Slowly but Surely!

We are getting moved in, slowly but surely.  Most of our efforts here lately have been dedicated to getting our visas.  You know that's important because without visas we will have to leave the country by November 6th.  We are praying we get them before that date.  We've also been working on getting the kids school stuff squared away.  They start school September 2nd and there are tons of papers to fill out before that day and a lot of meetings to go to.

We are loving be back in Ecuador and I'll be glad when we get everything put where it needs to go and purchase all the things that need to be purchased.  Top on the list of items to be purchased is a vent-a-hood.  No, the house didn't come with one.  Weird.  Next on the list, curtains.  We. need. curtains.

Did I mention that we need to paint?  I hate painting.

Oh and our lights don't work in our bedroom and bathroom.  The guy was suppose to be here today and it's already 2:30 and I'm not sure if he's coming.  I would like lights in my bedroom, it really helps at night.

Here's a picture of the outside of our house.  

Ethan decided to make his mark on the house first and hang up this sign. (It says, Razorback Fans Live Here)

 Here's my favorite part of the house right now.  It's because it's the only part of the house put together. Don't worry, Ethan's sign is still hanging up, just in a different place.

We made it! (and a little catching up)

Well, we are officially in our house and we got internet yesterday.  Can you believe we did all that in one week?  I can't.  When I say we are "in" our house that's exactly what it means, "in."  We've still got a lot to do, but we are honestly tired.  We were tired before we got here but the altitude makes it even worse.  Oh and the fact that our apartment has stairs doesn't help either.  We are hoping our bodies adjust really soon.

Ok, now to play catch up.

On August 4th Shannon and I celebrated our 20th anniversary.  We knew that things were going to be crazy for us in August so in January of this year we went on a cruise to the Bahamas.  It sure beat our honeymoon to Branson, Mo.  That was the first trip that we have taken by ourselves (like that) since we've been married.  Yes, the kids were mad because they couldn't come.

I got this great cup of coffee instead of a card. 

And just for a great memory, this is us 20 years ago.  

 Also on Aug. 4th the kids had a going away party with their youth group.  

Here's their cake, it says good-bye in different languages.

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Praying for Ethan and Megan.

Here's a picture of a family that has become very special to us, the Bowermans. They pastor a local church in West Fork and we love them very much.  God always places people in our lives to help us wherever we are.  

And here we are at the airport (August 6th) at 5:00 a.m. Let me just say that we had a perfect day of traveling, which rarely happens.  We flew from XNA, to Dallas, to Miami, and then to Quito.  And we arrived with all of our luggage.  We made it through customs without any problems and we didn't have a problem with our dog either.  

We arrived in Quito on Tuesday and here we are waiting to move into our apartment on Friday.  Megan asked me on Wednesday if I thought we could be in our apartment by the weekend and I told her there was no way.  Well, I was wrong.  

Our counters were covered with dishes that had to be washed before we could put them up.  Yeah, that was fun.  

On Saturday night we enjoyed a dinner with our pastor and deacons from the church.  We could not have done any of this without the help from our pastor, Luis.  He picked us up from the airport, looked for apartments before we even got here, took us places that we needed to go, and much more. We are very thankful for him, his wife, and his family.

It feels good to be back and we can't wait to get settled in and get back to work.  We are still raising money for land for our church.  We have to move within two months.  If you want to give to this you can do so here. Just write the project number in the comments section, which is 14607.

Also we sent our our latest newsletter.  You can click on "newsletters" at the top of the blog.

And lastly we just want to say thank you for your support and prayers.  We could not do this without you!

Last update before Ecuador.

Today is our last day in Georgia, we fly back to Arkansas tomorrow.  I wanted to do a quick update because when we return home, back in Arkansas, we will not have internet or cell phones.  So, if you need to contact us for any reason please send us an email or you can send us a message on Face Book, we will check our emails on a regular basis.

We have been in Georgia for an Andean Regional Retreat.  We also had the opportunity to spend a couple days at the beach, that's what we called our vacation.

