Kangaroos

On Sunday, we took a trip to a local golf course -- doesn't sound too exciting, except that it was positively overrun with kangaroos. These are not zoo kangaroos, these are the genuine article. So, it was pretty exciting for Owen and the rest of us to wander freely among the kangaroos and flying golf balls, and escape with our lives (the golf balls were far more of a threat than the very tame kangaroos). The weather was beautiful all weekend, so we also spent a couple of days at the beach -- everyone's starting to look a lot more tanned and healthy. This week is more mundane -- we're hoping to move into our new house at the weekend, so there are still plenty of logistics to cover in the meantime.

Australia Day!

This is the Australia Day 3-day weekend, so we'll be heading to the beach for a few days for some R&R. It's been a hectic time for our little family, trying to get ourselves set up here, so a few days of downtime will be nice. We adults spent several hours yesterday morning in a sea of IKEA boxes, pretending to be carpenters. Made some progress, tho sometimes it feels like you're starting with just the planks.

Owen started "school" this week, and seems to really be enjoying himself. By some miracle they've managed to get him to eat fruit there, too.

The race is on

Georgie is desperate to walk -- she's a determined little thing, and now spends most of her day pulling up on chairs, couches, legs, radiators... If she manages to stand for a minute, she breaks into the most delighted smile. We'll be moving into our new house in about 10 days, and we're hoping to get there before she takes her first steps. But it could be a near thing....

We have a house!

On Tuesday, we signed a lease for our new house, and got the keys yesterday. Phew. Seeing 13 houses with kids in tow was quite enough. We'll be living in Armadale, close to a park and shops. And Marc's commute will probably be around 20 minutes by tram (Owen's mesmerized by trams -- we get a full tram report every time one passes by).

The house itself is cute and looks little -- only about 15 feet across at the front -- but is surprisingly deep. The hallway is about a quarter of a mile long, which'll be great for the kids (they love tearing up and down hallways). Three bedrooms, a laundry/study (yep, that combo surprised us too, but it may just be crazy enough to work), and a big kitchen/dining/living with doors to a back yard with clothes line and some space to play. Off-street parking too, which is a great luxury for us.

Our address is on the left, and there are also some new photos. We'll probably move in at the end of the month, but we can collect mail from there anytime. Yay!

House Hunting

In the last week, we've visited 13 houses.... The baseline was set on Tuesday -- the elegant 4 bedroom home that sounded so nice on paper was falling apart in real life, and there was an actual cockroach wandering across the front hall when we let ourselves in. Ugh. Owen & Georgie joined us for 9 of the houses, and did great -- Owen kept rushing in and saying "there's no furniture in this house EITHER!", like it was some amazing coincidence. And then he would busy himself opening and closing cupboards and chatting with the realtor. In any case, we have an application in now on a place we all like, so let's hope it comes through. If not, more house-hunting for us...

The other logistical task was trying to get ourselves cell phones (or as they're called here, "mobiles"). We wandered into the first shop like total innocents, not realizing that our simple question about plans would be met with a flood of totally incomprehensible information in a language we couldn't understand. Turns out, it's all different here -- rather than buying minutes, you buy dollars, which are then eaten up at a variable rate depending on the company, the phone, the time of day, the phases of the moon, etc. Five days later, we're still confused.

It's been warm this past week -- it got to 110 degrees on Thursday as we visited open houses. But it's not too humid, so we all made it through OK. We parents had dinner on the beach on Thursday night, which was a nice perk. And this week, we'll be leaving the kids behind as we go to the Australian Open tennis. Updates as events warrant!

In Australia!

Many of you have been wondering whether we actually made it over here, and so here's the official confirmation -- we did indeed. Thanks for the thoughts and prayers. We didn't manage to update the site earlier due to ... well, you'll probably get the picture when you read the rest of this.

The flight went about as smoothly as it could, given that it involved taking 2 kids under 4 and eleven pieces of luggage across a very broad ocean. Which is to say, the planes left mostly on time, we didn't miss either of them, and the luggage came too. And that was pretty much our fondest hope for the day. A few things didn't go as well. Airport security confiscated our sunscreen and a large bottle of Georgie's favorite diaper lotion (it was supposed to be in checked baggage, but well, eleven pieces of luggage!!). More of a problem, Owen developed some kind of stomach bug that had him vomit on both plane flights AND in the airport. Nice. The really well prepared parent might bring two changes of clothing (we only had one), but I defy any parent to be so Boy Scouty as to bring three changes. Owen deplaned in Melbourne wearing just his stripy pajamas (and he was frankly lucky to have those).

