9 days and counting.....

UGH, I just typed a post and lost it somehow. I hate it when that happens. So, what I said was something like this.....

I hate piles. My house is full of piles. There are packing piles for vacation, Virginia and Costa Rica. There are piles for storage, give away and garage sale. My house does not look much like a home at this moment, it looks like a wreck!

The past few days have been a whirlwind. Tim wrapped up work on Friday so he is around full time to help. So far this week he has spent most of his time going through our storage bay, running errands and handling the kids.I have been....making piles. :(

Most of the time, I feel like I am in a dream. I can not believe that in a few short days, we will leave our home. It is exciting but overwhelming too. There have been so many people who have helped us in our time of transition. Thank you to all of you who have watched our kids, made our dinner, given gifts and words of encouragement just when they were needed. Thank you for loving us so well.

Brief Update....

Life is a little crazy around here. There are several things that I want to blog about when I get more time but for now, just a fast recap of the past week or so.....
* Our appointment service in Atlanta was wonderful. My mom brought the kids and several of our friends from Thomasville were able to join us. Our dear friends Adam and Sherry made a surprise appearance all the way from Houston!! Due to the hurricane (they could not get home) we got to spend some extra time with them as well. It was a very unexpected and treasured treat!
* Our commissioning service at our home church was Sunday night. It was truly an evening that I will never forget. We were so blessed by the outpouring of love shown to us from our church family. I will look forward to sharing more about the service later.
* We are down to 2 1/2 weeks till departure. We are crazy busy wrapping up things here and getting packed. Tim's last day at work is Friday and then I have a long list for him to get busy on. :)
More soon.....

Our Timeline

Several people have asked me to post a specific timeline so that you will know better how to pray. Great idea! :)
October 3rd
We will leave our home in Thomasville and head to Richmond, Virginia. We will be living at the International Learning Center in Richmond. It is a large campus set up specifically for international missionaries. Our family will be housed in a dorm type setting. Tim and I will be in classes each day receiving training for the mission field. We will cover everything from safety to effective witnessing tools in Panama. The kids will be in school learning regular academic material as well as some specific information about the country of Panama. All of our meals will be eaten on campus so I am excited about not having to cook for a few months! :)

We will spend the Christmas Holiday with our family in Texas.

January 2nd
We will fly to Costa Rica to attend language school. We will be there for 1 year and our focus will be learning Spanish. We will live in a small apartment close to the campus where we will go to school. The kids will also go to school and again have regular academic classes as well as cultural learning.

January 2010
We will move to Panama (hopefully speaking Spanish) where we will begin our work with the Panamanian people.

Wow, we have a lot of changes coming up soon!

International Service

We are learning a lot this week at our training in Atlanta. We are basically on the go from sun up to sun down. We have decided that they do not really like sleep much at the International Mission Board. :)
Last night we got to be part of an International Communion Service. It was one of the neatest things I have ever been to. The church that we attended has a BIG heart for missions. They have started 15 different churches here in the Atlanta area that are held in 15 different different languages! Each of the churches came to First Baptist Jonesboro last night for this special service. One by one each pastor from each different congregation stood on the platform and read the scripture in their native tongue. As your native tongue was spoken you were asked to stand. It was really beautiful to hear the Word of God read in so many different languages and see the different nationalities stand as their language was read. It was a very moving service.
Well, we are going to get some rest, we start bright and early in the morning.

Saturday Scoop

We have had a full and good day. We spent the morning and early afternoon in a class learning how to effectively communicate in local churches the work we do. When we come home from the field we will spend some of our time visiting in local churches and sharing how they have a part in the work that Southern Baptist Missionaries are doing all over the world. I hope we still remember all of the good information that they gave us several years from now! :) I can bet we will have lots of good personal stories to share by then.
This evening, we had a two hour session on finances. There was lots of information and paperwork to fill out. Frankly, it was a version of torture for me, but Tim was in heaven! He loves that boring money investment stuff. :)
We have enjoyed hanging out with some of the friends that we met in May at training in Virginia. It is great to hear all of the stories and ways that God has worked everything out, sold all of the houses and brought everyone to this place. It really is amazing to get to see Him work so clearly to accomplish the spreading of the gospel.
We are off to get a good nights rest. We have a full day ahead tomorrow.

Meeting Dave and Nancy

We are hanging out in Atlanta for a week of training with the International Mission Board. They have lots of things planned for us and we are looking forward to a time of learning and focus about what lies ahead.
We had a special treat yesterday and were able to meet with the couple who we will be working under in Panama. Dave and Nancy are stateside right now and they are living in the Atlanta area. They picked us up for lunch and we were able to visit for several hours. It was SO GOOD to get to spend time with this family and listen to the stories of what life is like in Panama. They have 2 children so they had lots of advice on family life and what it is like to take your family to another country. They were warm,welcoming and made us feel so at ease. We can not wait to be part of their team!

Bye Bye Animals

Today our animals are going to their new homes. It has been a hard day. The kids are very sad and it is hard as the mommy not to be able to make it better. On a positive note, both animals are going to wonderful homes that the kids know. That did make it easier. This is just the first of many goodbyes that will happen over the next several weeks. Please pray for our family, especially the kids.

A Visit from Leah

This past weekend our good friends the Wall family came for a visit. We met and traveled with the Wall’s to China when we adopted Eden. They adopted Leah and have since had another sweet girl, Baby Bek. We had lots of fun. We swam and played lots of Wii bowling tournaments. Eden is always so excited to get to play with Leah. She tells me that she likes to play with her “matching” friend. Very cute.

SOLD!

I am a few days late in posting this but.....WE SIGNED A CONTRACT ON THE HOUSE!!!! God is so good and we are so thankful!! We are set to close 2 days before we head out. Perfect. :)