Saturday, September 22, 2012

Jennavieve's First Flight -Written by Eric


Jennavieve's first flight in an airplane! I thought it went pretty well, but I couldn't tell what Jenna was thinking. I think from the time the engine started until we were stopped she had kind of a blank stare. She almost looked frightened, but she didn't let out a noise. We had earmuffs on her to protect her hearing and wrapped up her head to make sure they stayed on her, but I think she really didn't know what to make of all the noise anyway. Next time we see how my tighter headset works for her. I think if she can hear my voice she might have a little fun with it.
So now we have to figure out someone to watch Jenna while I take Kristine up again. I haven't taken her up since Jenna was born.

Where did the summer go?

Autumn is officially here, and boy do we feel it in the Pacific Northwest. Almost immediately a switch was turned off and the sun went away, the air became colder and clouds became gray and overcast instead of white and fluffy. This leads us to say, "Where did the summer go?"
Jenna flying at the Children's Museum
Jenna and Eric at the Arlington Air Show


We know we've been kinda quiet over here at "Taking off with the Reeds", but don't let our lack of online presence fool you. We've been here, just extremely busy. As you know, earlier on in the year we decided to take a break from Mission Aviation Fellowship to work on a few things so we'll be more prepared when we return. The minute we took that step back, we felt more at peace and relieved. God began to open doors showing us that this was indeed what we were to do. God provided a job for Eric in Woodinville and a rental house for us to live in near his work. He provided people to help us move as well. Once these things were taken care of in May, we began work on our first major task, getting the Oregon house ready to sell and listed.

Not knowing just how much extra work it would be with a toddler, we had anticipated things to take about a month to a month and a half to finish. Without a toddler, that would be a correct timeline, however with a toddler it ended up doubling. We started work in May and came down nearly every weekend this summer to work on it. We completed work and listed it officially on Monday of this week. While we were working on the house a real estate agent came to us wanting to take on our house to sell it. When we met with them, we agreed completely on their strategy and were thankful God took care of that detail for us. We were thankful during this time for Eric's parents allowing us to stay in their home and for Kristine's (my) parents for watching Jennavieve.

In August we took a weekend off to celebrate our sixth anniversary and Kristine's 30th birthday by going to Canada. Kristine's parents watched Jenna so we could relax and enjoy ourselves. We went to Vancouver Island, visited Victoria and stayed at wonderful restaurant in Nanaimo, B.C. It's definitely a place we want to go back and explore again. We love Canada and are very thankful to live so close to it!


Towards the beginning of September, something unexpected happened at our rental house, which actually wasn't a surprise, so I guess maybe we expected it? Ever since we moved into our rental house, there have been issues. When we first moved in, there was new housing going in behind the house so there were many different construction workers and equipment going down the alley by our home and parking on our property. When we moved in, there was a  smell downstairs that Kristine noticed. It was in the carpet and smelled like mildew. Nothing we tried could solve it, so the owners replaced the carpet. We thought we were done, but the mold/mildew came back in full force and by the beginning of September, we had to move out all our belongings from downstairs to a storage facility so a mold specialist could take care of the house. This is all during the time we were trying to finish our Oregon house and plan Jenna's second birthday party. Crazy Crazy timing eh?

We ended up cancelling Jenna's birthday party with her toddler friends and went to the zoo with Eric's sister Marguerite. It was a great day! Jenna had the opportunity to feed Giraffes and some birds as well as see and pet many animals. We ate at Paseo for lunch and came back home for Jenna to open gifts. She had a good time, and that's all we cared about.

As of today, the work downstairs is finally being completed in this rental house. We have a few months left on the lease, so we've been looking at houses to purchase closer to Eric's work. Of course, our move is entirely dependent on selling the Oregon house, so we'd covet your prayers that the house would sell quickly! If you are interested or know someone that is, here's the link:
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1038-Munkers-Ct-SE-Salem-OR-97317/53023830_zpid/



Another step we had on our agenda was to find a home church. As you can imagine, with us being busy most every Sunday, this was no easy task. After checking out a few churches on the Sundays we had free, we decided to check out a few more. One had ways for Kristine to plug in so for now she's joined a bible study as well as the MOPS group. She feels better to be grounded in a church again. Eric's going to start going to a bible study near his work too. Once we get more settled we hope to start some marriage coaching to help us on communication skills, one thing that we found out we needed to work on while serving with MAF.

But for now, we're taking things one step at a time. We really appreciate those who have stuck with us through this process. We're definitely taking our time and praying throughout this process to seek God's will for our family. We'll update you as we go. If you're not on our Facebook group, request to join. We hope to update there much more frequently.

Thanks again for all your prayers, we appreciate it.

In Christ,
The Reeds