WOW, our house sold in THREE DAYS!! We had a showing the first day it was on the market, and that person made an offer that was too low. Then we had a showing the third day it was on the market, and the offer was good! YAY! We met the couple yesterday, and they were so sweet and excited about their house. Funny story: there was a BAT hanging from the peak of our roof when the buyers arrived. They came in the house and said, "Um, did you know there's a bat hanging from the side of the house?" Nice. Justin went out and bothered it a little, but not enough to wake it up...no, the true wake up call waited until night when we had some friends over. All the guys went outside to throw sticks near the bat to wake it up...but I digress. The buyers wanted to measure for some furniture, and it was fun to watch the wheels turning in the girl's head as she planned out their future home.
It's hard to think of leaving our first home, and a good cry will be in order the day we hand over the keys, but this frees us up to leave whenever our support is finally raised. This would be easier if we were at 100% of our need for the mission field, that way we would have a solid departure date and a place to go, but this works too. We're now trying to work out a deal to rent our home until July 15th, but if that doesn't go through, we'll have to find other arrangements. We have a couple of options, so we're not worried about it. We're just praying for the best possible arrangement to keep from uprooting the boys too much. ...ah yes, the boys.
It occurred to me that we haven't mentioned the boys a whole lot in our blogs or newsletters. Part of it is intentional: people want to hear about how the ministry is progressing and our news about the boys is simply off the subject. But the other part is unintentional, because we could tell you more about them here in our blog. Alex is fully aware of leaving for Peru, and he's somewhat understanding that we are offering people a chance to help us in this ministry. He'll ask us, "Do we have enough money to move to Peru yet?" And when we told the boys about selling the house, Alex asked, "So are we moving to Peru now!!" We told him he would have to wait a little while longer for that. He's excited about the prospect of a new place to live and going to school, but he had a moment last week when he realized that he was going to miss our friends and family, especially his grandparents. It was during the day, so Justin was at work, so Alex and I shed a few tears together when we talked about the things we would miss, the ways we would keep in touch, and the special things we would need to take with us to make us feel comfortable.
Nathan, being just three years old and a second child, is a little less aware of the specific changes that are about to happen. He keeps hearing about Peru, and he'll mention his desires: Alex wants a dog, and Nathan wants a turtle, neither of which we have any idea if we can have in a rented Peruvian apartment. We've read some books about moving, but we haven't found a book about moving to another COUNTRY yet...so we have to skip over the pages when they talk about bringing ALL of the kids' belongings with them to their new houses. Nathan's also starting to get into the Spanish thing - FINALLY. We had to cut back on Spanish to get him speaking English well. Now that he's effectively communicating, we're back to the Spanish, and he's enjoying it. I think the transition will be easier for him than for Alex...we'll see. Our great debate is whether to start him in pre-school right away when we get there. He may need the extra boost, so we're going to go ahead and sign him up, reserving the right to change our minds if he's socially not ready yet.
The boys are our #1 priority in all of this, so we chose a school for them that we think will make the transition a little easier. It's an international school that came recommended by some other missionaries in Lima, Peru. We can't get down there and look for schools right now, but Alex will need to start as soon as we get down there, so we thought this sounded like a good option. They teach in English, but offer Spanish courses, and they have a significant discount for missionaries. It's a bunch of other international kids, so the boys will be around kids like them. We're still in debate about whether we need to find a Peruvian school for them to really get into the culture where we live, but we will have to wait to search those out when we get there. The school issue has been HUGE for us, so please help us pray for God's direction and care for our boys.
So that's the latest and greatest. We've sold our house, we've chosen a school for the boys, and now we're getting geared up for a LOT OF PACKING AND SORTING!!! Busy, but worthwhile. Now we just need that last 11% :).
In Christ,
Gillian
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