Getting serious

I feel like we're finally getting down to business as missionaries. The roller coaster is sitting at the top of the hill! We are up here at Pearl River, NY after several hours of flying today. The kids did great, and we are so thankful for portable dvd players. They make the world a happier place. :)

One of our pieces of luggage weighed 81 pounds! So we had to pay double for it. Joel looked at me as we were checking it in curbside in Dallas (at 7:15 this morning) and asked if I knew of anything that could come out of it. I gave him the famous "are you crazy?!" look and said we would just have to pay it. Thankfully they didn't charge us for our duffles being over 50 pounds. But when we got here to Pearl River, the man in charge of luggage (I am quite positive that is not his title) said that we'd have to lighten the load. Our choices were to do it here or at the airport.

So...we spent a good bit of time doing just that. It's amazing what you can do when the motivation is strong enough. We weaned a lot - an entire piece of luggage (the 81 pounder) will be shipped back to Arlington tomorrow (I'll try to weigh it before it goes and let you know how much it is - our international weight limit is 70 pounds).

We also thinned out the kid's backpacks which almost toppled them over today. They'll be pleasantly (?) surprised when they feel them in a couple of days (hopefully they'll understand when not all of their toys and books made the cut).

The other neat, God thing was this: Joel was trying to make sure we had all batteries charged and asked me to get the camera battery charging. When he reminded me the second time, I actually did it. Low and behold! The charger wasn't there...the battery wasn't either! I had the same plan as Joel, but charged the battery back at his parent's house. And, sure enough, the battery was still charging there tonight when I called. :) Thankfully UPS is super fast and I am confident that we can get it here before we leave on Friday. I'm so glad he wanted to charge batteries tonight vs. tomorrow night when it would be too late. God really does take good care of us.

Well, I'm off to bed - thank you for all your prayers. Dade only coughed once and didn't have any problems flying. I'm the one whose ear has not been right since we made our initial decent into Charlotte (where we had a 40 minute layover). Please pray my sinuses clear up before we leave and the kids do well tomorrow while we are busy with meetings. Thanks again!

It's hard to say goodbye

It's not easy to think that tonight (which is almost over) is my second-to-last night in Texas for the next 13 months or so. It'll probably be awhile before we post pictures on the blog - hopefully we'll have time and internet speed during our 2 days in NY.

We've had sweet times with family and friends. Yet there have been so many we haven't gotten the chance to visit with. Next time we'll start saying "goodbye" when we get home because then MAYBE we'll get everyone. What do you think moms? :)

Please be praying for the kids. I'm not sure if they are able to process what's going on and I'm not sure Joel and I are really understanding it all either. It's a crazy excitement to finally get started and this is mixed with a feeling of wonder at the unknown and a sense of sadness that comes with missing those we love. It's all hard to process.

We're going to make Charlotte (Joel's mom) our power-of-attorney tomorrow so she'll be able to close on our house for us this Friday! God is so good! Joel prayed that we'd get to keep the house until we left - he thinks maybe he should have been more specific - like maybe until we were ready to leave Texas. :) Good thing God is so smart, We are so grateful He has everything under control and we can trust Him.

Last prayer request before I go to bed - Dade has had this congestion/cough thing going on and I have a sore throat - please pray that this won't make travel miserable - or better yet, that God will take it all away. Thanks! My next post will probably be from Pearl River, NY - love y'all!

Dara & Dade's Going away Party

We had such a great time last night with the water party. Thank you all for coming and sharing your time with us. You will all be missed. (for those who couldn't make it - we will miss you too!) :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUSXQjFk96g

enjoy!

The Joel not everyone knows!

Here's a video of Joel wallowing in the mighty Canadian River! Many of you know Joel fairly well, and some of you may know him very well. But few of you have ever seen him like this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY_pL3oz-Qc

The video is so shaky because I was laughing too hard to keep the camera steady. Once Joel was dirty enough he went off chasing the kids. He's too fast to catch completely, but you'll get the gist of it. Enjoy!

p.s. We are hoping to close on the house tomorrow (Friday) but it will be a miracle if it happens that fast. I figure, God is big enough so if He wants it to happen it will! We'll let you know.

Update

We're still having a great time out here with my family. We've had storms, card games, basketball games, fishing, nintendo, puzzles, painting, and good visits. We're filled up with good memories.

Our house is being inspected as I write this. It's been such a neat story of how God works. We've actually signed with lady #3 and she loves the house! Lord willing, the inspection and appraisal will go well and we'll be able to close on June 19th - 11 days after we signed!