The Busy Season is Upon Us

We are leaving for Montreal in just 9 short weeks! After all these months of waiting it almost feels surreal that we are beginning to plan the details of our actual arrival. We anticipated that our last 6 weeks would be busy ones. They would be regardless with Thanksgiving and Christmas in there. With us making sure to visit everyone one last time before leaving, it was bound to be extra busy. We kind of thought we might get a little peace before the storm...

Yep, that did not happen. In the first few days of October, Adam's 97 year old grandmother took a turn for the worse and passed away. Our busy season had begun. It feels like it has only been a few days since we got that initial call but it has actually been just about 3 weeks. With activities, meetings, support raising, working at home and away, the days are flying by faster than I even want to think about. That 3 weeks flew by like nothing We only have 3 more of those to go.

Adam and I have taken an approach of asking ourselves what we can do to prepare to leave each day. One day we check on all the details involved to bring our dog, because we have been encouraged by our team to bring him. On another day we go through boxes weeding and fine tuning our belongings and packing so we don't have so many super heavy and super light boxes. There are lists to be made, paperwork to obtain and fill out, and calls to make. On top of it all, there is still support to raise.

Adam leaves his job on November 15th. I am so grateful that he will be able to take over some of the record keeping when he is done. We are really excited about the coming weeks and the leave date. It will be hard saying goodbye to our family and friends and it will be like a crazy race to the finish line with all that needs to be done, but we know that God will provide and be the strength we need when we need it most.

Switching It Up

We had our phone call last night, so it is time for another missions update! The big question was, do we want to do a short term mission trip first? The answer is, YES!

This changes the look of our year by so much it would be scary if we didn't have complete faith in God. The short term process is much shorter and there is less funding to raise. So here is what our new outlook looks like:

Our rep will be getting with some other reps and supervisors to get a set idea of what we will be doing, where, and for how long (we are hoping to do 23 months). Till this is done, there is nothing for us to do but continue slimming down our house. 

Then we get our application package. Our rep said we could get it done in 2 weeks if we hunker down and focus on it. Then we send it in and it is reviewed and accepted based on our new reps work load. that could be 2 months or more.  

Next budgets and job descriptions are finalized and we go into the training/support raising phase.  

Then we leave. 

If it only takes 6 months to raise the funds, there is a good chance we will be saying Merry Christmas form The Netherlands this year. This is a huge change from the 1.5-3 years till we leave that we were anticipating with the long term trip timeline. There is a very possible potential that we will be leaving in 9 months. While it could take longer, I am planning for 9 so that we will be prepared for whatever may happen.

I will try to answer some of the questions we have been asked recently.

Q: What about the house and the dog?
A: We are not making any decisions on those till we hit the fundraising phase and we are locked into our trip. That being said, we will likely sell the house and poor Tucker will most likely need a new home.

Q: Are you crazy? Adam already has a good and reliable job!
A: We are going to be working for God! You can't get a better, more caring, and rliable boss than that. Fith has always been our #1 spiritual gift and we intend to fully use it in this. We are going all in with God and couldn't feel more comfortable with doing it.

Q: What is happening with all your stuff?
A: Most of it will be sold, donated, or given away. The big stuff we will worry about when we are locked in, like the house. We will store a very, and I mean VERY, small selection of things with family.

Q: What are you going to bring?
A: Clothing, a small selection of homeschool materials, bibles, Kindles, studio equipment, and a very small selection of personal items. We fully intend to start from the beginning when we get there.

Q: What does Little Guy think of all this?
A: He is really excited! He can't wait to be a short term missionary. Just the title makes him feel better. Long term sounds like forever, and short term sounds short. He has decided that he can handle a short term trip, even to say good-bye to the house and Tucker.

Our little house is all a-buzz about this exciting new turn around. We are all on board and planning for the future. We will be doubling our efforts to unload stuff and clean things out. It is also time to let our vollunteer activities know what is coming up, so they can prepare too. Mostly, we are just praying for wisdom and strength during this enormously changing time in our lives.

