Updates

Well, things are as crazy as ever in our lives, but I will do my best to update you on all our changes...

On Nov 12th, we closed on our house and officially moved out! I have to take a minute and praise God for the amazing work he did in selling our home. We put our house on the market in mid-September. Throughout the summer we watched as more and more homes in our neighborhood went up for sale, and in our lack of faith, we got increasingly nervous about how long it would take for our house to sell. We decided to try to sell by owner to save on Realtor fees, thinking if it didn't work out, we could always list it with an agent in a few months. Two weeks went by and we hadn't had any showings. We received a call on Sunday around noon to set up a showing later that afternoon. I didn't have any expectations from this but was thrilled to at least have someone interested in seeing it. Two days later, they called back to make an offer! Not only that, but they didn't have an agent either, so we were able to save a HUGE amount of money on Realtor fees. (Sorry to the those real estate agents reading this, I know you're probably cringing! :) ) So we sold our house in 2 weeks, by owner, and to the first family that looked at it! Clearly God was orchestrating these events...yet still my faith was weak and I kept waiting for something to fall through. I felt like it was "too good to be true." Praise God that He is faithful even when we are full of doubt! The whole process (appraisal, inspection, repairs, etc) went incredibly smoothly, we were able to sell almost every piece of furniture that we owned, and actually closed on the scheduled date. I know I've commented during a Bible study before about the Israelites lack of faith after God brought them out of Egypt...how could the have doubted Him after all the miracles they had witnessed? I realize now that, in a small way, that is exactly what I did. No matter how clearly God worked out our situation, I still had doubts that it would work out. Thankfully God is patient with me as I learn to trust Him more.

So, back to our updates...The week of our closing also happened to be the same week we received approval from the trustees of the IMB and are officially recommended for appointment on March 16th.

We are currently living with my parents in Flower Mound. It has been an adjustment, but we are truly blessed to have family that is willing to let us take over their house for several weeks. Kamryn gets her own room to sleep in (the last thing we want is to wake the sleeping baby!) and Carter is sleeping in bunk beds in the room with me & Ryan. It is actually working out much better than I anticipated! Not only are we taking over several rooms and half the garage at my parents house, but we are also using a room at my brother's house for storage. We are extremely grateful for their willingness to accommodate us!

Throughout all the transitions, Ryan has also had to keep up with his school work. He has been taking one more class this semester, so that has added some stress to the situation...the week after we moved out he had a 10 page term paper due and now has been studying for his final. Thankfully, he will take his test tonight and be finished with the class, yay!!

One more new piece of information since my last post: in addition to our two-month training in Virginia, we will also be going to Vancouver, British Colombia for and additional three-month training session. This training will focus on living and ministering in an urban environment.

So, here is an updated timeline of our tentative plans...

Present - Mid-January: stay here in Flower Mound

Mid-January - March 8 (ish): spend time in Amarillo, Springfield, CO, and Colo. Springs

March 8 (ish) - March 20 (ish): Back to Dallas for Appointment Week

March 16th - IMB Appointment Ceremony at First Baptist Dallas (we would love to any and everyone to attend!)

March 20 (ish) - April 9 (ish): Travel around to visit friends & family (Minnesota, Missouri, Austin, Houston, and anywhere else along the way)

April 9 (ish) - April 22 (ish): Back to Dallas for packing and visiting

April 23 (ish) - June 18 (ish): IMB Training in Virginia

June 19 (ish) - July 5 (ish): Back to Dallas for final packing and good byes

July 6 - October 3: Urban Training in Vancouver

October 3: One way ticket to Bucharest, Romania!