We fly out to Ecuador on August 6th, which is this Tuesday.  I can't believe that the time has already here.  It's crazy.

Please be praying for our kids as they say goodbye to friends and family in the next few days.  That is something that I'm not looking forward to.  But I have comfort in knowing that they are ready to go.

Having lunch with some fellow missionaries to Ecuador.  Awesome people right here.

St. Simons Island, Georgia.  Beautiful place.

Lighthouse in Georgia

Huge oak tree in Georgia.

We're Finished!!

We're finished with itinerating, not packing.  We are so excited about being finished.  We had our last two services Sunday.

 This is Shannon Sunday night after service.

We've been busy trying to get all that last minute stuff done and one of those things was Megan getting her drivers permit. 

This is what my house has been looking like.  Be jealous!

And we had a few casual pictures taken.  This is one of my favorites.

We will officially be leaving the states on Aug. 6th, that's two weeks from today.  We will be turning off our cell phones real soon, so if you need to contact us you will have to send us an email or on Face Book.

Getting more nervous as the days go by.

We are down to 27 days and I'm getting nervous.  Nervous about what?  Everything.  The big traveling day and how that's all going to work out, finding an apartment, and our dog.

#1 The day of travel.
That's always interesting.  We are flying American Airlines and I really don't like them but they had the better deal, so we had to go with them.  We are flying out of XNA and we have two stops before we arrive in Quito at the new airport.  You just never know what kind of problems you will run into at airports, but oh well, it is what it is.

#2 Finding the right house in the right location
We are looking right now online and it's been interesting finding one in our price range.  Let's just say that rent has gone up in Quito.  Location, location, location, it's everything.  We need to be close enough to the kids school.

#3 Molly the dog.
This will be the last time that we take her with us.  Next time we come home, in four years, she will be staying with Megan.  We found out yesterday that we have to have a paper signed in Little Rock, send it to New Orleans, and then back to Arkansas all within ten days.  Well, the time frame falls on the weekend so they said we would have to do it the following Monday which would give us 8 days.  Oh and not to mention the fact that we won't even be in Arkansas during this time period because we will be in Georgia.  Oh and last time we took her into Quito they didn't even look at her papers or take the paper with the stamp from the embassy on it.  Anyway, we need prayer in this situation.

Anyway, life is fun right now with all the packing and the stocking up of things to bring with us.  I'm trying really hard not to stress but it's always in the back of my head, I can't do this.  But I know I can.  I've done it before and I'll do it again.

Pray. Pray. Pray.

Took a few pictures of "the cousins" yesterday at the university.  

Family Pictures 2013

A BIG thank you to Melissa McCrotty for these pictures.

Here are a few of my favorites.  I really like them all but I can't put all of them on my blog.  We really try to take family pictures once a year so we can keep our newsletter pictures up to date.

Really proud of these two.  

I can't believe that he's going to graduate next year.

They grow up so fast.  

Shannon and I will be married 20 years next month and I couldn't love him anymore.

Again, a Sr?  

She is turning into a beautiful young lady.

Catch Up

We survived Springfield!!!

Ethan was so tired that he slept for 22 hours straight.

Shannon survived turning 40!!!

I decorated our door at CBC so everyone would know that he was turning 40.

We survived fireworks last night.  This was the first time that we've been in the states for fireworks in five years.  Remember the ban last year?  Yeah, so no fireworks last year.

We survived family pictures with Melissa McCrotty.
She's been taking our pictures every year for about five years.  We can't thank her enough.  It's really hard keeping up to date pictures when you have growing kids.

And the packing continues.  We leave in 32 days and have a lot of things to do.  I say 32 days but we have to have all of our stuff packed and ready to go in 22 days because we have a trip to Georgia planned the week before we leave.  We will be going to a LAC meetings, come back to Arkansas, and leave three days later.

Please pray that God will provide the perfect apartment when we get to Quito.  We have someone looking for us right now and we are hoping that the perfect one comes along.