starting to catch up...

Oh man. How has it been a month since I've updated this? Life. is. crazy!

I'll start a quick update beginning after Matthias' birthday. We made a trip up to MN for my Grandma Sauer's funeral. It was a sad time, but we give thanks for her wonderful 96 years on earth. We are also SOOO glad we made it up to MN in February so that Nora could meet her namesake. We enjoyed seeing a lot of my family and sharing memories of grandma. She will be so missed.

Two days after we got back to STL, family started arriving to celebrate Call Day at the Seminary. It was great being able to go to the Botanical Gardens, Arch, restaurants, and the Zoo with everyone. However, we got a pretty big shock when it was announced in the service that we would be going to Macon, Missouri for our first call. We had been pretty sure we'd be in MN or MI... so it took a while to adjust to the news. I won't lie... Call Day was not the fun event we thought it would be.

At the Botanical Gardens

Enjoying the water features at the Botanical Gardens

Feeding the Coi at the gardens 

Our first family trip down to the arch

 We had a little late birthday celebration with family when they were down for the Call service.

Since Call Day life has gone into warp speed as we learned that we would be buying a house in Macon. So, with a crash course in home buying we made a couple trips to the town (about 3 hours away) and found a house that we like. We currently (as of today) have an offer on it, but it is complicated so we aren't feeling super confident about getting it.

In the midst of all this, Nora turned 5 months old! She is starting to practice sitting and just today learned how to roll from her tummy to back. We think she is getting 2 teeth which is perhaps why she has not been sleeping very well at night.

This past Thursday Elden finished his coursework at the Seminary!!! There was a lovely reception at the president's house that evening. Yesterday there were two commencement services and another reception (followed by the late night offer made on a home... eek!) . Elden's parents are in town to help us celebrate the finishing of the four years here. It has been an adventure!!!

Hugging the President of the Seminary during the Theological Ceremony

Yes, I had fun dressing him. Most of his ensemble was found at our resale shop on campus!

Will this little lad be entering these doors in about 20 years?? 

Here come's Elden!

It's Official!!! 

His proud face... and rightly so! Four years of hard work pays off!

Matthias' view for most of the ceremony

Looking good, Elden! Congratulations!!!

As Elden says, "I'm not a seminarian anymore but I'm also not yet a 'pastor.' I think I have an identity crisis!" It will be weird to transition to life outside of school again. Most of our married life has been here at the seminary. We started with just the two of us. And now there we are a family of four! I went through several jobs during our time here as did Elden. We are now looking forward to just settling down. And Macon has a good Chinese restaurant with people who speak Mandarin, so we are confident that we will enjoy our new home town! Thank you all for the prayers and support over the past four years. On to the next adventure... after a little vacation time. I think we've earned it!