Pictures

While we were in Ohio, there was a pretty major snow and ice storm.

The kids had a BLAST, but Doug and our friend Brian certainly found it frustrating to drive a moving truck down to SC in the middle of the storm, and then have to turn right around and drive a Chevy Cobalt back again!

Now it's time to rest and relax before heading to Chile next week!

It's the simple life

Well, we are done with visiting churches and updating our supporters, so now it is time to REALLY pack and get relax before we leave next Monday.

Today, was kind of neat. My in-laws live in the "back woods of no where," and there is always LOTS of work to be done on these 50 some acres. So, today after 2 trees were cut down by professionals practically our whole family worked out in the yard moving and piling up the logs so that they could dry and be used as firewood next year. Driving the tractor and working outside reminded me that life can be so simple. What does life come down to? We're here on earth to glorify God and when I'm out in His nature, I can't help but praise Him for His beautiful creation!

In another year or two, or for that matter in 2 more weeks, I may be missing the fresh air of this beautiful state, but I know that each time I think of this "home," that I will be reminded of His gifts of creation!!!

What we've been doing in the US

So what have we been up to this past month and a half? Well, first we visited our families. Then we returned to Doug's parent's home in West Virginia only to be "blessed" with ALL 4 generations in the house getting the flu. Yes, that included Doug's 93 year old grandfather. On January 8th Doug and I made a QUICK trip to Washington DC to begin our visa process. Then on January 10th Doug's dad drove us out to Ohio. We've been here for about 2 1/2 weeks and will be leaving on Saturday January 31st. Here are some of the pictures of some of our Ohio adventures.

We wanted to see as many people as we could while here, and of course since we are only here for 3 weeks I really didn't want to plan too many meals, so we were in various friends' homes just about EVERY night for dinner and sometimes in 2 different homes in one day for lunch and dinner.

The kids have truly enjoyed getting to see their friends!

We also needed to weed through some of our belongings from our storage unit. Praise God that we have someone in our church who owns a storage unit facility and allowed us to store our things for the past year for FREE!

But I have to say the weather has sometimes been a challenge!!!
But after weeding through things, yesterday we finally loaded the truck with LOTS of help from our church family.

Doug and Brian, a wonderful friend from our Sunday School class, left this morning EARLY to drive the truck to South Carolina where they dropped off everything that was loaded on the truck, returned the truck, and rented a car to begin driving back. They are driving back in the middle of this icy/snowy wintery mix as I write this. A local church down there has a ministry that ships containers for missionaries. They pack and ship about 20 containers a year for missionaries like us. http://www.hamptonpark.org/mfm.htm It REALLY is a COOL ministry!!

While Doug was gone today, one of my friends came over with her 2 kids to play video games. Here's a video of my friend's 3 1/2 year old son bowling. He is just SOOO cute!!!

For the next few days we'll finish up visiting friends, pack up our belongings, I will go to a ladies' retreat and then we'll leave to return to West Virginia on Saturday. Once returning to West Virginia things don't slow down. We'll be visiting 3-5 of our supporting churches, getting our West Virginia driver's licenses, taking a family trip to Washington DC to get our visas, and of course packing to leave for Chile on February 17th for 3 years. Praise God the BIG packing is done. God is good all the time and we're relying on Him to continue to keep us grounded in Him even when we're "flying" through SO many experiences.

Visas

Praise God we have our approval for our temporary residency visas! It was lightening fast. We turned in our paperwork in person in Washington D.C. on the 8th of January. It was sent to Chile on the 14th. Once the paperwork was received by the immigration office in Chile they contacted our field team for some official paperwork. 2 of our coworkers tag teamed to get everything done, notorized, and taken back to immigration. Then the coworker who took the paperwork to immigration THIS MORNING mentioned that we were in a bit of a time crunch. So God prompted the immigration workers to simply scan and attach the paperwork as files to an e-mail, so we received a call THIS AFTERNOON that we'd been approved. Now all that we are waiting for is to go and meet with the consolate to pick up the visas and sign paperwork. That appointment is scheduled for February 4th. PRAISE GOD!!!

I've been tagged by my friend Ruth from in a post called "Photo Tag".
Here are the rules:
Go to the 4th folder in your computer where you store your pictures.
Pick the 4th picture in that folder.
Explain the picture.
Tag 4 people to do the same.

Well, I don't have a 4th folder where I store pictures on this computer. We store all of our pictures on our external drive and since that drive isn't hooked up, I have virtually no folders with pictures on this computer. Sorry Ruth, I tried!!!

New Blog

For those of you who know Doug and I, you know that we are passionate about adoption. And we have been desiring to adopt a couple of kids for over 6 years. Well, because of that desire and the new beginnings of that process, and because this is mainly a ministry updating website I have started a new blog.
www.john14verse18.blogspot.com

I will try not to post adoption info on this site, but leave to those intereste in reading about our adoption ups and downs as you journey with us.

Happy reading!

Fun with Cousins

One of the positive things about coming back to the US before going to Chile is the opportunity to say goodbye to our families. These are just some shots of cousins.

We celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve (Caleb's Birthday) here in West Virginia with Doug's parents, grandparents, brother, and 2 nephews.

The day after Christmas we flew up to Maine to join Heather's family in their annual get-together on the Saturday between Christmas and New Years. Caleb and Hannah love Heather's sister's kids. The "bottom" two are twins.

This is Heather with her cousin. When we were kids we were inseparable during family gatherings.
After spending time with Heather's brother in New Hampshire we headed up to Maine to visit with Heather's other sister and her family. Here are all the cousins together.