Headin' Down Under

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Well, I've been waiting until we had a departure date to share, but we will be leaving for Australia come next Wednesday! Abe has a work trip that is taking us to Canberra, Australia for 3 months.  For a while we thought it would just be 6 weeks, but based on our last information it will be longer.  We don't know a whole lot right now, but here is what I do know:

• traveling to Australia will be like traveling into the future - it is a 14 hour time difference ahead of where we are in Virginia
• we will most likely be connecting through Los Angeles and Sydney before finally arriving in Canberra
• Canberra is the capital of Australia and about a 2 hour drive southwest of Sydney (or a one hour flight)
• locals pronounce Canberra "can-bra"
• where we are staying is still up in the air, but we will likely be at a hotel near Abe's office

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We are very excited and nervous for this grand adventure! I am most nervous about our 9 month old sleeping on the airplane and not crying the whole time.  And I'm also nervous about driving on the left side of the road. But I am seriously stoked about learning an australian accent and meeting new people on the other side of the world.  

We feel so blessed to be able to undertake this adventure and God has orchestrated so much to enable us to go.  I worked hard to keep my excitement from growing too much in the likely scenario that this trip would not happen.  But at every obstacle - an expedited passport for Evan, visas for all three of us, funds for traveling, working everything out with our schedule - God has provided! We are excited about what God has in store for us "down under" and how he will use these new experiences to shape us :) 

We would appreciate your prayers for a safe journey and for a happy baby as we leave next week! I'll try to post our adventures on here as we go along.  Blessings!

Evan at 9 Months

Already 9 months have gone by since I got to hold our little boy for the first time.  His little newborn face is forever etched in my memory, but I just LOVE getting to see him grow, learn, and discover new things every month.  Some months seem like definite growing and changing months, and this past one has been one.  It feels like the past four weeks have gone by sooooo slowly and I realized its probably because Evan has been changing so very much.

In the last month he has learned to scoot and then crawl, to pull himself up to standing, to "cruise" a little along furniture, to stand unassisted, to eat more finger foods, dropped his late afternoon nap altogether, and to recognize his name.  Though he isn't walking yet, I feel like it won't be long! We had a couple weeks where everyday we had at least one new bruise on his little head from falling or slipping.  He's a little steadier on his feet and bruises are farther between, but I'm sure that walking will bring more!

His 9 month check up is this coming week and I'm curious to see where he falls in his percentiles.  In his first 6 months he was outgrowing clothes every month, but his growing has certainly plateaued since then.  He's actually a nine month old wearing nine month clothing now :)

I've been having fun breaking out my SLR camera this last month in an effort to hone my skills, and Evan and Abe have been my chief subjects.  So I thought I'd share some of what we've been up to picture wise. Hope you enjoy!