2008 February Newsletter

JON AND MARY WILSON FAMILY NEWSLETTER

March 10, 2008

Happy Spring everyone! I hope this letter finds you all well. I’m writing to you at 1 year, 7 months, and 27 days from the date of my marriage to Jon Robert Wilson.

Some of you may know that I began to feel queasy and tired just a few short weeks after my honeymoon. By the end of August, Jon and I were fairly certain that our new little family had already begun to grow into three. We were a little surprised (though we should not have been) at how quickly it happened! We both wanted a child very much, but the timing was not what we expected.

In November Jon received a letter of acceptance from Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Arizona. After a quick visit to California to visit Jon's parents for Christmas, we packed and drove to Arizona on New Year's Day. I was a bit anxious about being five months pregnant, away from my family, my husband in school, and between jobs. So while Jon studied, I applied to temp agencies, started setting up a proofreading/editing business, and obsessed over my pregnancy.

Jon was a great help to me during this time. Despite his workload as a new MBA student, he found time to help me think calmly about the pregnancy and my work situation. Finally, on 21 April 2007, Adara Belle Wilson made her grand appearance. Jon and I had enjoyed the day at the Arizona Science Museum before we decided that the things I was feeling were, indeed, full-on labor. We arrived at the hospital one hour before Adara emerged at 11:30 p.m., whole and perfect.

Three days later, Jon had his first final exam.

He had just enough time to bond with Adara before he was off to Costa Rica for an internship with Kimberly-Clark. Adara and I, meanwhile, stayed with various relatives until, at the age of 3 months old, Adara made her first international voyage. In sweet reunion, our family visited the rain forest and white-sand beaches of Manuel Antonio National Park, the chilly heights of the Irizu volcano, and the internationally-acclaimed Monte Verde where we walked on suspension bridges, zipped over the canopy (but not with Adara) on zip lines, and marveled at the sights in the butterfly and frog museums.

Once back in the U.S., I learned that a school friend of mine was terminally ill. Packing my bags for the final time that summer, Adara and I went to Salt Lake for a week for a last goodbye. As I was returning to Phoenix, my friend was taking her final breath.

Back in Phoenix I set my mind on putting my house in order. I had hardly begun the job when Jon announced that the school had a number of scholarships available for anyone with time to write a two-page essay . . . for each scholarship they applied for. Since I, apparently, had more time on my hands than he did, I spent six weeks editing, refining, re-writing, and generally polishing the essays that Jon had written for the scholarships. We ended up winning two of them - which was a great relief to our bank account.

With the essays finished, the holidays were right around the corner. We were planning to visit both my family in Salt Lake and Jon's in California. On the way, we stopped at Mesa Verde National Park to see the ruins of the cliff-dwellers. In Salt Lake, Christmas Eve was classically snow-y. Then it was on to Fresno, where the weather was sunnier, if not warmer.

Laden with toys, we returned to Phoenix with just one day to prepare for Jon's three-week trip to Jordan and Israel. He was part of a team of MBA students and professors who were consulting the government of the kingdom of Jordan regarding their microfinance industry.

While he was gone, Adara was learning to walk. She's 10 months old now and embarking on new adventures. She crawls out the front door toward the playground and hardly stops to look back. We’re doing our best to keep up with her.

We’ll be moving again in June of this year after Jon’s graduation. He has interviewed for three different positions with some companies in the eastern U.S. Our hope is to end up in Louisville, Kentucky, with second choice being either Pittsburg, Pennsylvania or a small town in Tennessee.

Sometimes I wonder if life will ever slow down. It probably won’t. But a brief slowdown has given me a chance to post this blog and hope you all enjoy reading it as much as we've enjoyed living it.

All our love,

Jon, Mary, and Adara Wilson