"What are we doing?"

That was the question we asked ourselves a time or two on the journey here.

It's true, though. I mean, who does this?! Who whittles their belongings down from a 4 person, 2 car, 3-bedroom/2-bathroom house to a pile of luggage suitable for flying? And furthermore, who moves across an ocean with their 2 preschoolers in tow? Well, truthfully, we're finding it's more common than we thought. After all, most of our ancestors did this, right? But their version of "crossing the ocean" meant something entirely different and I'm glad we're not having to row that boat. Even still, one thing's for sure: Through this process I have cultivated a profound new respect for anyone who moves from their home culture to pursue a dream abroad. Kudos.

(Drew says, "Don't goooooo!" ...not really what he was crying about, but that's what I like to think.) :)

Overall, our journey here was quite uneventful! We breezed through security at DFW even though we held up the line for a while with our 10+ gray trays of shoes, electronics, kid junk, etc. Stopped for a quick bite before boarding and then went right onto the plane! Our Boeing 777 was great and we had an entire row of 5 seats to ourselves. Not bad! The girls did a pretty nice job, although they did get squirmy and fussy once or twice. (Pictures will illustrate the deterioration of Julia... 2-year-olds just aren't meant to sit quietly still in a confined space for 9+ hours without some SERIOUS sedatives.)

(Why are iPads so great? ...See above.)

A few hiccups and/or favorite memories so far include:

• Realizing that in a last-minute decision to check a bag packed to be a carry-on, I ultimately sent ALL of the Pull-Ups I had for Julia into the belly of the plane. (Oops!) I had one lonely spare in my purse, and thank the Lord it was enough.
• Collin quickly explaining to the girls as we sat waiting to take off that "soon the engines will get loud and the plane will go fast and then we'll lift into the air and we'll be flying!" And then when we heard the engines start to rev, Avery turned and asked, "Are those the 'Aunt Jens' getting loud?"
• Julia made us die laughing/want to crawl under our chairs when she shouted during take off, "Yee-Haw! Giddyup cowboy!!" ...twice, loudly. Awesome.
• Watching the girls sleep on the plane gave us a brief a sigh of relief...
  
• Skipping to the FRONT of the ridiculously-long line/mass of humanity at Heathrow immigration because we were traveling with small children. (Seriously, it saved us hours of line-torture. We probably could have rented-out our kids for millions! ...not that it crossed our minds at all, because that would make us terrible people... right?...)

(Bright-eyed girls waking up in British airspace and getting ready to land. "Waking up" is a loosely-used term here... They only slept about 1.5 hours, and maybe only 50 minutes of that was quiet sleep. Some are sleep walkers, some sleep talkers... Julia's a sleep kicker, and that just doesn't work on a plane laying next to her sister. ...but, hey, it was a moment of peace for me & Collin to attempt some shut-eye, so we took it!)

(Standing in Heathrow looking back at our plane and waving goodbye)

(Happy to be in their car seats on the taxi-bus ride to Oxford!)

But now we're here-- it's real and surreal all at the same time. It's been wonderful so far. And truthfully we may never fully know the answer to the "What are we doing?" question we're sure to ask ourselves from time to time, because this is something that God has done. And though we've asked Him a time or two to let us in on what He's up to, I don't think He's as interested in filling us in on what He's doing as much as He wants to reveal to us more of who He is. So we'll keep taking all of this in a day at a time, putting one foot in front of the other... Here we go. :)

(Made dinner the first night, but don't be disillusioned... This beautiful kitchen doesn't belong to us, it's just the fantastic flat we're renting before we are allowed to move into our house. AND this yummy British chicken was not my doing, either. It was made by someone named Mark or Spencer, not sure which but I love them both! It's a short walk to the market so we just picked up a bag of groceries and came home to heat & eat. We feel so metropolitan! It's great. Avery & Julia were super impressed, as you can see. Oh, well...)

(Happy sisters, settling in fine.)