The Martin Bunch: June 2013

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We love Texas. We were born and raised here, in Houston to be exact. I was only an hour away for college (WHOOP!) and spent one semester in Cannes, France. Ethan followed his parents' roots and went away to Sooner land. After college, we both returned to Houston with Ethan accepting a job with ExxonMobil and I with Vacations To Go. The same year I began teaching 6th grade World Cultures at Spillane Middle School, was also when we purchased our first house together in Copperfield, just minutes away from family. 3 years later, we made the far jump down the road to Cypress, and have LOVED making memories here ever since - joined Second Baptist Cypress and had Olivia in 2010, Callie in 2012 and we will be celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary this year on October 1st.

Well, we have some news that has been consuming my mind for the last two months. And now I am finally able to share it with you.

Ethan has accepted a new assignment & promotion within his company, and we will be relocating to New Jersey! He'll be supervising a new team that will help researchers and engineers integrate the latest and greatest technology. It is actually going to be a lot of fun for him. And I am very proud of him and his hard work. It will be a nice change for him, and for us too. I am actually super excited about it all. Our girls are young. And not that we can't make memories in Texas, but we will have such different places to visit!

The time frame is not exact, but we will probably be up in NJ by the beginning of September. This assignment will last about 2-3 years, and most likely we'd be returning to Houston. So, we are hoping to find a home in or near the township of Clinton, with a 10-15 minute max. commute into work (Annandale). I am looking forward to Ethan not spending two hours commuting for work each day. And get this, we are only 1.5 hours away from Ethan's sister and husband in Philly, and only 20 minutes away from one of my close friends from college. It really could not have been in a better location. So where is Clinton? Go to your map app and you will find Clinton 54 miles due west of NYC. The area is mostly rural, with pockets of neighborhoods here and there. I am looking forward to the change.

Believe me, there are some things we will miss - family, our church, friends and the familiarity of it all. But, I do believe that these plans have been in the making, and that these plans of God's are to prosper us, not to harm us and to give us hope and a future (Jer. 29:11). So, it's just best not to be so sad about it, and embrace it. Even if it will be cold & snowy. Even if we will have to make friends. Find a church outside of the Bible Belt. Find a babysitter. Even if the tax rates & home prices are a joke. You get the picture.

Even if it's not Texas.

Here are some new pictures from the past couple of weeks.