This morning we got some exciting news. Turns out that one of Jon’s co-workers has a connection at the Justice Department in Ireland (this is the office that processes expat visas). She was able to give them our visa application number and they moved our application to the front of the list! They started reviewing our application today and said that it should be processed (whatever that means) by the end of next week. Once we actually have our visas in hand, Jon will be able to schedule his last house-hunting trip out to Ireland. If all goes well, we may be able to move a bit sooner than we were originally thinking (move in July instead of August). Now we just have to pray that everything is in order and they accept our application on the first go!

It’s been almost 7 months since we found out we might be moving to Ireland, and we just got word that the move is officially a GO! God’s timing really is perfect timing. Jon received his contract for our move to Ireland late last week. On Monday he signed and returned the contract, so we’re all set to (finally) move out there! We still have to wait for Jon’s work visa to go through, which should take about 3weeks. Once he has his visa he’s going to try to fly out for one last house-hunting trip and actually sign a lease this time–3rd time’s a charm! It looks like we may be ready to move by the end of May if everything goes smoothly.

I just got home from my first solo-trip to California with the boys and I’m…EXHAUSTED. I’ll write more about our move soon and I’ll keep this blog updated with all of the details.

Jon has had a very successful house-hunt in Ireland. He is going to be continuing on to Turkey on Saturday morning, so his time in Ireland is just about over. He has found a number of houses that look like they will work well for our family. We are not going to sign a lease just yet, however. Jon’s company has been slow in getting us the information that we need to complete our move (like a specific moving date and means to pay a deposit on a place) so we aren’t ready to move forward with signing a lease quite yet. This trip has still been worthwhile because Jon has found the specific area that we want to live in and knows exactly what to look for in a house. He also has some contacts at the local leasing agencies so he’ll be able to keep in touch with them as we find out more information about our move.

Our current plan is to move to Ireland at the end of January or early February. When we get there we will stay in a long term rental for about a month. During that month we can go and look at houses together and sign a lease. This will actually work out really well because then I can look at the houses with Jon in person. Since it will take about a month for all of our belongings to be shipped over there anyway, this will give us time to get adjusted to Ireland before we have to move into our house.

I am getting ready to head down to Phoenix tomorrow to go visit my mom’s side of the family. I’m excited to introduce Jacob to my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins! Until next time…

Jon has had a successful first day of house-hunting in Cork. Yesterday he went in to the Cypress office where he’ll be working and the admin helped him sort through our list of houses that we’d started during our internet research. She went through each listing with him and gave some insight about good neighborhoods, bad neighborhoods, family friendly areas, etc. With her help, we cut our initial list of 20 houses down to 10–a much more manageable number for Jon to actually see in person during the few days that he’ll be there.

The houses he looked at today were all in a suburb of Cork called Douglas. It’s about 5 minutes outside of the city center but it’s more family-friendly and you can get more spacious homes than in the city center. He got to see 3 houses, 1 of which he loved, 1 that was a decent back-up contender, and a third that he’s not even considering any more. Here are a couple of photos from the first house that he liked the best:

Here’s the front of the house

The view from the front yard (that’s Cork Harbor in the distance)

Kitchen

Small back yard (with no lawn to mow!)

This is a 3 bed, 3 bath home in a new development. They allow pets here, which is awesome! All 3 of the places Jon looked at today allowed dogs, so it’s looking promising that Bota will get to move with us. There were 2 other families looking at this house today, so it’s possible that it won’t even be on the market by the end of the week when we’re ready to make our decision. He still has a few other houses to look at that we’re really interested in so we’re not going to sign a lease on this place right away. Tomorrow he’ll be going to a few more houses that were high on our list, so we’ll see how that goes.

My next post will probably be later this week with some photos of our new house!

As I write this, Jon is spending his first night in Ireland exploring our soon-to-be city of Cork. He’s there for a week-long house-hunting trip before he continues on to Turkey for business.  For months now this Ireland thing has seemed more like a dream, but having him there–actually physically THERE–is finally making this real for me.

Jon had a bit of an adventure getting to Cork yesterday. He left our house at about 4:00 AM to drive down to the airport. When he got to his friend Abe’s house to drop off his car, however, he realized that he’d forgotten his work laptop at home on the charging dock. Since he’ll be spending a full week in Turkey working at the end of this trip, it was crucial that he have that laptop. So, at 5:00 I got a panicked phone call from Jon to rush the laptop to the airport ASAP. I got the boys out of bed, loaded them into their carseats with lots of blankets, and drove south. Jon was already driving north to meet me, and our paths crossed in Northgate. I handed off the laptop, got a quick kiss, and he was off again. I’m happy to report that he made it to his plane with 20 minutes to spare!

His travel yesterday took him from Seattle to Atlanta, where he was able to grab a quick bite to eat before he boarded his next plane to Dublin. There is an airport in Cork, but because of the time constraints Jon had for his travel this time around, he had to choose an airport with more frequent flights. Once he got to Dublin, he then picked up his rental car (a snazzy little rig with a card and a push-button ignition instead of a key) and began to navigate his way to Cork–driving in a country he’s never been to, on the “wrong” side of the road, and sleep-deprived. He got to his hotel in Cork at about 4:00 AM our time this morning. His room wasn’t ready yet, so he sat in the lobby and almost fell asleep waiting to check in. Eventually he got to his room, though, and was able to get in a quick nap before heading out for dinner (Cork is 8 hours ahead of us, so our 9:00 AM is their 6:00 PM–dinner time!).

His first impressions of the country are encouraging. He said that it’s beautiful–once you’re a few miles out of the city you’re in beautiful green countryside. Complete with sheep. Bota will love it! His hotel in Cork is in the city center and there are beautiful promenades along the river lined with shops, pubs, and restaurants. He said the driving isn’t too difficult, but you just have to pay attention to what you’re doing and not drift into auto-pilot mode (or you’ll end up drifting into wrong-side-of-the-street-head-on-collision mode).

Jon was able to get a new SIM card for his iPhone already, so we can talk, e-mail and Face Time (which we already did this morning! Isn’t technology amazing?!). There’s a leasing agency across the street from his hotel, so first thing tomorrow he’s going to go over there and set up some viewing appointments. Ireland has a great housing website that we’ve been using to research houses from here. We already have a spreadsheet with 20 potential houses that meet our criteria, so he’s going to visit as many of them as he can while he’s there this week.

We’d appreciate prayers this week. Please pray for Jon to find the perfect house for our family–that it will meet whatever known or unknown needs that we have and that it will be in the perfect location for us to be a “light” in that neighborhood. Also pray that we’ll be able to find a place where our dog Bota can live with us–none of the listings have said if they allow pets. I’m just picturing Bota running through those pastures chasing fluffy little Irish sheep. I can’t wait 🙂