Perhaps due to the sickness, Owen worked himself into a state of extreme tantrum on the cross-Pacific leg, which resulted in him receiving serious talkings-to in the bathroom from each parent at one time or another. We can now confirm that the bathrooms are not very well sound-proofed -- a three year old's defiant screams still travel through the locked door to every corner of the plane. Lucky we'll never be seeing any of those people again :-).

Serena's parents met us on arrival and took us straight to the beach. By that point, Serena had Owen's stomach bug too, and Owen had developed pink eye. Georgie was still on antibiotics from her last-minute ear infection (which we just caught in time for her to fly), so we were a sorry lot. But it's amazing what a few days of sunshine and comparative relaxation can do. We're now all in one piece (well, four pieces) and busy trying to find ourselves a place to live. We'll keep our contact details updated (that's them, scroll up and to the left).

Photos will follow soon -- we've been lousy about remembering to bring the camera with us to record all these pink-eyed moments. We're missing those of you from Boston and New York, but looking forward to catching up with those of you down here.

Merry Christmas!

It’s been an active time for the growing Hildenbrand family. Marc & Serena began the year with a quick kid-free trip to Paris (Marc's parents very kindly looked after Owen). We had a delightful break, and Paris in January seems downright warm next to Boston. We were amused by how solicitous the French were of the rather pregnant Serena – several times she was waved around security machines, and a flight attendant tucked a cushion onto her lap so the baby wouldn’t be hurt by the seatbelt! Very sweet. Of course, some of the joys of Paris (wine, raw cheese) can’t be enjoyed by pregnant ladies, but we still had lots of fun.

We followed that trip by settling the discussion we’ve been having for some time, and deciding to move to Australia at the end of 2007. It felt like the time was right to try this out and see how it works for our family. We’re planning to be there for a couple of years, and then we’ll re-evaluate.

You can imagine how much paperwork that decision has generated – we’ve proclaimed 2007 the Year of Bureaucracy. But we’d barely started working on our “To Do” lists when baby Georgia Margaret arrived on March 27, a little over two weeks early. She’s been a total charmer from the beginning – generally happy and mellow, and altogether an easy girl to be around. Owen adores her, and the feeling is mutual (though the days of tussling over toys have just begun). Marc’s parents were able to spend time with us soon after Georgia’s birth, and Serena’s mum came for an extended stay a few weeks later. It was great to have all the help, especially as Owen inconsiderately ran a fever of 103 just two days after Georgia came home from the hospital.

We soon returned to our piles of paperwork. Many many forms later, Serena now has dual Australian-US citizenship, and enjoyed her US citizenship ceremony in June. Both Owen and Georgia have dual citizenship also, and Marc’s Australian work visa came through fairly promptly. Marc began searching for a job, and we feel so fortunate that he received a job offer from a games company in Melbourne, and they’re relocating us. He’ll start work with them in February 2008.

Serena returned to work in May to clean up loose ends, and stopped for good in July. Working with InterVarsity the past 6 years has been a wonderful experience, but two kids and an international move are mighty time-consuming.

On the domestic front, we faced another challenge – it was time for Owen to relinquish the diapers. And he wasn’t impressed at all. After the first weekend of trying, he positively begged to go back to the status quo. We’ll remember it as the summer of fighting with our strong-willed son, but are glad to be able to broadcast his eventual success….

In September, Owen started preschool, and has had a wonderful time attending Little Folks Fellowship three mornings a week. He’s made friends and been thoroughly comfortable there from the start – we’ve been so grateful for this caring school.

Georgie began crawling a couple of weeks ago, and can now move around the house with distressing speed. Nowhere is safe from the reach of the inquisitive baby! She’s still quite small (though headed towards extreme height, like her brother), so it’s amusing to see her little crawling face poke round the door, just 3 inches off the ground.

We’re now only a month away from our move, with many things still to do. We’re going to miss our family, friends, church and preschool here a lot, but are excited for new opportunities in Melbourne. We’ll keep this page updated with contact information, so please continue to keep in touch. And have a wonderful Christmas.

Blessings – Marc, Serena, Owen & Georgia H