In the Meantime

I'm rounding up all of the pictures from our trip.  Between three of us girls, there are A LOT of shots and I'm exited to share them with you.  It will have to wait until I get them all in my hands though...don't want to leave anything out.  In the mean time, this post is long overdue.  Many of you know that Darren and I are moving.  We have bittersweet feelings about it, but are totally confident in the knowledge that this is the best thing for our family at this time.  It will be hard to start over again...our kids are much bigger now and they have very tender feelings about the move too.  But we are excited about a new chapter in the Stewart Family Saga.  We have a home being built in North Phoenix that is much closer to Darren's work.  It will be a bit of a change for our family.  We'll have plenty of room to stretch out.  Here are a few pictures of the house we are building.

Parker on Nov 11, 2013.  We went to Stake Conference up in Phoenix since it was a state wide broadcast.  We had just received an email from our sales guy Ray, that they had poured the foundation for the house the week before.

My sister Rebecca and Alexia out front.  On the way home from Thanksgiving in New Mexico, we stopped and checked on the progress.  The builders had started framing the house.

December 7, 2012 - I was in Tempe checking out locations for a client and since I was halfway there, drove the rest of the way with Spencer to see the house. 

From: ray.wisinski@lennar.com

Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:52:23 -0600

To: <hdhstew@gmail.com>

Subject: Hello Darren and Heidi

 Hello,

Just wanted to let you know that they have put up the scaffolding around your home. They will be installing the Lathe on the exterior very soon. They also were working on some of the water lines today. Your home is coming along very well.

Hope you are all doing well.

Kindest Regards,

Ray

December 16, 2012 - Darren's parents came for visit and we drove up and walked through the model and our house with them.  They are so excited for us!

Dec 29, 2012 - We got the kids a membership to the zoo and before spending the afternoon at the zoo, invited Cory and Melissa to come walk through the house with us.  Cory is studying architecture so he was excited to walk through it. 

 During January we just depended on Ray's email's to keep us updated on the progress of the house.

From: ray.wisinski@lennar.com

Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2013 17:19:42 -0600

To: <hdhstew@gmail.com>

Cc: <todd.bruns@lennar.com>

Subject: Happy New Year

 Hello Darren and Heidi,

I apologize for not communicating for the last two and one half weeks, I have been on vacation.

Hopefully you had a wonderful Christmas. The children always do, and no matter our ages, Christmas brings the child out in all of us.

Your home has gone to dry wall, and this process of hanging the dry wall, taping, mudding, texturing and sanding typically takes about eleven days to complete before they paint your interior. Once they accomplish these tasks, they will install cabinets. Flooring (tile) comes next. Your home, if all goes well, could be sixty to sixty-fives out from completion. We can still not give you an exact completion date yet, but as soon as we know, either Todd or myself will contact you. Please let us know if there are any questions you may have as they arise.

Happy New Year!!!

Kindest regards,

Ray

 

From: ray.wisinski@lennar.com

Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2013 17:48:06 -0600

To: <hdhstew@gmail.com>

Subject: Construction Update

Hello Darren and Heidi,

Hope all is well.

Since last week they did painting in your home. In addition they started to install cabinets in your home. When I walked into the kitchen...it looked awesome. Please let me know if there is anything that Todd or I can assist you with.

Kindest Regards,

Ray

And while I was on my trip, Darren received this one:

Hello Darren and Heidi,

We just received the March closing dates yesterday. Typically you should have received the official mailing for the close dates in the mail. So I am happy to report that you have your NHO walk through on 3/12/13 at 9:00am. That is when you will meet your construction manager and review all the mechanical systems throughout the home.

Your title appointment will be attached to the official mailing. Your Final walk or Celebration will be on 3/19/13 at 1:00pm. That will be at your home to finalize the issues on your first NHO walk.

Exciting times for sure. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I am sure UAMC will be contacting you shortly, if not, please let me know.

Kindest Regards,

Ray

The day after I got home, we drove up to see the progress.  The outside of the house is being painted and the sinks, lights, cabinets, tile were all in.  It is really taking shape.  I get more excited each time I walk through.  I can picture us in this house and I know it is where we are supposed to be.  Our close date is the 19th and we plan to move the weekend of the 23rd.  Time to get serious about packing and getting our house rented out! :) 

In other news, I love these four kiddos!  I missed them so much.  I'm so glad I get to be their momma.

They rock my world!

Africa, why Africa?

My first experience with Africa came as a little girl on Saturday mornings.  In the middle of my favorite cartoons a commercial would come on.  It was always a commercial that would last longer then the others and by the end my eyes were full of tears and my heart was full of the desire to save my few pennies a day. The screen was full of pictures of other little kids on the other side of the world who looked very different from me. 

 I remember going to my mother and asking her if we could sponsor a child.  In her sweet way, she sat me down and told me that she loved me for wanting to do it, but even at pennies a day, our family couldn't afford it.  I made up my mind then and there that one day I would make enough money to sponsor a child from Africa.

And then I grew up and got married.  At 22 years old, I had been married for a year when my little sister Alena turned 21 and got her call to serve as a missionary for our church in the Zimbabwe, Harare Mission.  I was so excited for her.  She was the first white sister to serve in that mission.  She was the perfect girl for the job!  Pretty soon these started arriving.

 I worked as an admin and in my downtime I wrote her letters, every week, for 18 months.  By the end of her mission, I had a stack of letters.  Inside were pages and pages, sometimes six or seven detailing her life there in Africa. She had so much to tell me that her letters spilled over to the back and sometimes the insides of her envelopes.

My birthday cards started to look like this:

 She told of waking up to the sound of the women "sweeping" the dirt in front of their yards, how much better bananas tasted over there, the sadza that was eaten with every meal.  The bugs could be as big as her hand, she washed by standing in a big pan and poured water over her head, she made s'mores for the locals with their strawberry flavored marshmallows.  She went to game preserves, played soccer with the locals and the elders and shared stories of the members and a part of her testimony in each letter.  She helped me fall in love with Africa.  I told her one day, I'd get there.

That day starts tomorrow night.  Darren is staying here and working from home while I head out with three other people to the other side of the world.  We fly from here to London on the red eye, have a four hour layover and then hop back on a plane for another 17 hours to Johannesburg.  I'll be there for 9 days - not long enough but we have researched and planned to do so many amazing things.  You can bet I'll be taking a ton of pictures and blogging about it when I get back.  Stay tuned.