Count Down!

Where has the time gone? It is now six days till our departure and we are getting a lot done. Yesterday I brought all the boxes that we had in the storage shed that are going with us into the house and I have sorted through most of them again, trying to pack tighter with with the hopes of eliminating some of the boxes. I have actually been able to do that on some of them. Yea! I have been so busy that I haven't blogged any of our recent celebrations so here is a recap of last week.

Last Wednesday night:
Gerri, one of the leaders in the children's center at our church, did a little going away party for both of the kids. They had a cake for them and they also had a t-shirt for each of them that their friends were able to sign. Jonathan had served in the children center on Saturday nights for quite a while so he knows a few of the kids and the leaders over there pretty good. Erin also received a gift of a picture that had a collage of different pictures of her over the years in the children's center. That was very special and so cool to see the changes in her over time.







Saturday morning:
We had a going away party for the kids with as many of their friends that could come. We held it in the youth center at our church so the kids were able to play pool, ping pong, air hockey, and of course the boys enjoyed playing video games. It was the last Brawl they had as a group. We also had two piñatas which were interesting since they each broke several times. We kept putting the rope back on them and trying again. The boys broke there's totally apart in three hits.





Sunday afternoon:

My mother-in-law held a farewell going away party for us. It was so wonderful to be able to see people that we haven't seen in years. There was family, friends, friends from churches we attended in years past and friends from our current church. I think at one point we had about 50 people in my mother-in-law's little place. It was a perfect day with warm weather and the sun shining so people were able to visit outside also. The support that was shown to us is beyond words, it was a marvelous thing to experience. Thank you to all of you who attended. The only bad thing was that I forgot to take even one picture. So, today I took a picture of the banner we haven't taken down yet.

That kind of recaps our week. Today, Erin is at an extra gymnastics practice. She doesn't normally attend on Tuesdays but she was told she could come and we decided that it would be good for her. She can't stay the whole time though because we are having dinner with our friends, the Chambers. The Chambers were our first friends when we moved to Oregon 13-3/4 years ago. We have so many good-byes to say. The hardest will happen on Monday when we say good-bye to our adult children and our grandchildren. It is hard but we are excited for to begin our adventure in God's calling on our lives.

As I have time, I will update more. We will also continue to update when we can on our trip. As we get closer I will post an itinerary of where we will be and when.