New Places...

So there have been lots of new places and new faces for us here in Fayetteville, North Carolina. We are really excited to be here and working to get all settled in as fast as we can, as we do not have much initial time here together. The Lord has blessed us so richly in the last few weeks it is hard to know where to start.

We have had an amazing time moving into our new house. For the last five years we have talked and dreamed of owning our first home and now it is has become a reality. It has been a blast getting into our new house that is very quickly becoming a cozy little home. There have been many projects and lots of boxes being unpacked at the Molina's over the last few weeks. But we have survived, grown wiser, stronger and closer together in the midst of home ownership bliss. With all of that being said, we are here, settled, and ready for friends and family to visit.

Another new place for us is our new home church. We are so excited that the Lord has led us to a great church here in Fayetteville. While overseas we often prayed that the Lord would prepare a church home for us stateside and of course he has been more than faithful. Village Baptist is a great church with a passion for Christ and meeting the spiritual growth needs of all generations and populations. Here we have found a great small group study that is full of other military couples. This is truly a blessing for us as there are other couples(especially wives) that are going through similiar life circumstances to encourage one another.

Well, it has been a summer of transition. We thank you for your prayers and words of encouragement along the way. The road of change has not ended as we find ourselves seperated again and facing new experiences and challenges in our new individual places while still unified together at heart. We will keep you posted as usual but we leave you with some pictures.

Team Molina Runs for the Kids...

Things are going great here on the coast! This week has been pretty relaxing for the two of us. We wanted to let you know of a great opportunity to give to a really awesome childrens hospital here in Virginia.

Most of you guys think we are crazy for running as much as we do and well you maybe right. None the less, on June 13th we will be running the 2009 CHKD Run Walk for the Kids. The Children of the Kings Daughters provides care for thousands of children in Virginia everyday and plays a role in making their lives better through advance medical treatments. As many of you know children's medical needs are an especially important issue for us because of Melany's little sister Roxanne who passed away in 2000. Our team goal is $150 dollars, so please consider helping us reach this goal for the kids. The link below will take you to our fundraising site. Thanks!

http://www.active.com/donate/09runwalkforthekids/cmolina5

On the move again...

Hey there...we've missed you guys!

We are on the move again! This time down the east coast we go. Just to give you a little update on the past few weeks with us. As of Tuesday of last week we completed our residency in Petersburg, VA. After a long Memorial day weekend together enjoying our loft and Richmond the movers came to pack us out and off we drove to good ole Hampton Roads. Upon arrival we checked into our lovely hotel room in which we will reside for the next month. We are in the area because Charokee is finishing up the remainder of his course at Ft Eustis before we head to Ft Bragg. This is a great opportunity for the two of us to relax a little bit and enjoy some quality time together. The time for this couldn't be more opportunistic because this is the month of our five year anniversary...YEAH! It has been fun for us to be back in an area that we lived in four years ago. We have enjoyed checking out old favorites and exploring new places. It is great to be back on the coast and we have already been to the beach!

On the homefront...lots has transpired since our last post. I will give it to you in a nutshell, we found a house, terminated a contract, found another house and will be closing in two weeks. The home buying process has been bittersweet to say the least. We are certain that this comes as no surprise to anyone who has ever purchased a home. The process has been slightly compounded by the fact that we are not in the area we are purchasing the home. Most importantly we feel so blessed to have found the perfect first home for our family.

Well, that is where we are and what we are up too! We will stay in touch and let you know what is new in our world.

God is so good...

Hey There!

God is always so good and we just wanted to start by highlighting this reality in our life! Though we know we serve an awesome God. For some reason we never cease to be amazed by God's faithfulness to lead and guide our paths. This is the praise on our hearts as we share what all has been going on with us.

Mel's parents came for a visit over Easter weekend. It was great to have my mom and dad in our new place and be able to show them around the area in which we live. Every Easter we get together and have some kind of adventure. So this year we headed to Washington D.C.! As a family we covered just about every attraction the city has to offer. Charokee and I really enjoyed seeing all of these again with mom and dad. An extra special highlight was that we had the opportunity to attend a sunrise service at Arlington National cemetery. This was a sureal and moving experience to celebrate the life and resurection of our Saviour in a place of honor for the men and women of our country that have served so selflessly. We are so glad that mom and dad were able to visit and super excited that they will be meeting us in North Carolina next weekend for Mother's Day!

