Happy 5 years!

Today marks five years since I started this blog.  Here is the first post that I made five years ago right before we left for Springfield to go to school of missions.  I thought that it was cool that we are back here five years later.

We've had a great time so far and are getting to see a lot of friends that we haven't seen in five years.


Here we are loaded down and ready to go.

Here's our awesome dorm room.  Yes, I learned my lesson and brought my own coffee pot this time.

We were able to eat with the Cartledges and the Browns.  The Cartledges were the language school directors when we were in Costa Rica and we spent a year in the same class with the Browns.  It was great catching up with them.

And this picture is a little blurry because they were moving, but Matt (a missionary from Germany) is teaching Megan how to skip.  We really have a lot of fun hanging out in the halls of the dorm.  The guy in the orange shirt is another friend of ours from Uruguay, Steve McCarthy.  It's like one big family reunion, but there's schooling involved.

We are very thankful that our kids have this time to interact with other missionary kids.  They are having a blast.  They are leaving this afternoon to go to a retreat center and will not be back until Thursday and they can not take any electronics with them.  Praying that God does great things in their lives.  

Road Trip

We are getting ready for a big trip, oh I mean long trip.  (not in miles but in days)  We will be heading to Springfield Tuesday for a few days and I haven't packed a thing.  Can you believe that?  I can't either.  I think I will start today.

And we are very excited about having services tomorrow five minutes from our house.  I think Shannon is more excited than I am.  He is so in need of a break.

We are still raising our funds to leave in August.  We are down to less than $400 a month.  I don't know the exact amount because I can't keep up with it.  Anyway, if you plan on partnering with us, now would be a good time.  :)

I've started packing a few things, only because I needed some empty suitcases to take to Springfield.

Oh the messes that I have to look forward to.

Enjoying a day out with the kids at Chick-fil-a.

Happy Fathers Day, Shannon!  I couldn't ask for a better father for our children.

And Happy Fathers Day to all you dads out there!  Have a wonderful weekend.

Hello June

Oh my goodness, where has the time went?  It's June!!!  That means we only have 62 days until our departure date.  I'm really trying to hold back my packing urges until July but it's hard.

We are still busy raising money and are currently at 95%.  We have gone none stop since we landed in the US a year ago this month and it doesn't look like we are going to stop until we leave.  Shannon will need to go on a vacation when we get back to Ecuador.  He has traveled every weekend with the exception of maybe two, so to say he is tired is an understatement.  And now he has added Wednesday night services into the mix.

We will spend the last two months traveling and spending time with family and friends.  Please pray for us as we begin to start the "moving" process, once again.  You haven't lived until you've "moved" in an airplane.  I think we are ready to be in one place for four years in a row.  We have moved four times in the last five years and three of those times have been on an airplane.  Trust me, it's added stress to move all that you own in suitcases.  You start packing things in order of importance.  On the bright side, we don't seem to accumulate junk very much because we go through and throw things away in the packing process.

Here are a few pictures from last Saturday from a day trip to Silver Dollar City.

This is why I love Silver Dollar City!!

We've been trying to find good duffel bags because they weigh less than suitcases.  We were trying to see how much we could fit into this one and it's pretty big because Megan fit in it and there was still room.