This is not a very thorough account of our slow departure from South Carolina, but I am hoping to figure out how to add the pictures and such later. I just wanted to make sure we updated all of you in a timely manner, so this is what I can do for now.
We officially said good-bye to South Carolina this week, and drove up to Minnesota. It was a whirlwind of seeing friends and family, packing, getting our "affairs in order," and trying to breathe in the midst of it all. I'll hopefully add some pictures soon. It was WILD. Our church had a precious good-bye dinner for us. They gave us some snack food for the drive to MN, and several people passed along words of encouragement and gifts. Mrs. Becky in Children's Church put together an awesome shindig for the boys' last day at church. They had snow cones out back, and then gave the boys some gifts for the road. The boys absolutely LOVE their Mrs. Becky. When Alex was itty bitty he would absolutely BALL when there was a substitute in Children's Church. Both boys always looked forward to seeing Mrs. Becky on Sunday mornings, along with their Sunday school teachers. I think we will be hard pressed to find such devoted and loving alternates in Peru.
We had lunch with our church staff the Tuesday before we left, and it was great to laugh, eat, and tell stories. As I sat there, my mind took a snapshot of the moment. Panning the faces of our treasured pastors, pastor's wife, and church secretary. I soaked in our fun conversation, keenly aware of how much I will miss our church.
We also enjoyed a special going-away gathering at Justin's office, First Presbyterian Church of Columbia. The senior pastor, Dr. Sinclair Ferguson said some kind words, mostly thanking Justin for not exploding over the staff's simple errors and computer glitches. The staff wrote special messages in a journal for his journey, and then Dr. Ferguson added that if Justin could just jot down a few last instructions in the remaining pages and mail them back, they'd greatly appreciate it :). They were truly wonderful to our whole family. They also gave us a collection of our favorite goodies to take with us on the road, and the children's department put together an amazing bag of discoveries for our boys. There was an envelope for each boy to open per state we passed through on our way up to Minnesota. We had a great time with those...what a boredom stopper!
A couple sets of friends at church also arranged get togethers at their houses to say our last good-byes. The food was excellent, guys! Thank you!! We also squeezed in play dates right up until it was time to leave SC. If we missed having a last chance to say good-bye, please know that we just simply ran out of time. We are still available by phone and email!
Now we're in MN. Our heads are still a little cloudy from the chaos of the past weeks/months, but I'm fairly confident that we will eventually relax and feel ready to head to Peru. We spent today helping my sister and her husband clear a swimming area at their new lake place, and the boys have already made use of my Dad's jacuzzi bathtub. Right now my men are outside my dad's house playing basketball. We still have several things to finish up: forms for Food for the Hungry, letters to precious people, etc. But everything is nearing completion, and I feel confident we will get things done, or at least acceptable before we leave.
It's really odd living in this state of limbo. We said good-bye to South Carolina, and now we have another few weeks (or more) to say good-bye in Minnesota. This year we have been blessed to be able to afford THREE trips to MN in a 10 month time span. We give full glory to God for this, because we typically pray to afford just ONE trip per year, much less THREE. God has truly stretched our finances to allow for these three trips. "Why three trips in one year?" you may ask. We came up for my dad's wedding in September and my sister's wedding in January. Now we're here delivering our car to my dad (he's buying it from us), finishing up some loose ends, and saying our good-byes to friends and family.
So that's the low-down on our transition. We're tired and road-weary, but we have a couple of weeks here in MN to recover. We still have no news on our visas. We will know more next week. We were disappointed to find out that they were taking longer than expected, but we're enjoying our time in MN already, and we continue to trust in God's timing. So far everything has worked out great: our house sold in three days, but a rental house popped up quickly and it gave us a chance to whittle down our things somewhat during that first move. Then we made plans to come up to MN, so we had to close out our life in SC. Now we have a little bumper time still in the US to take care of any loose ends before heading to Peru. It will all work out in the end, we're just learning a lot about patience and flexibility. :).
Thank you for your continued prayers. We will continue to keep you posted.
In <><,
Gillian
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