our new house!

Here is a first look at our new home in Hawaii!

It is a three-bedroom, 1 1/2 bath house in Manoa, very close to Pastor Andy's house, to the University of Hawaii, and to the best public elementary school on the island. It comes furnished - very convenient since we had already decided to bring none of our furniture with us. It has a good-sized kitchen, a living room and family room, a laundry room, and ample space for hosting fellowship groups as well as everyone who will be visiting us this year (hint, hint!). It has only a pocket hanky yard, but is equipped with solar water heating, which will keep our energy costs down. Best of all, we can get off the plane in Honolulu and move right in.

Everything happened very quickly. Our friend DeShannon found the house on Craig's list two weeks ago and forwarded info to Ryan. Tuesday night, three people from City Church attended the open house. We spoke to them on the phone while they walked through the house, emailed us pictures (gotta love those iPhones), and filled out an application on our behalf. Wednesday afternoon, just as we were about to ask all our friends to pray that our application would be accepted, the realtor called us to offer us the house. She is sending us our rental agreement as we speak.

(The photo above shows the house from the street; the one at left shows the living room area. The random people in the picture were there for the open house. I'm sure they're very nice, and we'll be proud to share the island with them.)

We are extremely grateful to the City Church folks who helped us out, and to God for providing something so perfectly suited to our needs. Please pray with us that the rental agreement will go through without a hitch and that our move will go well.

We are spending these last weeks (well, we're packing all the time, but besides that) in some of our favorite New York activities. Typically, our adventures in Manhattan have been exactly that, filled with the city's joys, frustrations and eccentricities. We took the kids to the Natural History Museum, where Sophie completely ignored the Early Human room on her way to the collection containing her ruling passion in life: gemstones. Which I suppose saved us a few awkward conversations. ("Why is that guy's head so big? And how come he's so short and hairy?") Today we went to the MOMA, where the painting we went specifically to see - "Starry Night" - is away on tour. Instead, Sophie got to see some Seurats and Monets, and Daniel counted Matisse goldfish and picked out shapes in the Miro paintings. Neither of the kids fell in the reflecting pool in the sculpture garden, though they both tried really hard.

Last week, Ryan and I spent an afternoon in the Met. I was completely creeped out by the unblinking eyes of the mummy cases (that wing of the museum is a horror movie waiting to happen) and bemused by the high-fashion interpretations of superhero costumes. I've always wanted to wear a neon spider-web dress with a sky-high chartreuse wig; who knew that Dolce and Gabbana would design one just for me? If only I were two feet taller! We stopped by the Guggenheim, which turned out to be not only closed for the day, but completely shrouded in scaffolding. We then left one restaurant due to non-existent service (another persistent NY phenomenon), and ended up in a charming pub with an authentically Irish waitress and its own brew on tap. Ryan was in heaven.

Yesterday, Aunty Tara and Uncle John took us to Central Park Zoo, which has penguins and polar bears as its main attractions, but is somewhat lacking in its temperate zone species. Apparently the only animals that thrive in moderate climates are turtles. We overheard that the rest of the animals were off-limits because of a private party. That's how you know when you've made it in New York - when you can invite all the fancy animals to your shindig and leave the turtles at home. Friday night, we are going to our last Mets game with Tara, Darcy, Cris and Janellie, and if Sophie wants to eat a nasty ballpark dirty water dog and a cotton candy AND a dippin' dots I suppose I will not object (too much). Ryan and I are trying to eat lots of falafel and farofa and pernil, and refusing any more thai and sushi until we get to Honolulu.

So that's the latest! Please continue to pray for our move, especially in this last week of packing up, shipping our stuff, and saying goodbye. Thank you again for all your prayers and support - especially those of you who prayed specifically that we would find a three bedroom house with lots of room for visitors! We expect to see you soon!

Love,
Carrie, Ryan, Sophie Joy and Daniel