July 29, 2009

It has been a LONG.......time

I can't believe that it has been 4 months since I have written on my blog. I must confess that in the past, I have often copied and pasted other missionary letters I have written for the mission here since the news was practically the same. It seems that even that has been too much work!

Here is the last 4 months in a nutshell:

Africa to USA: we packed up our rental house and flew to the states the last week of April. It was a relatively uneventful flight and Miesha was a good little traveler.

Pregnancy update: we now have one month left till baby boy Hartley arrives. We have mostly agreed on a name, but we are taking our top three choices to the hospital and we'll see what he looks like when he arrives. He will come via c-section and it will be at Providence Portland near my parent's home in Portland, OR. I am still TIRED a lot, but most days I can usually sneak in an afternoon nap. Thanks mom!

Furlough travel: We have visited our WONDERFUL sponsoring churches and have put 14,000 miles on the car that was so graciously loaned to us. I deliberately have not counted how many beds we've slept in, but most of them have been really comfortable. We are mostly traveling back and forth between Seattle and Portland now, although we have a trip to the coast, a trip to ID, and a trip to Canada on the schedule before we fly back to Africa. Miesha now gets fussy when she sees me pulling out the duffle bags. I totally understand how she feels!

Building project: Part of the reason we chose to come back to the USA in summer was so that Dan could help his brother do a house remodel. They are working crazy hours and almost have the 3rd story framed.

Things we love about USA: times with our families, family pictures, chatting IN PERSON with so many friends, connecting with friends at our churches here, helping with camps/VBS, summertime heat (except for this week; sheesh... 105F!!!), ice cream, Mexican food, root beer, and more.

Things we miss about Africa: our church, our community group, my mom's group, our friends and missionary teammates, our pets, having our own space and privacy, cheap movies and meals out (date nights!), getting to do short term teams, our ministry partners, and more!

Hard to believe that our time here is already half over!

If you are lucky, I may add pictures in the next couple months. lol!