Our big news for the year was Andy's new job and our move. Andy graduated from his fellowship program at CHOP and began a new job at a community hospital in the PICU. (Yes, Andy is now an attending physician after 4 years of med school, three years of a peds residency, one year of a chief residency and three years of a PICU fellowship. That represents a lot of school loans, long hours and hard work by Andy. But by the grace of God he survived, our marriage survived and he's an excellent doctor. YAY!) It's quite a change from CHOP and, as much as he loved CHOP, overall it's been a good one both for him professionally and for us as a family. We see a lot more of him which makes us all happy.
His new hospital allowed us to move much closer to my parents. In fact, we moved right in with them for the summer! It was a full house since my sister's family was there as well, but my parents were gracious and even acted a bit sad when we quickly found a new home which we closed on and moved into in October. The fact that it is only 2 miles from them meant there wasn't much of a dramatic goodbye! We were, however, very sad to say goodbye to Beth's family when they moved because the cousins became very close during their summer together. We're hoping Nate will come stay with us for a few days when his new baby brother arrives.
We put our house in Haddonfield on the market in the spring and moved in with my parents in the summer while we began our house hunt. I guess house selling and house hunting put us in the mood to travel because we went on two special (and grand) trips during those times. In the spring we spent a week in Disney World with (and courtesy of) my parents and both of my sisters and their families. It was amazing! We had so much fun as a family, the weather was perfect and the kids loved all the parks. In the summer we packed our bags again (literally the day after having packed up our boxes to move to my parents' house) and headed to England with Donna. This trip had been in the works for a long time and it was fantastic. We spent time with Andy's family who welcomed us with open arms and also got to sneak in a little touristy stuff on the side. We were sad to say goodbye, but are hoping to have a mini-reunion at Justin and Elisabeth's wedding next summer.
We were fortunate that our Haddonfield home sold relatively quickly given the current market and as much as we miss that house (we truly loved it!), we are smitten with our new home. It's both cozy and open at the same time and we've all settled nicely into it. Plus, it's in a neighborhood that I've loved since childhood.
The girls love our new home and proximity to more family. They spend lots of time with my parents and are already getting to know my grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins better. Since our new house has lots more room, they have anointed the guest room as Nonna's (yes, we have a bona fide guest room and bath! come visit, friends!) and love to show her around our new neighborhood. Madeleine and Avonlea are so blessed by the love of family near and far!
Maddie's big news this year was starting nursery school (for two and a half hours, two days a week). She loved it from the first day and we've only had one tearful drop-off when silly Mommy forgot her Peppa Pig backpack. Sunday School has been a hit as well. Maddie is still a willful and emotional little girl which means she is either SO HAPPY and giddy or can be SO SAD and hard to console. But, she's learning to control her emotions and be more obedient and while it's still a work in progress, we are thankful for the maturity she is gaining. And it turns out she is very obedient and calm when it's her teacher talking to her! In our opinion, she is smart as a whip, funny and adorable...but I guess every parent thinks that about his or her child!
Avonlea is still home with me all the time to my delight (no sarcasm there, I really love having my girls with me!). She is sad to say goodbye to Maddie at school drop-off and shrieks with delight and screams "HI MADDIE" at each pick-up. Suffice it to say, the girls adore each other. They definitely have times when they will fight over a toy or just push each others' buttons, but more often than not they are playing together happily. Avonlea has a great vocabulary for a 21-month old so they actually have little conversations. Avvie is still our happy girl who delights in a good meal, a long nap, being cozy, playing with her favorite toys and cuddling with her favorite people (Uncle Tim, most of all!). As she approaches two we definitely are seeing her will emerge more and more, but unlike a certain other little girl we know, if she's upset she will usually cry and protest for about a minute and then accept our authority and move on. Folks, this is amazing to us as we are accustomed to tantrums at this age that could last...well, let's not even document Maddie's tantrum stamina!
This is obnoxiously long, so I'll wrap it up. We are treasuring this happy time when life is relatively calm and we're all happy and settling into a great community and church. I started out the year with a lot of health problems and we've seen friends and family go through a lot of physical suffering and emotional heartache this year so we do not take these happy family times for granted. We also look to that heartache and remember that while we don't know what the future year holds for us we can cling tight to our Savior who we know has a plan for us whether in good times and in bad. Our Christmas celebrations are full of fun and silly traditions, but most of all remind us of our God who subverted expectations (but not prophesies!) and sent a Savior and King as a baby and gave us life through death and a resurrection. (I can't help but go to what's to come at Easter as we think about the Christmas story.)
Thanks for reading all this! If you made it this far, you deserve a picture so here are couple of us from the year. We hope y'all are doing well and would love to hear from you, too. My email's the same, our address isn't (but I'll send it if you email) and you can always leave a comment.
Love, Sarah
At our hotel in Disney
The Magic Kingdom
Easter
The English seaside
Christmas tree picking
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