Curve Ball

All week we have been patiently awaiting the next e-mail from our Reach Global rep, the next step of our adventure waiting inside. Of course, we never should have thought that God would place us on a straight and narrow, predictable path. Silly us! What were we thinking?

We did in fact get a message today, but it was not even in the ball park of what we were expecting. It was sort of a three-parter. First on the list was the news about homeschooling in Germany, it is illegal  We originally were leaning more toward the Berlin location because it would be stationary, lower key, and we would stay a little closer to our comfort zone. Plus we would likely be able to keep our dog. After our first chat with the rep, Amsterdam started to grow on us, to the point that I don't think we were even considering Berlin any more. Clearly, God knew this news was coming and prepared us for it in advance.

Part 2 is where our plan for the year, our comfy, cozy, we have a good feel for what our year looks like plan, comes into question. Would we be interested in doing a short term trip first and then going long term? About a hundred questions popped into my mind instantly. I took a look at the timeline for short term and it is less involved, by a lot. We are open to making the change, but we will have to ask a lot of questions about time frames and the like. We could end up leaving way sooner than currently anticipated. I don't have anything to base this on, but it is possible that the missionaries in Europe would like to have someone fill the spot sooner and perhaps starting out with a short term trip would help with that. If there is one thing I do know, It's that I am going to hold on to Jesus' hand through this as he guides me along the path. At least He knows where he is going!

Number 3, not such a big deal, is if we have done or heard of Perspectives. We have not, but if you have any idea of what this is, please share!

We will hopefully be chatting with our rep again next week. In the mean time we have a lot of talking and praying to do. We are getting our list of questions started tonight and will be adding to it frequently till our call, I'm sure.

Art, School, and the End of the Year

 We have been having a blast doing lots of pintrest inspired artwork this month! I even got Little Guy to let me paint his hand, a big step for a kiddo that doesn't like anything messy. We have been off of school for the entire month and it is going well. I continued to write down anything "school" related we did over our break, and if you look at the list it hardly looks like a break at all.

We have done many art projects, advent devotionals, read tons of books, and Jayne even read a few stories to me to keep up on practice. We also did some research on goblin sharks after reading about them in one of his picture books. You can see our favorite goblin shark video below.

It is only a few days till Christmas and it has been a huge month for us! Honestly, it has kind of felt like some sort of crazy dream between good news, bad news, and just good old fashioned fun. This year is certainly going out with a bang. The biggest event for us is our upcoming missionary activities, which I am sure will be keeping us quite busy in the coming year. Right now it hasn't exactly sunk in yet. I am still cleaning and cooking and doing all my normal everyday activities. For now I have to focus on those till we get the date of training, because if I don't I will wile away the hours wondering and waiting. We have had a few people ask us about details of the future and we really don't have the answers right now. God will provide a way, support us, and sustain us. He has our faith 100%

A Day at the Campground

We had so much fun! It felt great knowing that we would still be on vacation when the trip was over. It made it possible to really enjoy every minute of the trip...except sleeping as you may know from yesterday's post. We were camping with my moms in step group and there were only 3 families camping both nights, including us. It worked out great for us because we are really not big group people. We like to be more 1 on 1 and the turn out was absolutely perfect for us. There was so much to do, so here is a taste of our trip:



 The kids played in the spring. Little Guy got upset because it was wet. He did let me get this great shot for his birthday invites though.

We got him on a horse! He wasn't entirely sure about it, but when we were don't he asked when he could go on the pony ride. I told him that was the pony ride and he said, "That was the horsie ride!"

He asked me a few months ago what kind of car his great great great grandpa would have driven which resulted in our reading little house in the big woods. I was really excited to be able to show him a great great great grandpa "car" in person and we even got a photo.

This was probably the highlight of the trip, if you don't count a horse peeing in front of the kids. We watched The Secret World of Arrietty outside. Adam cooked popcorn over the fire in the popcorn maker handed down from my grandmother. It was just a great trip! I think my allergies flared up especially bad because of the horses, but the weekend was still fantastic. Tomorrow we are biking to the hotel and I am sure it will be just as wonderful. I can't wait to share that trip too!

