Please God, not Africa!

The past week and a bit have been fairly uneventful.  The packing has begun.  The mess in the house is....perpetual.  Why does packing UP stuff seem to make such a mess??  It's three weeks today that we fly out.  Three. Weeks! Empty rooms... Empty Closets. These are the clothes Nate and I have left in our closet... Here's the room above the garage where we're going to store all our stuff.  Looks organized, doesn't it?? Can you find Nolan hiding in this pic?  He's wearing orange! And this box in the photo above....do you know what this is?  It's not JUST an ordinary shoe box.  It's special.  Because whatever each child can fit in ONE of these, is what they can take to Africa. This is Nolan's box...half packed.  Wanna know what's in it??  It makes me laugh.... The little white bundles are his "dinky cars", individually wrapped in Kleenex for protection, like little mummies being prese...

In the last seven days, we have seen God work in amazing ways.  Here's how it's gone down: 1.  We sold our van.  A lovely family that we know through homeschooling has decided to purchase it and I know they will take good care of our "Vantastic!"  Miracle! 2.  We sold our pop-up trailer.  Another lovely family we know has decided to take it off our hands. 3.  Our visas.  They arrived promptly on Wednesday last week.  Things went smoothly ~ everyone is allowed in the country. 4.  OUR HOME IS RENTED!!!  I saved the best for last!  I just finished signing all the papers about 10 minutes ago and I can tell you that we are so super excited to have this last item checked off the list.  Mountain MOVED! Thank you for praying about this with us.  Thank you for your encouragement and for asking how things are going, and for so much more.  We have been so encouraged when you have told us you are praying daily for ...

I've been less than good at continuing to count miracles in the last several weeks.  So much has happened and we've been super busy but I have, nonetheless, been lacking in counting. We got home from training last Saturday afternoon.  On Sunday, we spent the entire day at a family reunion and met up with some friends at the reunion who came home with us Sunday night and slept over. These are the kinds of friends that everyone needs.  Everyone. Jay and Krista are kindred spirits to us in their heart for missions.  They spent three and a half months in Papau New Guinea with their three very small children on a work project.  They are also kindred spirits to us in other ways. Jay and Nate are double-trouble, kindred spirit, red-neck, handyman, motor-head, weirdos.  Krista is a home-schoolin', tough-love momma with a creative flair that makes everything she touches look gorgeous.  I am a home-schoolin', tough love momma who likes having people like...

This past week we were at the ABWE  head office in Pennsylvania for three days of training.  It was a great three days of classes, workshops, eating, laughing and learning. When Nate went to Togo at Christmas, he met John, who quickly became a friend and kindred spirit.  John is also returning to Togo this year for a short term stay, so he attended training with us.  It was so great to meet him after all the stories I'd heard about this guy.  These two are two peas in a pod. Here he is with Nate, and their new friend: We had three days of intense classes on everything from finances, health/safety, moral purity, language acquisition, personality types, etc.  All of our teachers/staff of ABWE were excellent.  They were all such high quality people. Here are two of my new buddies, Deb and Terry, who work with short termers to get them on the field: We sat at the same table every day with other short-termers who were headed to Africa.  ...

When we moved to Coldstream about a year and a half ago, I was in need of a running buddy.  Thankfully and providentially, God provided me with a neighbour, right across the road, who was eager to run with somebody too.  (I know she'll laugh as soon as she reads "eager"!) And so we ran.   A few months in, she invited another friend, and so two became three.  And it has been the three of us for months and months now. I love running with Alyson and Crystal.  These two are my sole sisters. On Saturday night, our three families got together for a bbq.  It was funny to finally meet the people I've heard so much about. Alyson and her husband have four boys.   Crystal and her husband have four boys. We have four boys and one girl. Alyson has a dog named Bailey. Crystal has a dog named Bailey. We don't have a dog named Bailey, or a dog at all, BUT we might get one in Africa (for protection) and so, it would only seem appropriate if we nam...

Yesterday, two sweet women from our homeschool group held a garage sale to raise money for our family. This is Paula and Gabrielle, showing off some of the fantastic items people donated: Gabrielle hosted the sale at her house and by the night before, she could no longer get into her living room because of the bags & boxes of donations.   Gabrielle is crazy fun.  And on top of that, she's someone you don't want to mess with, because she's practically a black belt in karate.  Here she is with one of her trophies (which she threw in the "free bin" at the sale)! Paula is adorable ~ she is sensitive to people and their needs.  I have no idea how many people at the garage sale ended up talking to Paula and sharing their troubles.   She spent a lot of time listening, sharing (and chastising Gabrielle & I for dropping the prices on items)! We had lots of good stuff -- and if you are one of the kind people who donated your unwanted items,...

Last Friday, Nate came home with an adorable pair of earrings for me and a little bit of unexpected news. Friends of ours have a daughter, Milana, and she thought it would be a good idea to do something nice for us.  So she decided to make homemade earrings, sell them at school, to her neighbours, to raise money for us to go to Africa. I had no idea she was doing this!  She made over 100 pairs of adorable earrings and sent home a pair for me. On Sunday, when we went to church, I grabbed my camera hoping to get a picture of Milana at church.  I was so glad I thought to grab my camera, because she brought all the earrings and sold them at church too. Here she is, with her display (including flowers, Togolese flag, and her ipod pumping out tunes): Here's her display, surrounded by "Sunday shoppers": Some VERY happy customers:    Each pair came in a cute little bag with a tag attached "Earrings for Africa by Milana" and only $5! ...