That brings us to the big news about where we are heading to next. Our new home of residence will be in Fayetteville, North Carolina. We are really excited about this rapidly upcoming move. Ft. Bragg was our second choice but the reality is that we wanted to be where the Lord wanted to send us. This assignment is a huge answer to prayer in the direction the Lord wants to take our family and Char's career. This is his dream job and even better he is headed to a special school in July to prepare him for this assignment. So with that being said we are heading to Fayetteville this weekend to look for a house. Yes, finally we are going to have the opportunity to purchase our first home. We are so pumped and terrified all at the same time. Since we will be moving out of our loft at the end of May we are hoping to find a place rather quickly. We know it is all in the Lord's hands, as He has opened and closed many doors to direct us to this point on our journey. We will keep you posted on the outcome of the house hunting trip. We intend to purchase a home large enough for many guest to come and visit. So we look forward to seeing you soon in North Carolina!

Time flying...

Well, it seems as though March has completely flown by! We are not certain where the month has gone but it has been jam packed for the two of us. I have been busy at work establishing my new clientele base. I absolutely love my new gym. I truly believe that we have the best staff and members of any gym in Virginia. Work is beginning to settle down a bit though as I get my clients worked into a good schedule for both them and myself. I am so thankful that I can make my work schedule to correlate with Char's school schedule. This is such a blessing for the both of us to keep our family time priority.

Since it is the end of March we are beginning to experience better weather in our area. This week one day was pretty enough to run outside. I had a great seven mile run out at the Petersburg battlefield. It was a beautiful, crisp morning. I was so excited to run outside and be able to feel my noise the entire time for the first time in a few months. Yeah! Tomorrow we are running a local 10k so we are praying for good weather.

Last weekend some friends invited us out to place in Richmond that we had not yet discovered. Carrytown proved to be one of our favorite local spots thus far. For a few hours we felt like we were back in Texas, walking down 6th street in Austin. It was a great afternoon of shopping, people watching, and sushi. Actually, we are headed back to that area for sushi tonight...yum!

Where your story begins...

Home is where we live, love and fellowship with those we cherish. We truly believe that home is where the heart is in the Molina family. With a lifestyle that lends to frequent changes in housing our home often relocates to new surroundings. Many people have wondered what our new home looks like. So, we wanted to share some pictures with you to allow you to know where we come and go from on a daily basis. Also as a warm invitation to the quaint Molina abode on the east coast!

We can hardly believe that the weekend is over...so where did the time go?

Well, Friday started off pretty exciting for Mel. The day began with a successful trip to the salon. Others who move frequently will understand that finding a good stylist in a new city can often be as stressful as finding a new doctor. Well, my worries are over and I have found my girl! Then, we went to pick up my new car! Car shopping for my car and the primary "family" vehicle has been quite extensive (like a year long)! We had prayed that the Lord would lead us to an economical, safe, spacious, and most importantly cute vehicle for our urban purposes. It had come to the point that we had no idea what vehicle we wanted anymore because we had ruled them all out. Then the Lord took us to our new little S40. She is perfect for all our transportation purposes especially those of future little Molina's. It seems the Mini and the Volvo shall make a perfect little couple in the driveway.
Saturday was quite relaxing. Char and I stopped by the farmers market that morning before heading to the battlefield for some trail running. We love our local farmers market. It is so great to be able to support local farmers that produce all natural foods and goods. Running the battlefield was a great experience. There are so many trails to follow or get lost on. Good thing I had my trusty navigator Char! The rest of the afternoon we spent relaxing at the casa. That evening we headed down the street to Wabi-Sabi for some sushi and some live music. Both proved to be fantastic. It is so nice to have good sushi just a block from the house (Oh, the conveniences of America).
Today, we headed to the chapel for the early service to see our old chaplain from Ft.Eustis. It was great catching up with him and his family. Then we rushed over to our church to make Sunday School. We are so thankful to have found a good group to grow and fellowship with. The rest of the day we spent at home. Charokee had a lot of school work to accomplish and I was busy continuing to get things settled. The weather outside was cold and rainy which was perfect for a cozy evening at home to end the weekend.
May you have a blessed week ahead!

Time flies...

The Molina's life in Virginia is officially in full swing. We are getting more familiar with our new community and really beginning to feel involved with local groups. Time seems to be flying by so fast but not without some interesting adventures on our part. Last week we had our household goods delivered. We were extremely excited to get all of our belongs but not so thrilled at the daunting task of unpacking. Things are all settled now and our home is truely feeling like Casa de Molina. We were also pleased to pick up our car from the port last week. Thankfully it made it across the ocean once again in one piece. Then we headed down to the outer banks of North Carolina to spend Valentine's weekend at a little bed and breakfast in Nags Head. It was a great romantic gettaway to an amazing area. We thoroughly enjoyed the slow pace of the little towns, the beautiful beaches, great shopping and all of the lighthouses! While in North Carolina we met up with Charokee's sister and her husband before returning home. Here are some pics to check out...

