The new chapter in our lives - revealed.......

It's close enough to being official that I can announce the fact that Mark has accepted a position at Spring Arbor University in Michigan!!

It's been a whirlwind of events that started the day after Easter! We had both accepted the fact that we would be here another year. The "hiring season" has somewhat passed in academia - so, you can imagine our surprise when Mark got an e-mail from the SAU asking if he was still interested.

With the timing of everything, we decided to see if it was possible to purchase a house and get a contract settled by the end of this month to take advantage of the tax credit. So far, so good. Mark and I drove up to Michigan so he could have his on campus visit and I could "shop" for houses. The housing market is pretty reasonable up there so it made sense to buy a house now even though we weren't planning on buying one until next year. It would be worth it in the end to get the credit - even though our savings is taking a bigger hit than I would have liked. The house that we are in the midst of trying to purchase is in Jackson, MI. It's 15 minutes from the university.

It's been a little crazy for us - we're going about things a little backwards - because of the April 30th deadline.

Needless to say, Mark's parents are thrilled with the move and are already making plans to come out!

Get a load of these stats....

Now---> Michigan
my parents - 9 hours away ---> 6.5 hours away
civilization(Target) - 45 minutes away ---> we're there
IKEA - 4 hours away ---> 1 hour!!!
Mark's parents - 21 hours away ----> 8 hours away!!!!!!!!

TO GOD BE THE GLORY

Matthew discovers the Disney channel

We let Matthew watch some PBS shows. This morning, I put the Disney channel on - clearly he was captivated by Handy Manny.

Chillin'

Chillin' with Daddy and watching Jonah

Sushi, anyone?

Mark got this for Matthew while he was in D.C. last week.

Lent is over

I was reminded over and over again of how weak I am.

The biblical perspective of trials..........

When Simon was forced to carry the cross for Christ, all he did was haul some wood. Christ carried infinitely more.

[Simon] carried only the wood of [the cross], he did not bear the sin that made it such a load. Christ did but transfer to Simon the outward frame, the mere tree. But the curse of the tree, which was our sin and its punishment, rested on Jesus’ shoulders still. Dear friend, if you think that you suffer all that a Christian can suffer, if all God’s billows roll over you, yet remember, there is not one drop of wrath in all your sea of sorrow. Jesus took the wrath. Jesus carried the sin.” — Charles Spurgeon

Easter 2010

Matthew looked pretty dapper in his seersucker suit today! He loved the Easter egg hunt - but was not very impressed with his candy(that's okay with me). We had a trial run Easter egg hunt when G'ma and G'pa H were here last week. I think he'll enjoy the Jonah Veggies Tales video, though.

Play ball!