13 days til we leave!

Well, it has been BUSY around here. Last week was a BIG week for our family. We sent our dog to her new home, we finished packing our household items, had a birthday party for our son, the movers came (see story below), we cleaned our home, meet the new owners and closed on the house! It was definitely a busy and emotional week for sure. Now we are staying at a friends home for the next 2 weeks and trying to wrap up all the last minute things before we leave.

The movers were supposed to come on Wednesday but we got a call and they asked if they could come on Thursday. That was fine since we didn't have to be out of the house until Friday afternoon and we really weren't ready for them on Wednesday anyway. We woke up early Thursday and pulled everything out into the garage and driveway, except a couple of mattresses which were in the living room. We were waiting and around 9:15 we saw the big semi turn the corner and head down the street. I must admit that was an emotional moment for me. We have lived in this house for 13 years and it has been our HOME. We have seen several military families come and go over the years and never thought it would be us with a big semi with crates in our front yard. This is just a bitter sweet time for us ... we are so excited for the new journey the Lord has for us in Africa. This has been 6 years of dreaming, praying and planning for this and now it is here.

Well, the 2 guys that came to pack our stuff were so nice to work with. They did a GREAT job. The problem is we have felt like we are taking too much stuff and we were ready for our 20 foot see container to get to our house so we could see what would fit etc. When they pulled up they were bringing crates and not a container. Well long story short, the container was on a ship in Houston and the crane that was supposed to take it off the boat broke so they had the local moving company come and pack us so they could store it in there warehouse until Friday at 1:00 and then they would unpack the crates and load the container. That was fine until the end of the packing on Thursday and we had all 5 crates full and still didn't have the 4 bikes and 2 or 3 mattresses as well as a few ladders in. They had to call for a moving truck to come and pick that up when the semi came back to get the crates. With that said, the stress increased. STUFF ... too much stuff. We have tried to clean out but you still face the battle of well, we might need this and we might need that, on and on. We knew it was going to be tight and we had a plan. We had asked to guys loading as soon as they got there if they thought this would all fit int he 20 ft. and they said they believed it would. We wanted to be sure because there were some furniture items we would have told them not to pack just to be sure.

On Friday we went and got the church van and trailer and headed to the warehouse to wait on the container. We were prepared to take some of our furniture out and sell it so there was room. We waited and took care of things around downtown while waiting on the container. We got a call at 3:30 that the container would not be in town until the 10th. So we are now waiting until tomorrow for the container to come and we will see if it will all fit. If not then we will be selling some furniture. Please pray that tomorrow will go smooth and we will stay focused on the Lord and be able to be a blessing to the movers. We are praying the stress of the stuff will not overtake us.

About a month ago our daughter put together a video for us to use as we promote our move to Africa. She did a great job and we wanted to share it with you.



Here is the video our church put together for us when they Comissioned us as Full Time Missionaries on May 31st.



We also had the opportunity to speak at another church this past Sunday, West Side Baptist Church. We felt very welcomed. We will also be speaking this next Sunday morning at another church here in town.