don't you just love bath time?

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I've been waiting to post this for a while. I wanted to be sure of it, I wanted to know it was right, and I wanted to know it was solid before sharing it with my friends, collegues and clients.

We are moving!!!

Yes we have moved many many times, but this time it is beautiful and it is right and it is perfect. <--(a bit of Hemingway for you all)

Here's our story:

A few months after purchasing our awesome condo in Denver last January, and welcoming our 1st child Harper into our family, Brian and I began to feel a disconnect from where we were. We weren't quite sure why we would feel this way. After JUST having had a baby weren't we suppossed to be "nesting"? Instead, we felt an axious stirring.

To make a long story short we miraculously sold our condo in 2 weeks!! 

It was about this time that we got a call from a close friend of ours, Aaron Stern, letting us know he was planning on starting a church in Ft. Collins CO. Aaron and his wife Jossie were the pioneers of The Mill, a college ministry out of New Life Church in Colorado Springs CO, which is where Brian and I met.

Both Brian and I after being raised Christians had just come off of a 4 year church hiatus. We took a break from the routine to truly dig deep into what we believed.

We are both deeply spiritual people but have since realized we are happy to leave behind much of the "extra stuff" modern Chrisitianity has come to include (too much for this post... or any post for that matter) and focus on the love, compassion and hope Jesus Christ represents and also teaches us to selflessly give to others.

While the church hiatus has been a beautiful journey of faith, after welcoming our daughter into the world we felt a pull to find a community that shared similar beliefs and convictions as well as provide an environment for her to grow into the woman we envision her to be.

So it is with these thoughts in mind we have decided to join Aaron and Jossie Stern in being a supportive and permanent part of the launch of Mill City Church in Ft. Collins CO.

While that decision in itself is quite exciting, to top it off we have purchased some acerage just 10 minutes north of Old Town Ft. Collins and plan to build what we hope can eventually turn into our dream home over the coming years.

Our plan is to start small and design the home with expansion in mind as our family grows.

West/entry view

house site view

north view 

A few of our dreams for this "Brooks Compound" as we are calling it, over time will include:

Building a home with energy efficiency in mind

solar power

geo-thermal heating/cooling system

aquaponics greenhouse

chicken coop

possible livestock

guest house/office space

 Because we expect all these dreams to take many years to complete we have decided to begin with the construction of the guest house and plan to live there until our main home is complete.

So- countdown 3 months to guest house move in, and 10 months main house move in!

Guest house design- 600sqft- south facing

planning the design with our Denver based architect Bill McDonald at his studio

I'll share the main house design once it is drawn. 

To get an idea of our design esthetic and vision, visit my pinterest account 

If I were speaking, now would be a good time for a big... long... *SIGH*.... to let all that info sink in.

Its quite a bit of change for us, however, we are nothing but deeply anxious to settle into this new chapter of our lives and thankful for all God has provided us. 

The future is uncharted.... but thats how we like it.

If you'd like to follow this entire adventure with us, I hope to blog the journey start to finish, starting with the ground breaking and concrete pour next week!

here we go!

 *If you are a client or collegue please understand this will mean NO CHANGE as far as business goes for audreyhannahphoto. When I was based in Denver I drove to Ft. Collins and Colorado Springs for meetings, projects and weddings ALL THE TIME. So virtually nothing will change. It is business as usual, and I am looking forward to a very busy 2012 season!*