moving day! and a history of "our villa"...

Today was moving day for our family!  Once again, I feel so bad for those of you who try to keep track of us :)  It seems like moving is a common occurrence for us!  Don't worry though...I will try to explain.

Our training with New Tribes Mission has been much like a college schedule.  We had semesters of training, with summer breaks and Christmas breaks.  Some of our classmates would always have to stay with family during those breaks (not that that would be the worst thing!)...but when we started our training, Nathan's parents SO graciously decided to give us a villa to live in, anytime we came home for a visit!  Nathan's dad built these villas (basically a duplex with a garage), so it has been a super nice place to live.  And it was right in town, so we were within 5 minutes from both of our parents, but yet we had our OWN space to live in--which was so good for our family.  And we never had to wonder where we would live during a summer break.  What a blessing!

Well, this past summer as we were enjoying our beloved villa, a sweet elderly couple approached us and asked if they could buy it.  Dave (Nathan's dad) actually had planned to sell the villa after we went to PNG, but then this sweet couple wanted it and it seemed to make sense to sell it to them.  So Dave told them they could have possession on January 1, 2016.  And therefore, today we moved from "our" villa.  Such a bittersweet thing!  We are one more step closer to PNG, but we really have so many good memories of spending our summers in the villa.  

I went back and found some pictures of our times in the villa, throughout our years of training with New Tribes.  It was so fun to look through these pictures!

We started our training in the fall of 2011.  That winter, we spent our Christmas break at the villa.  I cannot get over these pictures.  Daisy was SO little!  And they were all so adorable!  

Little Daisy, just 8 months old :) 

Nathan reading to the kids before church one day.  They are so cute!  Layla used to always suck her thumb like that :)

Then, we stayed in the villa the summer of 2012.  So our kids would have been: Kaine-6, Halle-4, Layla-2.5, Daisy 1.

tea party on the back porch :)

Kaine in his t-ball clothes:)

Her bald head!  She was so cute!

That was the summer that Nathan had a full time landscaping job.  Wow, that job really wiped him out!  In this picture, he fell asleep at like 8:00 while putting our kids to bed.  Lol!  

this is definitely one of my favorites!

the famous spinning chairs.  back in those days, this was always our kids' favorite thing to do at the villa!

Nathan and the kids made a fort in the trees behind the villa that summer.  Sadly, the next summer we found that the city had torn out all of those trees!  No more fort :(

The next time we stayed at the villa was the next summer--summer 2013.  This would have been right after we graduated from NTBI in Michigan.  Our next step after that summer would be to move to Missouri for the next phase of training.

Aww...good memories of Daisy with all of her "foofs":)  She LOVED her foofs!

Every summer Nathan would do a garden with the kids.

Kaine in his Ninjago underwear...he's so cute :)

Some of my favorite memories of the villa were in the backyard.  Our kids loved doing slip n slides, and Nathan was always such a good sport to join them!

They are such fun kids!

Aaaaand...the next summer.  Summer 2014.  Kaine-8, Halle-6, Layla-4.5, Daisy 3.

More fun on the spinning chair :)

and another year of gardening!

This was the first time I watched the Yembi video!  Most of our supporters have received this from us--it is such an amazing video!

Nathan read his Bible out in the backyard most mornings...Daisy LOVED going out to visit him when she woke up:)

Halle planted that sunflower in a cup in her kindergarten class!  She was so proud of it!

Summer 2015.  Our last summer at the villa!

The first day we arrived, we had some great friends come to see us :)  It had been about 5 months since we last saw them!

again, being SUCH a good sport!

Nathan and the kids worked with the remaining trees and created a new fort in the backyard :)

So after this past summer, we did our last semester of training (Oklahoma, for our linguistics practicum among the Cherokoee)...and then we came back to the villa for these past 2 months.  And now that stage of our lives is coming to a close!  Today, we moved in with my parents.  And we will move to Nathan's parents' house next week for the remainder of our time in the USA!  

Dad and Mom M....thank you so much for this amazing gift of a wonderful home!  We LOVED living in the villa, and we will always cherish the memories we made there.  Thank you!