There's quite a few exciting things happening!!

Yes, I’ve been away from blogging for quite a while, but I really have a great excuse! Remember how we were in the process of purchasing our first home? Well, here it is!

We closed on this charming, 1937 country home on Thursday, May 5^th. We were beside ourselves with joy and this overwhelming feeling of being blessed. The house is 30 minutes from the rental home, yet closer to everything important! Moving is quite a process… especially when you had things stored at your parents’ home on top of all that needed to be moved from our rental house (oh, and let’s not forget packing up my classroom!). The house and moving process would not have been possible without our family! God is so good!

So we closed on the house May 5^th and guess what blessing we received on May 6^th? The gift of expecting a baby! Yay! Again, joy flooded our hearts as we were able to share this news with family in our new home. How perfect… more to come on how we shared the news later! Here is a photo of our sweet baby at 13 weeks and one of me at 17 weeks. We are now almost 19 weeks along and can’t wait to meet our little boy (yes, a boy!) in January!

While in the midst of organizing things in our new home and feeling giddy over the fact that there’s a baby growing in me, we have been busy with Taflan Pictures as well. Meeting clients, shooting weddings, maternity sessions, and senior sessions have kept us (especially Matt) constantly at the computer editing after a day of work. We have also tackled a couple projects around the house and are in the middle of a couple more! We finished the chicken coop and all it needs is a coat of paint, the washer and dryer have been set up and operating in the laundry room in the shed, and we are in the middle of building custom desks for our little office. We also have a new front door sitting in the dining room waiting to be put on, and should I even mention what the future nursery looks like? It’s shocking…yikes!

Those are just a few of the things keeping us Taflans busy. It’s crazy to look back to May and see all that has taken place since then in just a few short months. We are so thankful and continue walking in faith that God will continue to provide and care for us as He has done so faithfully in the past.

North Carolina Residents :)

Well, it has been exactly one week since we arrived in NC with the last of our belongings. We said good-bye to Florida as we made the long drive up I-95, stopping at rest areas along the way to capture some video of our trip (hope to be edited soon!). I'm happy to say that the majority of our stuff is organized into some designated area here at my parents' house and we've had quite a productive first week!

On July 4th we attended my family's church where we were greeted with warm smiles and welcomed into the area. We spent the evening watching fireworks at the town next to ours and were able to enjoy a day at Tweetsie Railroad on Monday. We went as a family since my dad was off of work and my youngest sister had a friend with her. I had not been to Tweetsie in over 10 years and it was quite the treat. Matthew and I marveled at how peaceful and relaxing the park was compared to a busy Disney World. We decided we'll certainly take our own children back there one day so they can experience the train adventure and the beautiful mountains (ah, mountains make my heart sing!). We thought our niece and nephews would love the place as well. Following Tweetsie, we drove down the road to Blowing Rock and paid the small fee to see the sight, an Indian legend. After taking pictures and eating some much needed ice cream, we loaded up the cars to make the 3 hour drive back home.

In the meantime, I have applied to approximately 5 more jobs and was called for an interview on Thursday! My sweet husband drove the hour long commute to drop me off and picked me up after with a pretty bouquet of flowers. I love his thoughtfulness :) Overall the interview went well and I will find out the decision sometime next week. I'm hoping to get the rest of my paperwork in Monday/Tuesday and will continue the waiting period from there. We've been praying and listening during this time of waiting and Matt & I know God will certainly take care of us and show us the right way. Aside from my job hunting adventures, Matthew hopes to be in the office of a production studio helping out in the next week or two. He received an e-mail about coming in to assist with editing and we pray that will lead to something great!

We had lunch with friends, the Elias, in Durham on Thursday and loved the time we were able to spend visiting and chatting with them at a great place called Parker & Otis. Tonight we are going out for pizza in downtown Raleigh as we are now a part of a pizza club (woohoo!). Friends of ours, a couple we did video work for in their wedding down in Florida, has moved to the local area here and invited us to join. They are heading it up and were a part of a pizza club in Orlando in the past. We get to eat pizza at popular places once a month as we search for the best. We're excited to be with old friends and meet new ones, as well as get some good food!

We'll be leaving Borders soon to head out for dinner. Internet at the house is sadly very slow... so venturing out for internet will be quite frequent for us. Thankfully the library in the town over from ours is very nice and has great internet service. We just happen to be at Borders (a favorite of mine) in Wake Forest because we shopped around the Raleigh Flea Market today. It's tempting to buy all the wonderful things I see, but I am reminded that we don't have a place of our own yet, and we don't know what our next place will look like. We will have to share our interesting finds in another post though!

I'll close with a picture of us on top of Blowing Rock. Look at those mountains!

Job Searching

"Do you have a job lined up for when you move?" is a question both of us get asked at least once a week since we announced our decision to move to North Carolina a while ago. We understand we aren't exactly doing things in the "normal" order - like not having a job before we move to an entirely different state and leave our other jobs behind (scary, I know!). We do know that this is what God has planned for us, meaning He will most certainly provide as He always has. God is the source of the comfort and peace we feel about making such a big decision - although I'll be honest and say that there have been times here and there when I have a moment of brief panic about not being able to support ourselves! Thankfully my thoughts are redirected by Matthew's solid thinking or through scripture.

