Dear friends and family,
Yesterday Joey left for a recital tour of England, Ireland and the Netherlands. He will also tour England with the children's choir from his current job in Fairfield, CT following his perfomances. The first stop on the recital tour is St. Paul's Cathedral in London. He will perform there this Sunday the 19th. It was very hard for Joey to have to say goodbye to his little Clara yesterday. I snapped a couple quick pictures of him with Clara shortly before he left which are shown above. We will have to celebrate father's day via Skype. We are proud of him though and wishing him a successful tour. If you are curious about the tour go to www.josephripka.com and you will find more detailed info as well as dates and times. Clara and I are hoping that the 5 weeks Joey is away will pass by quickly. At least my parents are here and able to help me out some during this time. I can't imagine doing it all by myself right now. Clara is enjoying more awake time during the day which is a lot of fun, but it means that she requires even more attention. She has a wonderful little personality and is a very happy baby. Joey's job situation is now finalized. The contract is signed and he will begin in August. I want to write a separate blog entry in order to go into greater detail about his new position, but I will go ahead and mention a few things. We will not be moving very far as it turns out. Joey's new job is located in Stonington Borough, CT. His new job fulfills a dream we have had for many years of living by the ocean. More importantly though, we are joining a wonderful, supportive church family in a parish where beautiful music is appreciated and celebrated. We are so excited and blessed to be able to start a new journey in Stonington. I promise I will elaborate more soon, but right now I have a baby to feed! Wishing you all a wonderful start to the summer!
Erin, Joey and Clara