The Hunter Family Five: Life at the Beach!

Well, it's official- Patrick got his new orders and we are moving to Virginia Beach, VA in July! We are very excited about this new place for so many reasons but most of all it feels so much like home (Nashville, TN)! From the little things like having the restaurants we're used to close by(like Mexican restaurants with white queso dip), to the friendly people we met on our trip. Patrick had a week of training down in Norfolk May 9-13 so we made a family "vacation" out of it and all packed up and headed down there for the week. We stayed in a nice little beach house in a very quiet area of the beach where every time I took the girls out walking we seemed to meet another sweet neighbor. They all ooh'd and ahh'd over Char & HK and a couple of people even offered to let us park in their driveways whenever we wanted to come to the beach once we move there!

We drove down on Saturday morning and by that afternoon we had found the house that we are going to rent! We saw it, fell in love with it, and then fretted that if we didn't immediately snatch it up someone else would. However, we still had one more house to see that day before we could make a decision. God quickly reminded me that I had been praying for months for the house that He would provide us in this new city and that if this was to be the house, it wouldn't be snatched up by someone else because it was our house. And if it was gone by that evening, it obviously wasn't the house He had picked out for us. Once Patrick & I discussed God's goodness and faithfulness to always provide for us we became less anxious. After seeing the last house we made the decision that we still loved the house from earlier in the day and it was still available for us! It is so perfect for our current needs that I can't even believe I ever doubted we could find it. It's 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a bonus room, a 1 car garage (that despite my husband's wish that I would park the car in it, will actually become a storage area), a fenced in backyard with a huge sandbox and a swingset for the girls, and is within walking distance to 2 playgrounds! And it's very close to just about any store or restaurant we can think of! Yay!!!!

When people ask us if we have liked living in the DC area it's always a hard question to answer. We definitely think that DC is a very neat place to be and at a different point in our lives could have been very fun and full of adventure for us. Instead it has become a symbol of a very challenging time in our lives so while we aren't necessarily glad to leave DC, I think that driving away from here and heading to Va Beach will be symbolic of a fresh start to a new chapter in our lives. I feel like this period of isolation that has existed for the past year is finally coming to a close. The girls are bigger and more independent, less fussy overall, finally beginning to take naps that last longer than 30 minutes at a time, and just laugh all of the time. They are the funniest little girls always trying to get a laugh out of me, Patrick, and each other :) I love them more than I can ever explain and now I know how my parents must feel toward me. And I'm sure that they will never understand either until they have their own children. I was talking to an old friend that is a new mother as well about how God continues to expand our ability to love and in doing so shows us how much deeper love goes than we ever dreamed possible. First, we love our families (even if we don't always agree with them or get along, we still love them fiercly). Then, I met Patrick and never knew I could love someone so much and couldn't imagine ever loving anyone more than that. Then, my children came along and it is sometimes overwhelming how much love I feel for them. I remember sitting in the rocking chair holding them about a week after they were born and it just hit me so hard how much I loved them that I just started crying uncontrollably. When Patrick came in the room and found me in this state he was so worried that something was wrong and asked if I was okay, and all I could get out between sobs was "I just love them both sooo much!" And to think that my love for them is still only a fraction of how much God loves us is just too much to wrap my mind around.

Okay, back to the trip...some of my oldest friends from high school and I planned a trip to the beach (without husbands and children) to celebrate that we were all turning 30 this year. We had planned this back last fall and it just happened to fall on the same week of Patrick's training in Norfolk. So, Patrick's parents flew into Norfolk on Tuesday night and I left on Thursday afternoon with every confidence that they were in great hands while Patrick was at work. The long weekend beach trip with my friends was very relaxing and just what I needed to wind down a little. I didn't have any responsibilities or places to be, except for the massage I got while there :) We had great weather and the beach wasn't too packed. We had a great place to stay, ate great food, and had a great time talking and catching up with each other! But I did miss my husband and children and was so excited to see them waiting for me in the airport on Sunday morning when I got back! I am truly blessed to have so many people in my life to love and that love me back! Thank you Jesus!

What the girls are doing currently:
*Charlotte got her first tooth the day after they turned 8 months!
*Smiling and laughing all of the time.
*They both love sticking out their tongues and feeling their 1 tooth with them!
*They are transitioning into taking 2 long and 1 short nap at the end of the day...sometimes ;)

I am sad to say that I forgot my small camera and so I didn't get any pictures of my time in Florida with my friends. However, we got a few of the girls in Va Beach...enjoy!