Philippians 4:11-13

¹¹ Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. ¹² I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. ¹³ For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

Ah, see? We'll be taken care of :) I put this verse in a frame when we were first married and it's one we have both come to memorize upon seeing it on a daily basis. And along the lines of being taken care of, Matt established contact with a video production company this past week when we were in NC. He met the owner and left feeling quite good about the connection. This company has seen his work on his website and would like to use Matt to edit some projects beginning as soon as we move - starting off on a volunteer basis like most free lancers do to get established. Once he's shown them what he's capable of, they can hopefully use him regularly and pay too. Yay! Aside from that, we're working on marketing TaflanPictures for wedding videography in the local Raleigh/Greensboro area.

Where do I stand in the job search? Well, I sent out 10 applications to Wake County yesterday. It's a bit far from where we're staying, but that'll be fine if I get hired! These 10 were in addition to about 8 I've sent out to other counties. My NC teaching license is now official so that will definitely help the process. Time to wait and see...

Keep us in your prayers as we continue searching for work and listen for God's voice through it all.

We've set the date!

It is official... the Taflans will be moving to North Carolina on July 3rd! We are both excited and anxious as we wait to see what God has in store for us. We'll be settling in the triad area with my parents temporarily until we locate jobs (yikes!) and figure out where to live in relation to work. We feel at peace about this decision and are thrilled to be near loved ones. Living in Florida has made us homesick now and again and we hope to be rid of this as we settle in closer to both families :)

Let the accumulation of boxes begin!

Hawaiian Island Eruption

Since I didn't get a sub job today, I decided to pack up my laptop and head to my favorite coffee shop - Volcano's Coffee Bar. Hawaiian Island Eruption is by far the best cold coffee drink and tastes great hot too! I love this particular location because it's rarely very busy and the internet is free. This is where I would come when Matthew and I first got married and internet wasn't yet connected at our apartment. I can dive into researching whatever I'd like on my computer without being distracted around our home. Today I will research cities that we would like to relocate to...

I have lived in the sunny state of Florida for too long (9 years?) and greatly miss NC. Matthew has lived here for almost 4 years and he misses Ohio. We have this longing in common that has lead us to much prayer and consideration concerning how to go about relocating. My family moved back to NC after my freshman year of college and going home to them is one of the most fulfilling things we do. Visiting family in Ohio also gives us a warm, complete feeling so we have opted to move somewhere North of SC. Before we were married Matthew printed off a map - dotted where my parents live and where his live - then drew circles around areas that were within 3-4 hours of our parents, and 6-8 hours. Family is a priority to us and we want to raise our kids within a reasonable driving distance of them.

We long to experience four seasons once again, own land, live near or in the mountains, and keep it simple. We don't mind living near a large city (that's where it'd be best for Matt to find his type of work anyway), but we would choose to live some miles away where we could come home to the quiet peacefulness of the country. To start out, we'd like to live in an apartment for a little while so we can scope out homes/land while working to save money. 

Matthew and I talk about our aspirations and are focusing on being active about them. I stumbled across this website yesterday about a young couple in their late twenties who sold everything they had to move from the West coast of Canada to the East to pursue their dreams. They have a blog on their site that I sat and read for an hour - I just love their house and how they worked so hard for what they have. Their story is crazy, yet inspiring. I shared it with Matt last night and told him I'm not saying I could do what they did, but the overall idea is encouraging. You can check out their site here... www.whimfield.com  

There are so many questions to sort through... every time I moved as a child, it was because my dad we being relocated with his job. He knew he was going to have a job when he moved us as a family. In our situation, we're not even sure how to go about finding a location to move. We know we want to be near family, that's the easy part. How does my husband find a job in this economy - especially along the line of work of film and photography? Are teaching jobs for me readily available up there as opposed to Florida? How do we begin looking? What about finances? It's overwhelming for both of us, but we know God will provide a way. Despite the questions running through our heads on a regular basis, we do know that moving is in the near future and God is our guide.

Matthew encouraged me to look up school districts today and local churches. We have a list of cities we are going to be acquiring information about: Charlottesville, VA (my favorite), Roanoke, VA, Raleigh, NC (where my family is), Nashville, TN and surrounding areas...  We know we'd like to make a weekend trip home to see my family this summer, then drive to Charlottesville for a day or two and explore there. We really like what we've seen about this area so far, and have looked into various towns outside of the big city. Who knows what could happen? We can't keep talking about wanting to move and not do anything about it. We want to be open to where God sends us - and I'm well aware it could be an entirely different place aside from what we're thinking - and that's ok. We just want to go and be in God's will throughout it all.

Ok, enough of sorting through my thoughts - I must research before I go tutor two of my students. My hawaiian island eruption is almost finished, meaning I should order a sandwich soon in order to feel like it's ok for me to keep sitting here for another hour (although I'm the only one in this place!) 

*As an exciting side note, my dad is in town on business and we're meeting him for dinner tonight! He took me to lunch yesterday and came by our place Sunday evening. It's so nice having him here - definitely makes me miss my mom and sisters!