Switzerland- Chapter 1

As you can see, I've consolidated my blogs to this one.  I'm excited about the new name, it really sums up what I want this space to be about!  I've been on a bit of a blogging hiatus, which I'm sure you've noticed.  It certainly hasn't been for lack of things to write about, but rather for lack of time and energy at the end of the day.  But I sense the beginning of a new season of more frequent writing as our family starts a new adventure!  For any who haven't heard, we are moving to Switzerland at the end of the year!  It's been a dream in the making for many years now, to live abroad as a family, but to see it actually happening now is hardly believable!  Travis will be software engineering at a boarding school in a small mountain town in the French speaking part of the Swiss Alps.  He came across the job posting in a software engineering magazine he regularly reads and went for it.  It wasn't an easy decision, to accept the job, even though it was the culmination of dreams, because the reality past the romance needed to be sorted through.  We decided to take a trip to Switzerland at the end of October to see it first hand and do some good praying/talking over the decision.  We left with a definite yes, and though it was with a great sense of relief and excitement, we came back home to the overwhelming task of actually moving our family of six to a country across the ocean and breaking the news to precious family and friends whom we knew would take it hard.  Thankfully, everyone has done some initial grieving and is now getting excited for us, which feels really good.  We just completed our last garage sale of two, which gives us a big sense of relief to have so much gone.  We've been slowly filling a storage unit and packing the suite cases we'll be bringing.  It's our goal to get everything move ready before Christmas, and so far we're doing well towards that end.  We've had so many friends rally to help us during this stressful time, meals, play dates for the kids, buying our stuff, you name it!  What a blessing it is to be loved by family and friends who have become family.  It's funny, even after our decision to take the job, Travis was still feeling some anxiety about whether we made the right decision.  Just before the offer came to us, he had just accepted a really good job at a new company an hour away from us.  It was a big pay increase which complicated the matter in our hearts because the Switzerland job is actually a pay decrease.  All the while, we knew this process was revealing where our treasure lies and pushing us to steps of faith we were trembling to make.  But I just love how God shows up with confirmation, AFTER a big step of faith. As my dear cousin Sara told me in a text while we were in Switzerland, if we always got a burning bush to guide our decisions, there wouldn't be the need for faith.  How true that is!  It was only after our decision was made that we got to meet another family who had taken the other IT position (there were two positions).  As it turns out, they also have four children, three girls and a boy!  And it doesn't stop there, though in a different order than ours, their kids are the same ages as all of ours AND they are our brothers and sisters in Christ!  We will be living in the same apartment building and our kids will be starting at the village school together.  Such undeserved icing on the cake!  And we've had so much fun getting to know them through Skype and facebook.  To think that God was writing this story on both of our lives, to intersect the way they will, before we ever met just floors us with gratitude and praise!  So as the winds grow colder and snow starts to fly, when many go into hybernation mode, we are embarking on the biggest adventure of our lives to date!  Pray for us if you will, that all would go smoothly, especially on December 30th when our journey begins and we cart 9 suite cases and our precious kiddos to the airport (Lord have mercy!).  Pray for our visas to come through in a timely manner and all items of business to get wrapped up neatly.  Pray for peace for us and all those we love as we say our good byes, that God would grant special comfort to our families as we adjust to less frequent hugs (although thank goodness for Skype!).  We will keep you thoroughly posted along the way, and as always, we love to stay caught up with your lives as well.
Au revoir!  And if you ever find yourselves in Switzerland, we hope to say Bonjour!  I'll leave you with what will be our gorgeous living room view in the Alps.