Countdown.....

It's really starting to sink in....it's just over 40 days now until we permanently move to Swaziland.  So much has been done and so much yet still to accomplish!  This has definitely been a busy year for us with mission  classes, Austin's highschool graduation, college visits, Cameron's 5th grade graduation, plays and Bailey's lacrosse...not to mention planning a move overseas, applications, more applications, then more applications!  Yet, God has been so gracious to us and we have been able to accomplish things I am still amazed at!  The chief among those was to hit a financial goal by April 1st that would allow us to go ahead and ship many of our belongings in early April.  We actually hit our goal 10 days ahead of time!!!!  And that was after actively fundraising for only 3 months!  We still have additional financial goals, but were able to commit to our late May/early June leave date. 

It takes 6-8 weeks to ship our belongings, so in order to have some belongings when we landed in late May/early June we loaded 2/3 of all our belongings into a 20 foot container over Spring Break.  (Cameron quite enjoyed having to climb in and over piles of furniture and mattresses to help Mark rope up some loose items!)    We will load the remainder of our items before Mark and Bailey leave on May 30th.   (Cameron, Austin and I will be going to the University of Arkansas for orientation the following week so we will be a week behind.)

 So, we are now "camping" in our townhouse, sleeping on air mattresses and using floor cushions for extra seating.  We will definitely enjoy getting to Africa and sleeping on beds again!  We so appreciate all the many expressions of support, including the use of a washer and dryer, and extra blankets because we packed most of ours!  I know this will be a busy month and a half and truly appreciate your prayers and support!