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.

Molina's M.I.A.?

No, the Molina's are not missing in action...we have just been crazy busy for the past month or so...but truthfully that is our reality. Therefore we will try to give everyone the major highlights of our last few weeks. In September we decided to sign-up for the Venice marathon, which is October 26th. This meant we changed our training routine and began a condensed marathon training plan. Mel is loving the training aspect because that is what she does as a personal trainer. Anyways, the last seven weeks have been full of long runs through the beautiful Italian countryside which have been accompanied by many aches, pains and one inury. Ulitimately training has been a great bonding experience for us as we are running partners for life. As well as spiritually strengthening becuase we rely on the Lord as our source of strength.

During our training time we have been busy at work. Charokee played an intrigal role in the redeployment of his forward battalion. It is great to have those Soldiers home safe and out of harms way! Meanwhile, Mel was establishing the new Wellness Center in Vicenza and finishing up her graduate courses. She is still working on her thesis but the plan is for review and completion in November...YEAH!

Of course we can not go this long and not have traveled anywhere. At the beginning of October we went to Budapest for four days. It was an incredible city! We had the most amazing time sightseeing, shopping and relazing. Budapest is similiar to Paris and Prague in the fact that all are organized around the river. We found Budapest to be a friendly and laid back city that was extremely accomodating. The pictures will tell a more detailed story of our adventures but we must share about one specific experience. Budapest is known for their natural thermal spas. They have a ton of European style Bath House. We were totally interested in adding this experience to our repetoir and relishing in the treatments as we had just finished a 22 mile run that weekend. So, we went to the famous Gillert Spa. We felt as if we had stepped onto the set of a freaky horror flick. The facilities were beautiful but the atmosphere was a bit on the creepy side. The employees were all dressed in white, often with gloves and mask, the majority of the patrons were naked, the lighting was dim these are just a few of our observances. Once we got over the initial shock of our new environment we had an amazing time. We definitely would recommend that if anyone is ever in Budapest, you must go to a Spa. It would not be a complete Hungarian experience without the visit.

Our travels did not end there as the next week we traveled to Pisa and Florence. The initial reason for the Pisa trip was to participate in the 26th Annual Run to the Tower. Mel hurt her knee a few days before the run but thankfully we were able to run together. It was awesome to run through the coutryside and then into Pisa to finish at the Leaning Tower. The rest of the weekend we relaxed and soaked up the cultural scene of each city. Florence was perfectly romantic for us as we had been several times but never alone. This time we were able to stroll about the streets and river together without a care of achieving any touristic mandates. While we were in Florence we ate at this amazing Osteria that is famous for their Florentinian steaks. Being from Texas we know what a good steak is and well we indulged in the best steak of our lives. Now Florence will always bring us thoughts of love, leather, art and beef!



Macy has been a great little trooper through all of our craziness. She is the sweetest little thing for our family. We love playing with her and taking her for walks each night. As the seasons have been changed there are leaves on the ground under every tree. Macy thinks these are play areas created specifically for her to romp around in...how cute is a little snout and ears peaking through leavers. She is our sweet little bella.

So, presently we are ready to run the marathon on Sunday and praying Mel's knee holds out to the finish! We are also preparing to move as Charokee received orders last week that we will be heading to Virginia in December. Before we leave Europe there will be a lot of things transpiring. One extremely important event is Charokee's PRK eye surgery. This surgery will allow Charokee to pursue his personal and military goals so we are extremely excited about this opportunity.

We know that this was a big nutshell of random components but thanks for staying up to date on our adventures in life. God is so good and we give Him all the praise and glory...and we know that He is in control of our future. We will keep you posted as we step by faith.

A few weeks in review...

Ciao, it has been a while since we posted anything so here we are giving a little update on what we have been up to. The last few weeks we have traveled between Italy, Austria and Germany. Here are some pictures to tell the story of our adventures.