Joie de Vivre

All in all, it's been a great couple weeks... our last days in Washington for a long time. Our goal was to do as many things as possible that we hadn't done yet before we leave, and it has been a blast!

Last week was cherry blossom picnics and the zoo! The weather here was gorgeous, and all I wanted to do was be outside all day every day!

My brother Robbie came into town on Wednesday night, and Heather and Matt flew in Thursday morning to visit. It was so fun to have everyone here and get to be tourists together!

Thursday we got to go to the White House to watch a presidential departure on Marine One, and Bush 41 and the first lady were there too. It was definitely one of the coolest things I've gotten to do in this city. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and all the tulips were blooming. Then we got to hang out in the press briefing room for a while and take the obligatory souvenir picture behind the podium. Afterward we went to Old Town Alexandria and took a walk on the pier, ate dinner at our favorite little Italian restaurant, then came back to our house and played a great game of hold'em and went to bed.

On Friday we did the tourist thing all day... Holocaust museum, Lincoln, Vietnam, Korean War memorials, Washington Monument, lunch at Potbelly's, FDR memorial, and lots of walking! Great pics and good memories...

Friday night was my last concert with my choir. We performed Mozart's Requiem at the Strathmore Music Center, and it was very emotional for me. Singing with the choir has been one of the most wonderful experiences of my life so far, and it's definitely one of the things I will miss the most about living here.

Today we all hung out and went to the mall and ate lunch, then drove Matt and Heather to the airport to see them off. Tomorrow we'll be packing the car and getting ready to head to California via the whole country! ROAD TRIP!!! I'm SO excited! I'm going to try to keep a blog of our trip, so check back for updates along the way. Once we make it all the way to Fresno, I'll be starting my new job, which I am also very excited about.

So all in all, life is good. We're still waiting on our house to sell, which has been a significant source of stress, but also a tremendous experience in trusting God. We have both come to a place where we are absolutely able to accept anything and anywhere the Lord directs us to do or go. It is a wonderful and frightening place to be, but I am confident that we will look back on this time as a turning point in our relationship with Him and with each other. I can't wait to see what God does!

See you on the other side...