Under Agreement

We are moving to Dorchester! We are under agreement as of Sunday on a single family home in Boston. We couldn't be more excited. The house is a beautiful Victorian built in 1885, and I'm overwhelmed with the amount of space we're soon to have. The best part is that the house is done. No renovations necessary. No new bathrooms to install, no outdated kitchens to rip out, not even a lick of wallpaper to steam off the walls.

We're set to close May 30th. Yes, I'm due June 16th. Yes, we're going to try and move in before baby boy comes. Yes, we're crazy.

We decided to rent out our condo, and were pleasantly shocked when it rented in less than 8 hours after a posting on Craig's List. We feel confident that our future tenants will pay the rent and not trash the place, but we'll see how it goes!

Frankie and I went to the Museum of Science a few weeks back with some friends, and I never posted pictures. We, as always, had a great time!

Frankie tried on the squirrel and jaguar coats at the same time.

Hannah and Frankie with the contents of the "sounds" box. This is a hilarious picture because it really sums up their two personalities and their relationship. Hannah is a fun-lovin', noise-lovin' girl, while Frankie approached the sound box with a serious, meticulous desire to test each sound toy individually. She looks a little stunned in this picture!

Nathanael and his Mama, Kristen. They are leaving tomorrow to move back to Texas, and we are so sad. We will miss you so much, Polk family.

Where have the McFaddens been, part II

We are no longer sick! Thank you for all your prayers. We have been healthy for 2 whole weeks now, and I'm sure you're wondering what my excuse is this time for not posting pictures of my adorable girl. The excuses are many, none of which you may find compelling, but I will provide them, if nothing else, to explain what we've been up to.

We have been working hard to finish our closet project, which is done! Chris and Jeff Derrick installed the barn door hardware brackets on the wall this Saturday after doing lots of measuring, remeasuring, and calculations probably involving logarithms and square roots, etc. I painted the wall red to match the rest of the walls in our bedroom; we were pleasantly surprised to find that Benjamin Moore's My Valentine paint was the same formula as it was 4 years ago when the other walls were painted, and you can't tell that one wall was just painted. I whole-heartedly recommend this color red if anyone is looking for a good red - not at all orange.

Sarah and Jeff Murry came over Sunday to help finish painting the doors white, and Jeff and Chris installed the doors on the wall. We're so happy to have this project done! We loved the way it turned out.

Please ignore the armoire - that is not its permanent home.


Much of the rest of our time has been spent researching housing, and going to look at houses. That's right, the McFaddens may move in the coming months to Dorchester (which, for those of you who don't live in Boston is a neighborhood of Boston). The reasons for this move are many-fold, not the least of which is much more house for your money. I have been wrestling over the last 6 months or so about how I want to raise my kids, and where the best place to do that might be. The sad truth is that if we want me to stay home with our kids (which we do) we just don't feel that we can afford to stay in Cambridge. People with more kids and less money than we have do it, of course, but I just don't think it's a choice we want to make.

I have been researching Dorchester since December, because Dorchester is not a neighborhood you move your family to without doing your homework. Dorchester is where much of the gang activity and violent crime in Boston happens, and rightfully has a bad reputation. The part I've discovered though, is that Dorchester is large, and that are are plenty of pocket neighborhoods that are considered quite safe. Many people who live there are quick to point out that the violent crime that happens is not random. It's criminal on criminal, gang member on gang member, drug dealer on drug dealer.

Friends and family, I know that some of you will be worried for us if we move there, and I understand that. But we are choosing to not live in fear, but rather in the freedom that Christ brings us. Our lives are in the hands of the Father and no matter how hard we try we cannot make this unsafe, sinful world perfectly safe for ourselves and our children. There is a fine line between being irresponsible and choosing not to live in fear, but that is why we pray for wisdom, and have done our homework. We've looked at crime stats, we've walked the neighborhoods where we're thinking of moving, both in the day time and the night, and we feel that this could be a really good fit for our family.

