whoa!

Departure day is here. It's 8:10am, I've been up for 45 minutes already and thinking of all the details the father has blessed me to remember... I feel like a chicken with no head running about the barnyard! It will come together.

It'll be a while with no posts, but we'll come back with some good news in a few weeks.

Please be thinking about all our travel!

Visas!

That’s right! The visas are here and in my fat, grubby hands! Yes! PTL. We are going to Russia. We leave in 9 days and we’ve got all the paperwork… well, almost all of it. We’ve had TB chest X-rays, HIV tests, we’ve filled out applications, written bios, and jumped through many other hoops…now all we need are doctor’s notes that we’re healthy…. I thought an HIV test and a TB test were enough…. We’ll jump through this hoop too. How high?

The Prayer

A short note. We had the opportunity to be prayed for today. They interceded for us for over an hour. Burdens we didn’t even know about were lifted from us and we feel a new sense of energy and joy from the Father.

Interview

What needs to be said? Amy was accepted with FLYING colors and smiles. We are appointed and tomorrow we’ll be commissioned. YES!

The Horn as a Necessary Tool for Driving

We’re in Washington DC at the General Assembly. Amy will have her final interview and be appointed as an M. We’re staying with a childhood friend of Amy’s, Kelli – and her hospitality has been wonderful.

The humor of this trip is driving this teeny, compact car. Yes, it’s a Kia. And the traffic in DC is like a raging river. People change lanes without signaling, roads change names without telling you and they also merge, split and spin around without much warning.

So, we’ve spent a good deal of time lost, driving in circles and just trying to survive.

The Horn as Tool. I’ve used a car horn maybe 10 times my entire adult life. Today I employed the horn at least 10 times in one hour. And it saved our lives. People just merge into your lane as if you’re not there… I’m glad I have good reflexes.

Soliciting

Can you believe it? We get solicitors on our Skype phone number... not right. So I had to add it to the national do not call register to stop the phone spam. That’s right, we have a phone number now that will ring our computer! You’ll be receiving email and/or a letter with the number (I’m not gonna post it online to get even more calls).

This is so cool though. So we pay about $35/year for unlimited calls to the United States from anywhere in the world – as long as we have internet. And we pay about $30/year for a US phone number that rings our computer. As long as we get a good internet connection, and the right internet plan, we’ll be able to receive calls that won’t cost YOU anything more than a normal US phone call! Cool, huh?

Washington: Kayaking & Corn Hole

The good-byes continue as we arrive in Newport, WA on the border of Idaho. We’ve had such a wonderful time eating steaks, kayaking, playing lawn games and spending time with Amy’s parents and youngest sister.

As we drove around in the car to visit some of the ski resorts and lake locations in the resort area where Amy’s parents are living, Hannah really impressed me with her incredible typing ability. I mean, I can do about 90 words or more on a computer keyboard… but Hannah can bust out some serious speed using T9 on her cell phone. Her thumbs literally blur on the keypad.

The reality of moving for 2 years is really hitting now and we’re battling between the sadness and the excitement of being so close to moving.

This area of the country is so beautiful. Take a look at some photos from kayaking and playing cornhole in the yard.

Ultrasound Update

We’ve now heard that there is an ultrasound available in Indianapolis for $13,000 instead of $20K. The funds are not immediately available so we’re still thinking and hoping. Medsend in Indy puts us in contact with International Aid and viola! Laptop version available for $5K! Incredible. And because the Father is so amazing and His body is responsive, 1/2 of the funds have already been pledged! He is so good.

The ultrasound will be used at the PRC (pregnancy resource center) to show mothers-to-be what their new baby’s look like and how they’re developing. We’re really hoping that this tool will draw a lot of women to our center and that many will choose to keep their babies. Please be sharing with dad about this financial need.

Invitations!

There’s nothing like receiving an email that includes your invitations to Russia. PTL! Now we’ll be sending them from Washington state to Washington, DC so that they can be processed and sent back to us in Michigan. Please intercede for us that the visas will come in time.

We have an Apartment!

The Father’s incredible provision rains down on Jeff & Amy again! Jim & Sally have found an apartment for us in Tyumen. It is perfect. The location is excellent (literally within a block of Jim & Sally). The size is ideal: 2 bedrooms. It’s on the second floor and has an incredible balcony/summer room. AND it looks really clean in the pictures!!! Amy is incredibly excited (me too) about this last fact. My first apartment was really gross and we literally gagged a few times as we were cleaning it back in summer 06.

a return to blogging - perspective

Sorry to have been absent from the blog-o-sphere for so long. Much has happened including, visiting grandpa in Florida, finishing my (Jeff's) last day at UM, a HUGE yard sale, and many other smaller adventures. I'm going to back blog a few items, so the record will include things missed, and we'll both hopefully be better about keeping you apprised. Again, sorry that we've let the busyness of life take over.

I've started a new book just this morning and wanted to share one line with you. The book is called, "Letters to Marc" and it's by Henri Nouwen. In it he says to Marc, "It's so easy to spend your whole time being preoccupied with urgent matters and never starting to live, really to live."

This is something that I often think about, but it's hard to translate it into practice. There are many demands on our daily lives. We're so busy with really important things, how is it that we don't just 'schedule' time to quiet ourselves and think for a bit about what our purpose really is?

Henri kicks it out for us with the second page of this letter, "A lot of people have to expend so much energy on overcoming their low opinion of themselves that they seldom get round to asking about the purpose of their existence." Whoa.

I'm sad to say that this really does seem to be the case for so many of us. Why is it that low self-esteem is so prevalent? Why don't we encourage each other more? It's a rainy day. Oh, well... heck no! That means it's a perfect day for grilled cheese and tomato soup, curling up with a blanket and a good book! Is it just about perspective?

Really resting in the Lord

So today Amy and I really took the opportunity to rest in the Lord. We just read, rested, relaxed, and laid low. Sometimes you really need days like these...

Yard Sale

We thought getting up 2 hours before our yard sale started was early enough. We were wrong. At 6:30am, a man known to us now as, “creepy guy” was waiting outside our house to get the ‘best deals’ at our yard sale. So, we kinda freaked out for a few minutes, because he was looking in windows and just exuding his creepyness. Well, turns out he was just one of many professional yard sale shoppers who like to scrounge and pick out treasures from amongst the trash of others.

We really were able to sell a LOT more than we anticipated. We shared the lawn with our friends Matt & Juli, and Melissa. Collectively we made quite a haul. Amy & I even managed to sell a few pieces of furniture!

We set out a few items left over (really just junk) and put a FREE sign on them… it was like you could hear the pop in the air as items began to vanish. We hope these items find happy new homes!

(we realized it would cost $100/mo for us to store some of our larger items, so we had to get them out of the house for our renters!)