UPDATES!

Our lives have changed... A lot! And it left no time for updating this blog unfortunately. Let's get caught up. In September 2016, we sold our house in Beltsville, MD. We were buying another house in Damascus Maryland, but the deal fell through because the inspection revealed the house needed too much work. The kids and I went to Amsterdam to stay with Oma for 3 months and to think about possibly relocating there! In the meanwhile, we had to find new homes for both of our dogs, Wolfgang and Dakota, since we were uncertain about the future. We also put all of our belongings in storage. While in Amsterdam, we decided that, although we love it there it would be best to continue raising our kids in the US. We began looking for another home and found another home in Damascus. We were set to close on January 12, 2017. 6 days before closing, Gijs lost his job. At that point we looked at each other and realized that it was our chance to press the reset button on our lives! We decided to get a travel trailer, an SUV to pull it and start driving! We set "sail" on January 20, and went to Arkansas where Gijs had gotten a potential job offer. After exploring Arkanasas and looking at properties there, we realized that it was not a good fit for us. Then we travelled through Tennessee and then North Carolina. We really felt a pull in NC because of the nice climate, access to beach and mountains, kind people, southern charm without being deep southy, access to great higher education and the Christian and progressive vibe of the area. We hunkered down at a lake and camped there for a few months. In the meantime we tried our hands at a property renovation investment project that went well. At the end of the summer 2017, I was searching for homeschool coops to join and discovered a private school that was very appealing. Long story short, I called to see if they had any job openings (so that we could afford tuition), and they needed an assistant teacher for the Transitional kindergarten class (age 4-5, Jude's age). I got hired, so we rented an apartment close to the school, bought the kids uniforms and started our school year! In October, I discovered that we were expecting baby number 4 in July 2018! Now, we have our new baby Xavier, and are renting a farm house on a bunch of acres. It's been a big couple of years and I wanted to get this blog caught up! I will now ad posts from our last couple years.