Kickin' it in Kansas

Ahhhh Kansas! So here we are, Matt, Jessie (Matt's sister) and I moving across the country. So far we've made it halfway!!!! Now we have a day and a half to relax in Kansas with our friends Becky, Tyler and their new baby girl, Eve. (Pictures to follow) It was a long day of driving yesterday....almost 14 hours!!! But we've made it safely and it looks like poor Mocha is returning to his normal self (he's playing right now with Eve's toys and Tyler). It's been a tough trip for him, and a learning process..... learning how to use a litter box in a moving car. Well, we're off to find some fun in Ness City but keep us in your prayers, we have some stops left in Salt Lake City and Reno and then it's home to Martinez, California!!!

Seeing Our New City...

Last week we went out to San Francisco to find a place to live. While we don't yet have any pictures of our house, we do have some from our travels...

And after a long day of house hunting...

Ciao Santiago Friends - so sad!

Here we are saying goodbye to our friends Dawn and Christian Moreno and their children Kailah and Dante. I have a great video also of Kailah a few minutes before sucking on her big toe like she could suck it off. Once I figure out how to post videos...

We already really miss Dawn and Christian and the kids. It's been hard to leave.
And here we are saying goodbye to Matt's Chilean family and our great friends Ines and Dussan. Matt lived with Ines and her family when he came to Chile a few years ago and they are largely responsible for his great Spanish!! They have taken care of him and loved him as family during his time in Chile and have very graciously welcomed me into the family. We'll miss them and their generosity so much! As a way to say thank you and share what the Lord has given us, Matt left his precious guitar Mihita with Dussan. Dussan has the most amazing voice and is always trying to find ways to glorify the Lord with his music. We were hoping so much to have him sing at our wedding last summer but he wasn't able to get a VISA despite much pleading with the U.S. government. We are so glad to leave this guitar in his capable hands and I know Matt misses them both!
Matt says goodbye to her...
And beginning a new chapter in her life!

And the last picture of our odyssey in Chile, here is Mocha preparing for his trip home. Here he is meeting his new cage (we had to get rid of the one we had at the last minute because we found out it was too big but some friends from church traded us this soft one, for our hard carrier). With some rigging Mocha would stay in it and not get out, but several times on the plane we'd see a paw out waving around or a cat face (looking very drugged) peeking through the zippers.
To conclude our departure...we miss Chile very much. It was a really special and unique time for us, being able to enjoy a new country together. The Lord really blessed Matt with a job that he was great at, and a time in our lives where we were able to spend much more time together than most. I couldn't have asked for a more amazing or precious first year of marriage. It was difficult to leave our little haven and we both miss it. Matt made a wonderful home for us! We are looking forward to a second year full of even more excitement and joy and wonderful memories! The Lord has blessed us so abundantly!

Ciao Santiago!

Now that we are semi-settled for a while in North Carolina (before the big, end-of-the-month move to San Francisco) here are some pictures of what was going on before/as we left Chile:

A few weeks before we were getting ready to leave, our good friends Jamie and Lexie left to travel around South America. They are from the Bay Area also and we are so excited to be reunited with them in a few weeks.

As we prepared to leave it was time for one of our important chores, bathing the cat. After much time, many mournful meows and a great deal of scratching, he really has gotten used to it. We give him a bath because it keeps our allergies down, and his shedding down and he really has adjusted. Here are some pictures of Mocha after his last bath, the day before we headed back to the states. He looks so happy!!

The day before we left we got a great present for the baby from our friends the Scotts. Chris Scott is a master seamstress and makes beautiful quilts. She let us pick out the fabric for the baby's quilt, which looks really fun (we think). Here are some pictures of the quilt being enjoyed by our friends the Moreno's children Dante and Kailah as we said goodbye to them. We were glad to see it being enjoyed immediately since it will be a few weeks yet before our little one can enjoy it!

Beardsleys Missing in Action

Wow!! It feels like we have been gone a LONG time, but I guess it's really just been 2 weeks. Advantages to being MIA in blogworld for 2 weeks.....getting to read all of the blogs that we've missed out on. So much has been happening!!

Well for us..... (sorry about the no picture part, we'll have some up here soon) our trip to San Francisco was GREAT. After the first few days of looking around we found the perfect place!!! For the next year we'll be renting (at the obscene rate of $1 million dollars a month ;-) a very cute little 3 bedroom house (come and visit us!!!!) in Martinez, California. After a great visit of the area and city, we headed back to the East Coast (mmmmm, humidity) and spent some time with my family for the 4th of July. We visited the Baltimore Inner Harbor and the aquarium and had some great seafood!! After a stop in Harrisonburg for a Baby shower for Elisa Forshey (and me, surprise!) thrown by Laura Carpenter we left for the beach in South Carolina with Matt's family, where we have been for 3 very relaxing days.

We'll be here at the beach until the 16th and then we'll have some fun pictures and stories to share of the past 3 weeks!! All in all (aside from a TON of traveling) we've had a great time visiting with friends and family. We're excited to get out to the West Coast to begin our new life as Californians, begin Grad School (Matt) and meet our son.

Thanks for your prayers and keep an eye out for more pictures and posts soon!