We are excited about getting involved in the community there, which from my small scratchings on the surface seems to be rich with opportunities for us and our children. Our church, Christ the King, recently planted a church in Dorchester, which we could walk to from the houses we're looking at. I am excited about possibly sending our kids to Boston Public Schools, which offer many schools for all kinds of learners, and has some of the best public high schools in the country. There is a YMCA in the area that just got a face lift with an indoor pool where the kids could take swimming lessons. The houses we're looking at are all under 10 minute walks to the red line T, which means we can easily get downtown or back to Cambridge without having to drive and find parking. Did I mention it's also a mere 3 miles from Chris' work? How wonderful it would be to have him home in 10 minutes rather than 45.

The more research I do, the more overwhelmed I feel at the way God is providing for us. Every concern I had has been answered, many of desires I had for my growing family have been answered. I know that life there will not be perfect, that I will still grumble in March about the long winter, that I will still feel too far away from our families, that I will still probably yell at the dog when I trip over her because even if we have a bigger house, she'll still probably hang out right under my feet, but I have had an immense sense of peace about moving my growing family to this community and area of Boston.

We will keep you all posted about whether or not we actually find a house. It is not a done deal that we are moving, but we are certainly heading in that direction.

And now the moment you've all been waiting for - pictures of Frankie.

Doesn't she look so old in this picture?

This is a video of her chasing Maisy with the yard stick and laughing hysterically, something Maisy found mildly amusing for a short while. If you stick it out until the end, you can hear her say "woof, woof", which is the noise doggies make (and, on many occasions, cows, kittys, pigs, or really any animal).


This morning I was cleaning the stove and suddenly realized I couldn't hear her anymore. I panicked, and went racing through the house looking for her (which, honestly, doesn't take long when you live in less than 900 square feet). I found my sweet girl on her chair in her room reading books.

Where have the McFaddens been?

Hiding. Hiding under our covers waiting for all manner of bacteria and viruses to henceforth leave our house and never return. Last week started with a runny nose and nasty cough for Frankie. Mid-week she had another boil,and after a Dr's visit Thursday she started another round of a different antibiotic. The vomiting began Thursday night with a side of other digestive unpleasantries that continued through Friday. I never in my life thought I would need all 4 crib sheets that Baby Bargains book told me to register for, and we used every last one Thursday night.

Then Mama got the stomach bug Friday morning, which necessitated her staying home from the women's retreat this past weekend (major bummer). Daddy wasn't feeling top notch all weekend, and now has a bad sore throat and cough. I would not have been surprised if Frankie woke up with the Chicken Pox, or Typhoid Fever, or the Mumps on Saturday.

Lord Jesus, we are tired of being ill, please bring health to our home.

I have been trying to find reasons to be thankful in all this so that I do not exhaust myself with all the complaining I want to do. None of these illnesses were life-threatening or required emergency room visits. Frankie and I are feeling better - we even managed to make it to Women's Bible Study this morning. We had a restful weekend, and I even watched two whole movies.

Spring, we are ready for your warm sunshine and the end of cold and flu season.

Construction update

Notice I titled this "Construction Update", not "Demolition Update". The dust has cleared, the morning has come, the tarp has been torn in two, for we are finished with the walls. This means we have sanded drywall putty for the last time. I have spent 3+ hours cleaning up after said sanding for the last time. Our vacuum has wheezed its last, dusty breath. We have moved all our clothes from our closets to Frankie's bedroom and the living room one last time.

Chris sanded and re-mudded the walls on Saturday while I painted one side of the closet doors. I learned a valuable lesson about paint and below freezing temperatures that day - they don't mix. I was working on the doors outside, freezing my butt off in the 32 degree weather (with wind chill of more like 23), and noticed that the top layer of paint in my tray was freezing a little. I forged ahead, thinking it would probably be fine. The paint froze before it dried, creating this odd crystalized pattern in places. It also went on quite unevenly. Fortunately, I only did one side, and I'm going to recoat that side which will probably hide it completely. We're also going to put that side facing the inside of the closets, so hopefully no one will notice. Jeff Murry assured me you couldn't tell unless you were really close up. I tried to get a picture of it for you, blog readers, but was unsuccessful.

