Sunday night

Hi everybody,

It's us again! Hope you had a good weekend. The weather here has been really nice for February, we got to play outside with Mom several times this past week. Mom and Dad were unusually busy last week and didn't have as much time to play with us as usual, but we forgive them because they're working on building us...a new house! We'll let Mom tell the rest... love Alex and Ben

Yes it's true, this is our big news of the past week and seemingly a great answer to prayer. As you know we've been renting a house since we sold our apartment in early December because the housing market here in Montpellier is so expensive. So while not actively looking, I had been keeping an eye on real estate listings on the internet just in case and sending an email from time to time when I saw something interesting. A builder called last Monday to say that he happened to have a couple of small parcels of land available to the northeast of Montpellier within our budget (these are the ones that sell the fastest because they're the most accessible price-wise for young families like us.) We made an appointement for Monday evening to find out more about the project, Tuesday we went to see the site during Fred's 2-hr lunch break and by Friday evening we were signing papers! We really love the setting; it's a small town called Boisseron about 1/2 hour northeast of where we live now and Lord willing we'll be building a 3-4 bedroom house which should be finished by the end of this year. The only down side is that Fred's commute will be considerably longer; about 30 km each way which is higher than average for France where as you know gas is anything but cheap! Knowing that we can't afford anything closer though (unless I go back to work, which we'd like to delay for as long as possible) we're very excited about the prospect of having a brand-new house; we'll get to collaborate with the architect for the design and pick out everything from the exterior colors to the tile floors to the kitchen cabinets and counters. We would appreciate your prayers for the financial aspect however; although this house is well within our budget the fact that I'm currently a stay-at-home mom might not go over so well with the bank (banks in France are VERY particular about lending money and have become even more so since the subprime "crisis" in the States. Also it would be great if you could pray for our marriage during this process, which should be exciting and unifying but also potentially conflict-inducing as we will inevitably have to compromise over expectations, décor etc.

We'll keep you updated as things move along...take care for now!

P.S. The picture is of our last visit with Fred's family in mid-January to have a belated Christmas with them and celebrate his brother Mathieu's birthday.