Getting There

I am splitting the post about our camping trip up so that I can share all the great aspects in tiny tidbits instead of one enormous post. Today is about getting there. We did what many thought wouldn't work, biked to the campground. Here is what we carried things in: kid carrier, 3 backpacks (one for each of us), and saddle bags on Adam's bike. We made sure to pack light but still be able to be comfortable.

Our packed kid carrier. Adam reinforced the bottom. There is are sleeping bags, cushions, a tent, 3 chairs and much more inside of there!

The tent and inside are all set up and the carrier is still half full.

Our hard working bikes

Little guy gets a long drink after our ride of about 6 miles.

We're all set up, now time for some fun!

Tomorrow's post will be about the fun stuff we did and if you are wondering if we actually were comfortable...other than sleeping, yes! As for sleeping, the ground was hard but not lumpy. I have really nasty bruises on my hips and ribs from sleeping on the ground those 2 nights.

Sunday Fishing

I got to have an actual relaxing, lazy, nothing much to do kind of Sunday. It was great! Those are few and far between at our house. Meanwhile, Adam and Jayne went fishing with 2 of Jayne's uncles and that is our story for the day.

Jayne is in the middle with his 2 uncles on either side.

Jayne has taken an interest in the Little House in the Big Woods book and was very excited to hear that he was going fishing on lake Pepin, just like Pa! He didn't want to get sand in his shoes though, which is why he is so far back from the water.

They caught 0 fish. Jayne has never actually seen a fish caught in his entire life. Apparently they became hyper intelligent since he was born because we used to catch fish all the time before that. They did get to see this bald eagle catch a fish though.

They even paid a visit to Jayne's Great Grandma that lives near there. She was very happy since she hasn't seen him since he was about 1 1/2...he is 4 1/2 now. Over all they had a great time, even without a fish to show for it. Now they are all planning the next fishing trip and can't wait to go!

A Spammy Trip

Jayne with Spammy

Today we made a trip to the Spam museum in Austin, the spam capitol of the world! We had a lot of fun even though we have been there several times before. We staerted with some pics of all the statues in the entrance area. Jayne really liked posing with Spammy, as you can see.

Next we saw the 15 minute film in the mini movie theater. This is the first time that I have seen the whole thing. It is also the first time that Jayne sat still and kept quiet durring the whole film. That is most assuradly the reason I got to watch it.

Jayne talks on the radio mic

After the film, we got into the exhibit area. Jayne learned how to use an old (that is old as in a separate peice for the speaking and  one for listening) and also learned from his grandma that his great grandma used to be an operator and run the switch boards. That was a fun fact that was new to Adam and I as well. Jayne helped daddy pull a shipping box with a rope and had some fun interviewing meme (that would be me for first time readers) in the radio station booth. He shouted for me to come by saying "Meme Clayton Morgan!" Apparently he thought that everyone must have his same middle name.

Jayne labels a Spam can

Then it was off to the assembly line! Jayne did a great job packing spam into the cans. He was even able to get the Spam labels on all by himself this time. He packed, put the lids on, "cooked", and labeled his 6 cans in 3 minutes and 44 seconds. In his time the Austin plant produced 1,568 cans of Spam. He helped us with the spam game show after that. He pushed all the buttons that I needed him to, usually when I needed them pushed. We hit the gift shop after that and got a can of Spam to have for supper and Jayne got to have a tatoo. His grandma also let him make a smashed penny for his collection. If you ever want a great and cheap suvenir, do a smashed penny book and fill it up as you travel. Jayne loves his and is very proud of his small collection.

At the end of the trip we waited for the rest of our group (traveled with grandma, her friend, my little cousin and her friend). I let Jayne have a go at the camera. You can see his very first picture below. It was a great trip and everyone had a lot of fun. Plus grandma bought us all ice cream after. That was a perfect way to end a very fun trip!

Meme with Spammy, Jayne's very first picture!