Hello, All!
It's been a busy month since my last post. But before I jump into the report (and photos), I wanted to share that God has been faithful to answer my prayers (and some of your prayers on my behalf!) for a "lagging" clock. There have been several different times where I've found myself glancing at the clock and realizing the hour isn't as late as I thought. Some of our days have been so full, it's made the time seem to warp into this wonderful "soak it all up" time zone. So, thanks for praying!
My older sister and her family visited the Pacific NW on their way home to the Solomon Islands after their trip home to Canada (Both places are home, to some degree). They came through Washington last summer for my younger sister's wedding, and then went on to Ontario to reconnect with their church there, visit family, and have a baby (!!). They had four wonderful weeks with us here in Washington before hopping on a plane earlier this week. I loved getting to watch my parents interact with their grandkiddos. Here are a few pictures from their time with us:
And now that they are gone, it feels like we're that much closer to heading out! Here's what's happening on that end:
- We received our letter to take to the Thai consulate in Portland in order to obtain our non-immigrant work visas (thank you to the letter couriers who brought it back from Thailand to mail in the USA). The orphanage/school we're going to work with has a great relationship with the Thai government, so this letter will request that we get a visa which will allow us to not leave the country every 90 days in order to have a "tourist" visa renewed. We'll be able to stay for the whole 10-months in-country if we want!
- I received my new Social Security card this week with my non-hyphenated last name, so I can start to get all my legal/paperwork name records changed. However, my passport (which I sent in with the form to have the name updated on it in December) returned to me with a letter stating I couldn't use the form I sent. I spent 45 minutes on the phone with a very helpful woman named Suzanne at the passport agency last week explaining my unique name-change history, and she forwarded my request on to a different agency. We would appreciate prayers that the agency that received Suzanne's memo will call me back quickly and help me figure out which of the forms is accurate to fill out. We're also praying that I will be able to renew my passport for free, since my name change happened more recent than my last passport's issue date.
- Today we met with James, the pastor at our church, to discuss the details of this trip. If you are interested in hearing in person, we will be sharing at Renewal City Church this Sunday for about 15 minutes about how we came to be preparing for this move, and what, exactly, we think/hope/pray we'll be doing for the next two years! (The church meets at the Kelso High School auditorium in Kelso, WA. Worship starts at 10AM). We have asked the church to commission us as missionaries of Renewal City Church so we can be sent forth with the spiritual and emotional backing of a church body. If the church leadership decide to accept our application, they will be able to receive financial support on our behalf.
- We are planning to move out of our apartment by the end of March (about 10 days after I finish teaching at LCC). We will be living a bit "nomadically" for 3 weeks until we leave, but we believe we will be most able to focus our attention and spend our time in relationship-oriented circumstances if we are completely out of our apartment BEFORE the day we head out (I have this nightmares of trying to clean the curtains and scrub the baseboards while Gabe is loading up our backpacks into the back of a car to go to the airport... Uh, no! Let's avoid that!!).
I think that's all for now! We're planning to get a mailing out hopefully in the earlier part of March with a prayer card. Right now we're starting to schedule days to have dinner and connect with people before we leave, and we'd love to spend time with as many of you as we can! Let us know if we can sit down for a cup of tea together :)
It's been a busy month since my last post. But before I jump into the report (and photos), I wanted to share that God has been faithful to answer my prayers (and some of your prayers on my behalf!) for a "lagging" clock. There have been several different times where I've found myself glancing at the clock and realizing the hour isn't as late as I thought. Some of our days have been so full, it's made the time seem to warp into this wonderful "soak it all up" time zone. So, thanks for praying!
My older sister and her family visited the Pacific NW on their way home to the Solomon Islands after their trip home to Canada (Both places are home, to some degree). They came through Washington last summer for my younger sister's wedding, and then went on to Ontario to reconnect with their church there, visit family, and have a baby (!!). They had four wonderful weeks with us here in Washington before hopping on a plane earlier this week. I loved getting to watch my parents interact with their grandkiddos. Here are a few pictures from their time with us:
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| My folks, Gabe's folks, my Grandma, Megan's family, my youngest brother and sister, and Abigael - geared up for the Superbowl! |
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| Nicola and her Uncle Kyle, enjoying the Seattle Children's Museum. |
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| Gabe with Nicola having story time. |
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| My whole family! L-R: Gabe and I, Max & Olivia, Mom & Dad, Megan (holding Anthony), Andrew, Nicola, and Kyle & Heather. |
- We received our letter to take to the Thai consulate in Portland in order to obtain our non-immigrant work visas (thank you to the letter couriers who brought it back from Thailand to mail in the USA). The orphanage/school we're going to work with has a great relationship with the Thai government, so this letter will request that we get a visa which will allow us to not leave the country every 90 days in order to have a "tourist" visa renewed. We'll be able to stay for the whole 10-months in-country if we want!
- I received my new Social Security card this week with my non-hyphenated last name, so I can start to get all my legal/paperwork name records changed. However, my passport (which I sent in with the form to have the name updated on it in December) returned to me with a letter stating I couldn't use the form I sent. I spent 45 minutes on the phone with a very helpful woman named Suzanne at the passport agency last week explaining my unique name-change history, and she forwarded my request on to a different agency. We would appreciate prayers that the agency that received Suzanne's memo will call me back quickly and help me figure out which of the forms is accurate to fill out. We're also praying that I will be able to renew my passport for free, since my name change happened more recent than my last passport's issue date.
- Today we met with James, the pastor at our church, to discuss the details of this trip. If you are interested in hearing in person, we will be sharing at Renewal City Church this Sunday for about 15 minutes about how we came to be preparing for this move, and what, exactly, we think/hope/pray we'll be doing for the next two years! (The church meets at the Kelso High School auditorium in Kelso, WA. Worship starts at 10AM). We have asked the church to commission us as missionaries of Renewal City Church so we can be sent forth with the spiritual and emotional backing of a church body. If the church leadership decide to accept our application, they will be able to receive financial support on our behalf.
- We are planning to move out of our apartment by the end of March (about 10 days after I finish teaching at LCC). We will be living a bit "nomadically" for 3 weeks until we leave, but we believe we will be most able to focus our attention and spend our time in relationship-oriented circumstances if we are completely out of our apartment BEFORE the day we head out (I have this nightmares of trying to clean the curtains and scrub the baseboards while Gabe is loading up our backpacks into the back of a car to go to the airport... Uh, no! Let's avoid that!!).
I think that's all for now! We're planning to get a mailing out hopefully in the earlier part of March with a prayer card. Right now we're starting to schedule days to have dinner and connect with people before we leave, and we'd love to spend time with as many of you as we can! Let us know if we can sit down for a cup of tea together :)