Sunday Chris took Frankie and Maisy to the park, and I finished sanding, cleaned, and primed the walls with a "wallcovering primer", which seems a lot like that Kilz stuff if any of you have used it - it's basically to prevent mold and mildew under the wallpaper. Chris went to Shwartz Hardware in Watertown and ordered the door hardware, which should be here in another week along with the wallpaper!

It feels really good to get the messy phase completed. We really don't have much left, which is good, since I'm 29 weeks pregnant now (oh yeah, and about that, please don't tell my OB I was up on ladders sanding and painting this weekend - I wore a mask!). I'm hoping we can finish this by the end of April and then have May and any part of June baby boy decides to give us to really prepare for his arrival.

Completed closets, ready for wallpaper and door installation.

Note the dusty vacuum's place of prominence on the curb. RIP, faithful Hoover. You served us well. (Frankie and I picked up a new vacuum at Costco today)

And now for a picture of our adorable, beloved Frankie wearing a kerchief around her neck. I kept calling her my little girl scout. She wore this kerchief all day the other day - I'd take it off for meals, and she wanted it right back on after she was done. Apparently it was part of her outfit.

It was not a dream...

The weather really was 54 degrees, sunny, and warm just a few days ago. Sarah sent me this picture we'd taken with her camera to remind me that we did, indeed, go to the park and play without jackets on.



It all seemed like a dream when we left the house today to deliver a meal to a new mom, our friend Wendy and her new baby, Jane. What started out as a misting rain was sleet by the time Frankie and I got to the T. Sneaky, sneaky spring in Boston that most days still feels like winter.

No jackets!

That's right, folks, we just got back from the park where we did NOT WEAR JACKETS! The sun was shining, the wind wasn't blowing at the park, and we stripped off our jackets to just our long sleeved t-shirts! Praise Jesus, I really needed this day. I just checked the temperature and it says it's only 54 here in Cambridge. When did 54 feel so warm?

Engineer Pride

The sorting game

Frankie currently spends about 50% of her day moving objects from one side of the room to the other, and then back again. She will put granola bars back in the box if I take them out, likes to put her toys back in their bin (not always, don't go thinking I never pick up toys!), likes to line her bears up in one order, shakes her head, mutters to herself, and then rearranges them.

All this obsessive organizing has had me worried she's OCD. A friend tried to reassure me that it was normal, that she was "sorting" and that it was the first stages of math and logic development, but I haven't seen any logic to the sorting. Just a sort of obsessive need to move objects and then put them back where they 'belong' (it doesn't help that she usually talks quietly to herself while doing this activity).

My concerns aside (which are my problem, not hers!), I do take great joy in watching her busily play around the apartment, and it's been wonderfully fun to watch her personality emerge. She's always been a deliberate and particular child, and I think now we're seeing an organizational element to this deliberateness (and dare I say cleanliness? trust me, this is not because my house is terribly clean!). She's specific about the textures she'll eat -- icing, soy butter, black bean shells on her fingers cause her to scrunch up her face into the Do'h expression and hold her hands out to me to be wiped, although she will eat yogurt and oatmeal with her hands. She doesn't like the sand or the wood chips at the park. We usually keep the front door and the door to Maisy's closet closed, and if they're open, she'll often walk over to shut them. She picks up lint off the floor and hands it to me with the understanding that I'll throw it away.

I think it will be amazing and challenging to get to know each of our children, and to nurture them uniquely in the ways they will each specifically need to be loved, disciplined, challenged, and encouraged. Frankie may not have any trouble keeping her room clean, but may need our help understanding that life has many gray areas. I love my little girl just the way she is, and am happy that I can be home with her and get to know who she is, and get to help shape who she will become. I wonder who her little brother is going to be...