Hello Again.

I am back in the blogosphere! We have been so busy lately, I haven't been able to decipher which way is up! So much has happened since the last time we posted, let me catch you up.

We sent our visas off in November, only to have them returned to us 3 days later! Even though we dotted every "I" and crossed every "T", the embassy wanted more. It took us about 3 weeks to get the list completed and we were able to send it in again! Thinking we were looking at a long wait for a reply, we were stunned to receive another package from the embassy 4 days later. This time the Visas were approved! Normal process for visas can be up to 6-8 weeks. This is just another example of our amazing Father at work, again! His timing is perfect.

Not long after the visas came, we packed all of the belongings we plan to take to NZ in the container on January 4th,. Phew! What a feat. We had only 2 hours to pack the container and send it off! After 2 weeks of packing, purging and packing more, we were exhausted. We couldn't have done it with out the help of our sweet friends the Partlows who graciously shared the container with us; "Energizer Bunny" Melanie who helped with childcare, packing, and cheer leading until it was completed; and all of the guys who came out to help fill it up in two hours; thanks Gene, Chase, and Jared! Packing a four member family to move across the world was not easy; multiplying that by 2 is pretty crazy! After all of the moving, inventories, packing, re-packing, and "Tetris style" shifting , we finished, on time!

Our garage became GRAND CENTRAL STATION for the packing and filling of the container. (Our house, well, it was less than glorious, thus I am not sharing pictures of that.)

 

 Hudson was on patrol; making sure everything was done right!

On January 8th, our sweet friend and Comedian, Bob Smiley, helped us raise one-time funds for our move. What an amazing time! We enjoyed lots of laughs with friends and were so thankful for each an every person there to support us! Thank you all! We were able to raise about $ 800 ! We were humbled and thankful by the number of people who came out to show support and help us get closer to meeting our needs for our one-time support. We are so thankful for our generous church family and all the help we had putting it together. Thank you Paul and Rebecca D., Erin, Robert, James, Melanie, Liz, Ty, Britni, Ryan, Bekka, and Bob Smiley and his sweet family, for making this happen. ( If I forgot your name here and you helped, please know we are thankful for your support and sacrifice of time too!) We are truly grateful and excited to see how your efforts will be used for His Glory!

January 14-16 we found ourselves at Buckingham Road Church of Christ for our Family and Friends weekend. What an amazing weekend, full of His blessing. On Friday, our family was there to support us and we were represented by our Aunt , Mary Ethel, and niece, Kaci. Thank you for taking the time out to encourage us, listen to our stories and support us. We came away from this weekend full and blessed.
* (1.19.2011)Clarification -Unfortunately I didn't complete this post. On Friday night, we were represented by our Aunt and niece, on Saturday, we had the wonderful Babcocks and Ms. Liz Nichols there to show their love and support. We are so thankful for your endless encouragement and loving support! Thank you for taking time out to show us how much you care. Love you all! *

Jay begining the workshop.

John and I sharing our story.

 

MRN, Us, The Partlows and The Morrows

                            The Boys even had their share of fun:

Hudson, perched on Daddy's shoulders, (his favorite place to be)

So, apparently we have a bunch of cone heads.

Who knew?

WHOA! Hudson kept this up for almost 15 minutes.

We are thankful and blessed by all of your sweet words of encouragement and support. Thank you for taking the time out to love on a missionary. Most of all, we appreciate your prayers!

Next on the list; Garage sale and buy Plane tickets!