We left Iowa last Thursday (with 7 degree temperatures and snow on the ground). We arrived in Arizona on Sunday of last week and stayed with my Aunt and Uncle for 3 nights until our belongings arrived on the moving truck on Valentine's Day!

I told Chris that this was the BEST Valentine's day ever!

The drive went very well considering that we had 2 children and 2 cats in our sedan. We slept in hotels and made about 600-800 miles a day. We ate out more than we would have liked, but our car was loaded down with essentials and we could not pack along the food as we usually would have on road trips.

We enjoyed the changes in topography and discussed the climate and cultural differences between Iowa, Okalahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. It was an educational and bonding experience for our entire family.

We laughed TONS, shared excitement and even some "homesickness" tears along the way.

It has helped us immensely to have phone contact with our dear friends and to get Valentine's Day cards in the mail and even a care package from Justus' preschool. (Miss Carol ROCKS!)

Awesome news on the new home front! I had been praying specifically that I could find another family for us to befriend similar to the Niessen's... with our values, morals and personality similarities... I also wanted that family to have a girl Jaina's age.

Think of Matthew 7:11 now~~ While at the pool yesterday I saw a family with 2 girls... Yes, you guessed it; they are like US! Conservative, homeschooling and EVANGELISTIC! They have been running their own "Cares Team" type of ministry to the youth in the complex on their own. I told them about http:www.caresteam.org and they are going to contact them! Sonya is so much like Lorie that it is bittersweet for me. Oscar is very much like Chris in his interests and personality (Sonya and I did all the talking... surprised?) Their daughters are 11 & 8 and LOVE American Girl dolls/books! I was so in awe of God's blessing us with this new friendship that I just said aloud "I am so glad God put us here together" Sonya just agreed and shared my sentiments.

We went to the contemporary church service last night and the children absolutely were on FIRE for the services! They have amazing children's ministries and the adult program just happened to be on the importance of serving others. The sermon seemed solid... the delivery was a bit different, but we know that it is a VERY tall order to ask for a pastor like Fred, Dave or Mike. We think settling here will be better than church hopping. We want to get grounded and start a foundation here that we can then serve from.

We have 2 lizard friends that live on our outside walls. They were indoor to greet us when we first moved in and we fell in love immediately! Justus so much wants to bring them indoors but we explained that they were uniquely created by God to live happiest OUTSIDE (much to mommy's glee).

This is getting too long... I am sure that future updates will be much shorter.

For those that wish to see photos of our move go to our photobucket account folder located http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v336/rnzfoster/moving%20to%20Arizona/

Feel free to contact us via email at rnzfoster@yahoo.com

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Grace Alone, Which God supplies; Strength Unknown He will Provide!