We have survived!! I'm not sure how it all figures out with the changing of time zones but we were in the car almost 14 hours yesterday. 14 HOURS. That my friends is too long to ride in a loaded down vehicle with 4 kids. They really did great and after a few timely (and very funny) sarcastic comments from their mother :) they quit asking, "Are we there yet?".
Knoxville was our stop last night and on the way we passed Leeland MS, home to Jim Henson, who knew? They even have a little museum dedicated to him, we stopped as it was on our path but it was too early and wasn't opened yet. If you are from there I apologize if this offends you but MS is ugly and the worst part of our drive, nothing but flat land and offensive gambling billboards. Getting to TN was like a breath of fresh air!
The scenery in TN and VA has been absolutely beautiful. Rolling hills, the Cumberland Gap, and the Appalachian Mountains all surrounding the quaint colonial architecture in this part of the country. It's like driving in a postcard.
We rolled into our destination in VA tonight with a little extra time to let the kids burn off some energy in the pool, while Barry and I melted in the hot tub.......thank you God for hot tubs........we are feeling old after this long drive! We are able to have a late check out and are planning on sleeping in before we check into the farm after lunch.
Please pray that we will learn all that we need to to accomplish our job, that we will be willing to dig deep and chip away anything that will hinder our work. We will start orientation on Wednesday. Let the fun begin!
Monday, January 26, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Eastbound....loaded up and truckin'.......
We made it to Arkansas after leaving a day later than we had planned. It was hard to leave my mom as I know life will really be different for her and she will be greatly missed by all of us. However she truly is surrounded by family and great friends who I know will be there for her, she is definitely blessed in that area!
We've had a great visit with Barry's mom although as usual it is too short. Barry helped her get things set up in preparation for our absence and we took her to shop at a mall in Louisiana where she took the kids to "Build a Bear". It was a great memory building moment with their Grandma Ruth as we also rode a two story carousel! We will stop by and see her again one more time when we return from the farm. It is so hard to imagine not seeing people for three years, I like "see ya' later" so much better than "goodbye", I know they are really the same but it just sounds better to me.
We are all excited to get to the farm and truly begin this process. I think the kids will have a great time although it may take a little getting used to being at "school" all day, they are not used to that, but they will get to go on field trips to International markets and restaurants, museums, etc. I think it will be a blast for them and they'll get to be exposed to some really cool things.
I think that 5:30am is going to come early so I better end this, we are hoping to make it to Knoxville tomorrow night (with the help of our little GPS friend we affectionately call, "Lampy")and be close to the farm by Sunday night. Please pray that we arrive safely and well. Also that our kids are not in complete zombie form from all the DS, PSP's, DVD's, CD's and whatever else they can electronically veg out on during this DRIVE. I used to stare out at cornfields or stars when I was their age on a long trip, my how things change!
We've had a great visit with Barry's mom although as usual it is too short. Barry helped her get things set up in preparation for our absence and we took her to shop at a mall in Louisiana where she took the kids to "Build a Bear". It was a great memory building moment with their Grandma Ruth as we also rode a two story carousel! We will stop by and see her again one more time when we return from the farm. It is so hard to imagine not seeing people for three years, I like "see ya' later" so much better than "goodbye", I know they are really the same but it just sounds better to me.
We are all excited to get to the farm and truly begin this process. I think the kids will have a great time although it may take a little getting used to being at "school" all day, they are not used to that, but they will get to go on field trips to International markets and restaurants, museums, etc. I think it will be a blast for them and they'll get to be exposed to some really cool things.
I think that 5:30am is going to come early so I better end this, we are hoping to make it to Knoxville tomorrow night (with the help of our little GPS friend we affectionately call, "Lampy")and be close to the farm by Sunday night. Please pray that we arrive safely and well. Also that our kids are not in complete zombie form from all the DS, PSP's, DVD's, CD's and whatever else they can electronically veg out on during this DRIVE. I used to stare out at cornfields or stars when I was their age on a long trip, my how things change!
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Shipping and Packing and Crates, Oh My!!
Well, you haven't heard from me in a while and that is because I have been a packing fool!! The crating company gave us another week to have all our items ready.
Good Idea....because Barry really needed the time to go through all of his files and books.
Bad Idea....it gave me more time to think and dwell and lose sleep over whether I had all we would need in a year.
I have given or thrown away a ridiculous amount of items and whittled our life down to about 50 boxes, two guitars, a keyboard and a hutch. It was painful at times my friends, but completely necessary and I have been given a great peace over leaving it behind.
We have had a couple of great things happen in the past few weeks. First, we had a prayer request answered for a need that we did not tell anyone about but just prayed and trusted God to meet it, and He did! Secondly, we were able to be the answer to a lady's prayer when we felt moved to give all my puppet ministry items to her family and we had no idea that it was something they were praying about. Amazing!
In the past few weeks we have had the opportunity to meet with some businesses who are going to be involved in supporting our work. The people have been so warm and encouraging which is a real blessings for us. We will visit a few more before we leave as those contacts are the backbone of what we will do.
Tomorrow they will get our crate ready and then we leave for the farm on Tuesday, January 20. We are driving so that we can go see Barry's mom on the way there and back, that will be a hard goodbye so we would appreciate your prayers.
Last but not least, well....kind of least, we all got our flu shots which were required to go to the farm and we had....NOT ONE TEAR!! Yippee! It went much better than the time when I took all four by myself to get their blood drawn! I think I was temporarily insane when I did that, it was awful! But we will have many more shots in the days ahead so hopefully it won't be so bad.........well, a girl can dream can't she?
Good Idea....because Barry really needed the time to go through all of his files and books.
Bad Idea....it gave me more time to think and dwell and lose sleep over whether I had all we would need in a year.
I have given or thrown away a ridiculous amount of items and whittled our life down to about 50 boxes, two guitars, a keyboard and a hutch. It was painful at times my friends, but completely necessary and I have been given a great peace over leaving it behind.
We have had a couple of great things happen in the past few weeks. First, we had a prayer request answered for a need that we did not tell anyone about but just prayed and trusted God to meet it, and He did! Secondly, we were able to be the answer to a lady's prayer when we felt moved to give all my puppet ministry items to her family and we had no idea that it was something they were praying about. Amazing!
In the past few weeks we have had the opportunity to meet with some businesses who are going to be involved in supporting our work. The people have been so warm and encouraging which is a real blessings for us. We will visit a few more before we leave as those contacts are the backbone of what we will do.
Tomorrow they will get our crate ready and then we leave for the farm on Tuesday, January 20. We are driving so that we can go see Barry's mom on the way there and back, that will be a hard goodbye so we would appreciate your prayers.
Last but not least, well....kind of least, we all got our flu shots which were required to go to the farm and we had....NOT ONE TEAR!! Yippee! It went much better than the time when I took all four by myself to get their blood drawn! I think I was temporarily insane when I did that, it was awful! But we will have many more shots in the days ahead so hopefully it won't be so bad.........well, a girl can dream can't she?
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