Workin' Away... (Kristine)

       These next few weekends are going to be super important weekends for the Reed household, but not for the reasons they typically would. Sunday is our 6th anniversary as a married couple and the Saturday after that is Kristine's 30th birthday. We'll be spending those weekends working on our Oregon house to get it finished and ready to sell. We are super super close, but still have some painting on the inside and outside, some landscape work and finishing removing our belongings from the location. It is our hope that this can be accomplished in the next few weekends so we can formally list the house with an agent. If you are in the area and would like to visit/help let us know. If you want to watch Jenna while we work, that would be an awesome way to help as well. We'll be visiting with Eric's parents some while we're down there, so we're looking for help around those times.

      Lately we've been trying to find a new normal up in Washington. It's a weird feeling to feel "at home" but also in a time of transition. We don't want to invest too much in the house we're renting up here knowing we hope to move closer to Eric's work, but at the same time we want to enjoy the time while we're here. I've been starting to invite people over for play dates for Jenna and have been starting to get involved in mom's groups in the area. The weekends we've been able to be up here, we've attended a few churches. A couple might have the potential to be a home fellowship for us, but we don't feel like we've found the exact one yet. We're seeking God's direction in this and would love for you to join us in prayer for God to lead us to the right place to get plugged into. Which is another reason for getting our Oregon house done, to really invest in the area up here! 

      The weekend before last we stayed up here for the Arlington Air Show on Saturday. Eric was able to fly his plane in while Jenna and I took the short drive up there. Jenna loved seeing the different airplanes and helicopters. She did pretty well during the air show and stayed with our beach towel. She loved the grass more than the aerobatic pilots though. She also was convinced the military tanks were trains though... This girl is developing a serious love for trains which is hilarious because we barely have any trains in the house! She can hear them at our house though and says, "CHOO CHOO! TRAIN!" all the time. She's got good hearing! To redeem her on the airplane side, she can hear a plane in the air, spot it and say plane. She can even spot one while we're driving in the car. So I don't think airplanes are out of the "cool" toddler crowd yet. 

      I (Kristine) have found a great local Asian grocery store to buy most of our vegetables, sauces and meat from and am working on finding a great fruit stand, bread store and place to purchase dairy from. Yes there are big chain grocery stores, but I find the best values are at the local places. PLUS the Asian grocery store I found is fabulous. It's got nearly anything I could ever want for my Asian recipes which definitely encourages me to cook Asian food more often. I say Asian because obviously there are many many many different types of cultures and food in that part of the world. A part of the world we still hope to live in someday. :) It'll be fun to cook some of the same dishes as our friends in Indonesia in this part of the world. I guess it's kinda my way of coping with the transition, plus my family benefits on the great food. 

    Jenna has been thriving lately. She says multiple words and has great comprehension of the English language even though she doesn't say any real phrases yet. It's fun to see her excited to see other kiddos or light up when her favorite show is on. She loves digging in dirt and playing in water. Which makes gardening a good hobby for her. I am trying to teach her...we shall see what happens. I don't have a green thumb! Which is why I buy actual plants versus seeds. I figure if the plants already got a good start, we stand a chance. 

  Prayers for our health would be appreciated too. The past few days I've felt under the weather and I am not quite sure why. Jenna's been teething and being a picky toddler so that adds to things. Thanks so much for all your support. Please feel free to ask us any questions you like. :) Off to work as a mama!

Blessings,

The Reeds

A lot can happen in year

As a new candidacy class starts at Mission Aviation Fellowship I can't help but feel excitement for the new candidates, especially for a certain couple there that are our good friends. I remember how we felt last year, a mixture of nerves and excitement as we left our daughter with a sitter and sat in class for the first time. It was the start of a new journey, only at that time we didn't have a clue of what God was going to do in our lives the year to follow. We think back on our time at Candidacy with fondness about all the people at headquarters we got to know and the fellow students who at first were strangers, but now are lifelong friends. Right now we can relive that excitement as we wait to hear where God is sending our friends and as we focus on completing the tasks ahead of us to prepare us for the task of serving overseas. I'll give you an update on a few of them:


The Oregon House
We've been working hard on our home in Oregon on the weekends, but as you can imagine with a 4 hour drive each way and an adventurous toddler, it gets hard to complete everything. We have some painting left, some yard beautification work and a little more to clear out of the house until it's completely ready to list by August. We'd appreciate your prayers during this process because it's been hard to have quality family time when we're so busy. I might go down during the week to work on the house, but we'll see. Driving alone on the road with a toddler for that amount of time makes the trip feel much longer.

Jenna flying Daddy's plane

The Hiperbipe
As a plus, Eric moved up his plane this weekend to his new hangar location in Snohomish, WA. It's very different from the hangar in Oregon, but it's 10 minutes away from home and that is a vast improvement from close to 4 1/2 hours away. We cleaned up the hangar after we moved the plane out and it was kinda sad to leave it for the last time. But goodbyes are part of the transition process of moving. As a wife of a pilot and mother to an always on the move toddler, I like the Snohomish airport better because it's smaller, there's a great restaurant there, it's a short walk to the hangar, there are actual bathrooms nearby and a play structure for Jenna to play on while we wait for Daddy! Sounds funny, but from my perspective that's airport perfection right there. :) Sometime we'll get  the plane in an enclosed hangar again, but for now the price is right and the location is right.

Jenna at the Imagine Children's Museum

Church
As you can imagine, with us going back and forth nearly every weekend for the past few months we haven't had a great opportunity to find a church up in Washington yet. We've checked out a couple that look promising and hope to start to attend one of them more regularly once we list our home.

Eric reading a book to Jenna

Life in Washington overall is good. In August we'll have insurance from Eric's work so we can finally figure out doctors and set that up. In the mean time Jenna and I are still figuring out where the best and cheapest places are in town to get things. We're enjoying meeting new people in the mom groups up here and building lasting friendships. It's a transition, but we're excited about it. Eric likes his job too so that's a definite bonus. Right now we are just trying to follow God's lead in our lives, we still hope that He'll lead us overseas with Mission Aviation Fellowship, but in the mean time we are working on listening to His lead where we're at. There's peace in waiting.