Job Blessings...

When moving there are always job uncertainties. Generally the reason we relocate is due to Charokee's career demands. Though his job is secure there are always changing demands and expectations of new assignments. Initially when we arrived in Virginia we did not know what Charokee's schedule would be before school started in February. A great blessing to us was to find out that Charokee would have time off until schools starts for us to get integrated into the community. This has been a wonderful time for us to connect and settle into our new home.

Another job praise is that the Lord has provided me with the one and only job I wanted in our new area. I am excited that I will be working as a fitness counselor and personal trainer at American Family Fitness. It was difficult for me to leave my last job but knowing that Lord giveth and He taketh away my trust was in Him to provide me with another job here if it be His will. It never ceases to amaze me how on a small and large scale if we put faith in the Lord He is faithful to give us the desires of our heart. So with that being said, we stand in awe...

Surprise

I know most of you thought it would be another two months until we posted again. Well, surprise here we are posting two days in a row. We just uploaded some pictures and thought we would share some that went with our last post. In the next few days we will take pictures of our loft to entice you to come and visit...hehehe...just kidding. Blessings to you!

Hello from the Molina's in Virginia!

Hello, for the first time in 2009! We are back from our little sebatical of reclusiveness of the comings and going of the Molina's. The last three months have been a whirlwind for us. We are now getting settled in to our new little aboad in Petersburg, Va. The next six months promise to be a little slower paced for our family as we reintegrate back into the lifestyle of the land of the free. With that being said, we feel that we would be remiss if we did not give a short recap of our travels over the last three months and the testimony of protection from our Father throughout our experiences.

At the end of October we completed the Venice marathon. It was an amazing bonding experience for us as a couple. That ended the month of October and led in to a crazy November. We spent the begining of the month in Germany for Charokee's eye surgery. His PRK surgery was a sucess and his recovery has been amazing. During his recovery time we enjoyed northern Germany as we knew it would be our last visit for a while. An added blessing was that we were able to visit Paul and Heidi Smith to catch up and have an early Thanksgiving celebration. Upon return to Italy we were back on the road heading to Egypt. We celebrated Thanksgiving Egyptian style while staying in Cairo. We had an amazing trip and there is so much to tell about the trip that we would not give it justice in this short update. Therefore we hope you enjoy the story through the pictures. Returning to Italy we began celebrating Melany's birthday week and ended with a trip to Slovenia. That week also brought the end of
our job positions in Italy. The next week we packed out of our house, celebrated Charokee's birthday, shipped our car, said goodbye to frieds and boarded an airplane headed to Texas for the holidays.

We spent Christmas with Melany's family in East Texas. It was great to be all together with family for Christmas for the first time in four years. After spending some time with Mel's parents in Fredricksbug we connected with Chy and Matt heading to Corpus Christi for New Years. We spent a few days catching up and celebrating with family to ring in the new year. To start off 2009 we traveled to Houston to visit with the Zeller's, Maegar's, and Portier's. We had a blast fellowshiping with these old friends. From Houston we took a little gettaway to Las Vegas for just the two of us. It was our first time in Vegas and it was fabulous! After some crazy fun in Vegas we traveled back to Ft. Worth to hang out with the Segrist family. It was a delight spending time with Mer and Sandy as well as our incredible nephew Sam. Time on leave went by so fast and before we knew it we were back at mom and dad Poldrack's getting ready to leave for Virginia. We felt so blessed to be able to spend so much time visiting with family and friends. It was refueling to our spirits to see and visit with everyone as we have often missed fellowship over the last few years.

Our new adventure began on January 11th as this was our first day back in Virginia. Moving back to the U.S. has been a challenging process but the Lord is in control and He never gives us more than we can handle. The first priority was finding a new home. Praise the Lord we found a great loft in the Old Historic area of Petersburg, Va. Another challenge was needing a vehicle while our car is being shipped from Europe. The Lord provided us with a great second car and Charokee's little dream in the form of a Mini Cooper S. This little car has been a tremendous blessing and we love driving little coop. We also praise the Lord that He led us to our new home church through our furniture salesman. It is such a blessing to be able to choose what house of worship we want to attend. We really feel that this is where the Lord wants us to minister for the next six months. There have been some scary events since we arrived in Virginia. One of which was being in a restaurant during an armed robbery. This was quite unsettling but another opportunity for us to see the Lords protection. The Lords hand has been upon us in so many ways and these are just a few that we have shared. We will keep you posted on future events or random ramblings from the Molina's.