New Additions!

We haven't been home to England in over a year and a half, so haven't seen quite a lot of our family since then.

Now that we've been gone for so long, it seems like a lot of people are seizing the opportunity to come and visit us, and see us where we are.

Last month brought a visit from Chris' sister and bro-in-law. Which was great to see them, but also exciting, as they came with our new niece Ayla!

At just five weeks old, they brought her across the Atlantic to come for a visit!

The trip brought a lot of firsts - including a trip for Ayla's first swim!

It was great to see one of our nieces so young!

Embracing all things American - we took Nic and Sarah to their first college basketball game!

It was so good to catch up and spend time together. It does remind me of how much I miss our family, and how much I wish we could see them more often.

Especially those that just aren't able to come and see us, and come explore all things Texan with us!

Twists and Turns

So our adventure is about to take a turn that a few months ago, we would never have predicted!

From the end of August, we will no longer be in San Antonio, TX, no longer working with the church that we have been partnered with for 4 years.

Bittersweet

Unpredictable

A new season is coming - who knows what that will look like.

In the crazyness of these revelations, we finally have travel documents and work permits.

The ironic thing is we have now been gone so long that so many people are coming to see us, that we have no time to leave the country!

We had all our fingerprints taken - now we wait again. I feel we've gotten pretty good at this waiting stuff.

We have a lot of other things to work through and consider at the moment, where are we going to go, what are we going to do, how are we going to afford to do it?

One thing we sense God speaking to us - this is a time to seek, a time to stop and rest, wait upon him and to seek his face.

To search him out, to find out what he is doing in this world, what he is doing in our lives and how we are going to be a part of it.

"Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29 v 12-13

"But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul" Deuteronomy 4 v 29

"Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always" 1 Chronicles 16 v 11

"Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you." Psalm 9 v 10

"I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands" Psalm 119 v 10

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Matthew 6 v 33

New Year in the North East!

This Christmas we didn't make it home - still in our green card process, we are still waiting for travel documents to be able to leave the country. We are trusting God that he still has a plan and purpose in what is going on, and that He is still faithful.There was obviously sadness in not being able to spend such a special time with all of our family, but we remained incredibly grateful that we have each other to be able to spend time together.

We also made the most of our opportunity to travel a little and see some new places within the states.

Before we got married, we made a commitment to see 20 things together, so we seized the opportunity to knock another one of those things off our list! Plus have a little fun seeing some other cool places!

So we got planning and booked our trip to head north to New York and travel around to see Niagara Falls!

We also got to make it to Washington DC and arrived back into New York to enjoy New Years in the craziest, busiest city in the US, watch the famous ball drop and enjoy some city time!

So I thought I would share some of our pictures and experiences from our adventures.

We didn't have a lot of time in Washington D.C. but we did make it to some of the major sites to see! We got to see the Lincoln memorial, which was one of those moments of being able to see something in real life that you've seen on tv and in the movies. It was pretty impressive to see him in real life - I resisted temptation to go and sit on his lap!

Through those gates, you can see the White House! We learned some pretty cool facts about the House (including that many years ago, the Brits burned it down, whoops!).

Capitol Hill! Not to be confused with the White House! This is America's version of Parliament, where all of the Senators and Representatives come to work. It was pretty big!

Niagara Falls!
This place was incredibly cold, but so beautiful and amazing!

There was ice everywhere, and watching the beauty of the falls, there was incredible power in the water, watching it cascade over the falls. We did have to be incredibly careful not to slip head first into the falls!! ;)

New Years Eve in New York, we took a walk in Central Park and enjoyed some time to be able to stop for a little, and talk through what we hoped for the New Year and what some of our new years resolutions would be.

It was a great 6 days away, with some more adventures and fun seeing some new places that we enjoyed!

Again, I am just so thankful to have my best friend along for the ride, with an incredible sense of adventure and desire to see new places. I love the times we are able to switch off and explore new things together!