meant we'd be cooking a lot.
4. It needed to be a place with at least two bedrooms so we could always have an extra space to offer to anyone temporarily in need or any out of town/country visitors/family.
5. It needed to be within our budget of $250 a month, at the time.
6. Any place we moved to needed to be in a safe part of town.
We had looked at over 20 places total - Miguel by himself when he was in town doing ministry or both of us together when we came twice to look at options. (We lived about 40 min. away in an apartment at the time.) On our second weekend looking for places together, we stopped in to see our pastor and his wife for a minute to express our frustrations. With all those places, there was always something to keep us from wanting to rent them: they were in an iffy part of town, too small, apartments with no outdoor space, or too expensive. There was one first-floor apartment that we could have been ok with, but the kitchen was super tiny and Miguel really wanted a house. We were tired and discouraged and didn't know where to keep looking!
Our pastor's family had moved to town less than a year before that and were able to, not only, give us the number of the rental agent who helped them find their house, but also, give him a call right then to let him know what we were looking for. Within an hour, the new rental agent met up with us to show us two places. When we pulled up to the first place, Miguel and I looked at each other before we even got out of the car and said, "This is it." The agent explained he wouldn't have the keys to open the place until the next day, so it wasn't even listed yet as available to rent, but we could take a look around the property and see through the windows. We paid the deposit before leaving town that day! We like to say Miguel said "yes" to the mango trees in the back and I said "yes" to the big kitchen I saw through the windows.
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Pictures:
1. Jan. in FL.
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| We were all together for the first time in three years. |
2. Pregnancy announcement
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3. Apr., Miguel (back from) MI
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| A bonus of Miguel's trip to MI was being able to bring back a big batch of baseballs donated for our coaches. Getting them here and/or shipped here is almost twice the price. |
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| We were overjoyed to have Daddy home again after a long two weeks without our favorite man! |
4. "New" car
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| 7 passenger, vs. our former 5 passenger, with lots of extra space. So, 14 passenger Dominican style? |
5. Buying a house
This initiative is how our fundraising started. Now, we've raised over $28,000! The papers should be ready to sign next week.
6. Atlanta in June
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| Kai LOVED his first time back at the airport and on a plane in almost a year! |
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| We took over 90 lbs. of coffee with us to sell/fill pre-orders for our house fundraising initiative. |
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| Kai was thrilled with all the pool time we got at several different gracious hosts' places. He was made for pool life or pool life was made for him ;) |
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| As per usual, Miguel cooked a traditional meal at (almost) each place we stayed. |
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| We were busy being so spoiled and well taken care of, we barely remembered to take pics. the whole two weeks. But, thankfully, someone in this bunch remembered to take one as we were saying good-bye, and it will be a treasured one for years! We miss doing life with the Tantons and loved every second of the one, short day we got to spend with them. |
7. Halfway to welcoming baby boy
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| We can't wait to meet you, Little T <3 |
