In 1 Month...

The last time I was in Taiwan I got a text from Keith. Now remember, it is a 13 hour time difference this time of year, so it was sent in the daytime here meaning it arrived in the middle of the night. I tend to wake up more often during the night while there (thank you, jet lag!), so one of my awake times I glanced at my phone to check the time and saw these words:

"Do you mind if I buy a business?"

At that point I was just like, "Whatever, sure, do it."

We did speak more about it over the phone when I was actually awake and he was really excited. I was a little blown away. Before I even got home, and I was only gone a week, he had gone to see the business and had made our interest in buying it known.

A few days after I got home, while I was still a bit fuzzy-headed from travel, we had a conversation with the sellers and got a tour of the business. And I got excited too.

There are a lot of steps that come in next. The waiting to hear if we would be the ones they would decide to sell to was a little hard. But when the answer came it was a YES!

So here we are, working through all of the legal steps to having a family business! I'll give more details soon, and {hopefully} some cute pictures. For now, we are looking at a real change of pace in about 1 month when we actually take over the business.

For those who don't know, what type of business do you think it might be?

And for those who do, please don't say quite yet! 

Pictures From Panama

We have been here in Panama for almost a day now. Our hotel is gorgeous and comfortable. We have an ocean view room with a balcony on the 26th floor. The view is mind-blowing. We can see ships waiting to go through the Panama Canal from our balcony.

We walked around a little today. We went inside a basilica, which was lovely.

Then we found ourselves wandering through some non-tourist-y parts of the city. I think my favorite part may have been when we saw people gathered in a shaded area playing dominoes.

I love the way photography is such an amazing way to bridge cultural differences. I could not speak with them, but I could understand that they wanted me to take their pictures. And I wanted to, and I loved showing them. The whole interchange was so fun!

The heat got to us and we headed back to the hotel for a cool, restful afternoon. Tomorrow I have my first appointment.

She Said Yes!

A few months ago Douglas talked to us about his desire to marry his girlfriend, Kayla. We gave him our blessing and through the last few months we have known that the time he was going to propose was getting closer.

Last week he talked to her dad and went to the jewelry store to buy a ring, fully expecting to need to order it and wait 3 weeks for it to arrive. Well, that day they had a jeweler in the store, this one happens a couple of times a year. So Douglas got to watch him make the ring and he walked out with it that day! He FaceTimed me later that day and the grin on his face said it all. He was so excited!

After some talking he decided that last night would be the night and that he would like to have pictures of the event, so I was more than happy to fill that role! It was sweet to see the smile on his face and her response... well, it was perfect.

She had a phone call to make to her best friend shortly after. Had to show off that ring.

We celebrated at Rita's where Kayla's mom joined us. The whole time Kayla kept looking at her hand, admiring the gorgeous ring. I gotta say, this boy of ours has done well!

We are so happy. So happy...

And yet... I'm still not finished telling you about the big things going on around here! :)