Andrej, Jessica, Kaiya and Tobi

I'm not sure if anything like weblog etiquette exists, but if it does I'm sure I've broken all the rules. I've learned that I'm not very good at frequent updates and often start entries that I never finish. My drafts folder holds so many posts that range from nothing more than ideas to pretty much complete posts that were for whatever reason never published. (Read more …)

On Friday 22nd, after several reroutes and airline changes, we finally got to South Carolina to spend the holidays with Jessica's family. Today 12/27, around 2am our luggage finally showed up. We recognize that far worse things happened to other people around holidays, but just wanted to thank those of you who prayed that our luggage would be found. Also thanks to Pawpaw for contributing to the Clean Underwear Fund.

I have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. I could write and write about all of the things I'm thankful for, like my parents being here in Michigan with us for the holidays, or my Andrej and precious Kaiya, or good health, or our incredible church/ house church, or our wonderful family and friends around the world, but this Thanksgiving I am most thankful for the ability to forget. Let me explain.

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We've got some big news! Last week I accepted a job offer at a local software development company here in Grand Rapids. It is a very unique offer from a company that invests in their employees significantly. To give an example: Some time ago I was talking to one of their developers and happened to ask him where he learned C# (programming language they use at this company for the most part). I expected him to say something like, "I took a class in college" but instead he simply said, "Here, at this company." This is very unusual in today's job market as everyone seems to be looking for candidates with almost impossible amounts of experience/skills.

This offer also came in a very good time for our family because for the last couple of months, my salary at my current employer has no longer been covering our family expenses. I am very excited for this new opportunity but also sad to leave my coworkers that became good friends over the last three years. I have received many many blessings and hopefully have given some too.

To my coworkers: I plan on staying in touch. I want to thank all of you for the great time I've had.

In case you were wondering about my green card (Jessica mentioned it in a her Easter post), it came in the mail a couple of days ago. And it is valid until 2016!

Welcome to our redesigned website. Based on recommendations from Ryan and Topher, I decided to give WordPress another try and integrate our website and our blog. To make sure that all credit goes where it's due, I have to admit that I didn't design this front page myself. I downloaded a free theme called Connections by Patricia Muller and modified it. We hope you enjoy it. If you have any recommendations for change, leave a comment.

(Imported from itsourfamily.blogspot.com)

Many of you ask us what our plans are for the near future. We have mentioned that at some point we would like to move down south closer to Jessica's parents so that they could be a part of Kaiya's childhood. Originally we thought we would be moving this fall, but that doesn't seem possible or reasonable. We're praying for God's direction and timing.
For now, I have a good job, we have an incredible small group that became family, we are a part of a great church, we have great friends… So Grand Rapids is home.