Sweet Sounds

Tonight, as I got Waverly ready for bed, I asked who she wanted to pray for. She said, "Memo and Papa." Before I could kneel down beside her, I heard her sweet voice say, "Thank you for Memo and Papa. Let them sleep good tonight. Amen."

It melts my heart that she is praying on her own, so simply, but so genuinely.

That Running Thing...

"How's Couch to 5k going?" you ask. "Terrible," I tell you.
I gave up on week three, day one. It was getting pretty hot outside, our little umbrella stroller was about to reach its limit, and we were going through a.lot of changes.
But I'm not a quitter.. Well, I guess, technically I am because I quit the program; however, I have NOT quit running. In just a few weeks, in fact, I have shaved an entire minute off my mile. 10:37 at the beginning of this FPO adventure and 9:11 just last night. I mean, for someone who is just starting out, I'm pretty pleased with this accomplishment. Maybe another minute by the end of FPO??

Busy Bees! Continuation...

Please feel free to read the following as one big thought without taking a breath. By doing so, you will most fully understand our life for the past couple of months.

Virginia is beautiful! But we decided we wouldn't want to live here.

We arrived "on the farm" in the middle of the afternoon on Monday, July 23 and as we moved into the apartment of our quad, we realized there was a playground right outside our front door.

Waverly is never happier than when she's on that playground with her friends.

Just two days later, on Wednesday, we started classes and Waverly started "school"!

She has loved every minute of "school" and we have loved this opportunity for her. It took a few weeks but she started remembering the names of kids in her class and talking about them specifically. Each week they focus on a different Bible story, which she is sometimes able to recall. (This is significant for her because previously, the answer to, What did you learn about today? was "Baby Jesus!"). Her greatest achievement that makes this Momma's heart happy is her growing cache of songs! Everyday she is singing a new song and I love it! Somewhere, and I assume school, she has learned "The Hokey Pokey", "Jesus Loves Me", "Old MacDonald", "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes", and some song about Jonah and the whale. All of this on top of the songs she already knows; "ABCs", "The BIBLE", and random Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Doc McStuffins songs. Can I be honest a moment? I was terrified that she would never learn songs or even like to sing, but she has and she does!! I love it. :)

African princess at our cultural lunch.

She LOVES Aunt Lauren and Uncle Travis/Breakfast/Kravitz!

"Girl time" with Aunt 'Gourdan' (Jourdan)!

We are so thankful for Waverly's SSA aunts and uncles! Obviously, she LOVES the attention, but WE love that she has these amazing people in her life.

This training time has been stressful, at times, and has been a huge adjustment for all of us (Waverly the least of all!), but we are thankful for the experience and experiences here. We are encouraged by being around others who are called as we are called.

Acts 17:24-26

Paul in Athens...

"The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place..."

Boom.

Busy Bees!

Has it been a while? Or has it been a while? I tell you what, we have been so busy getting ready to skip the country that I just haven't kept up with much.

Quick run down? *Read this as if I'm not even stopping to take a breath. Also forgive the photo quality; my convenient iPhone has been my go-to camera.*

So, many moons ago, we had a yard sale to sell all of our stuff. We made almost $2,000. Praise the Lord. Little did we know how much we would actually need that money until we got our first IMB paycheck that only compensated for 8 days of our salary. Let's just say, Ouch.

We sold everything, but three boxes of stuff.

That night our best friends threw us a Harry Potter-themed "going away" party.

There is just too much cuteness in this photo, I can hardly stand it!!

The following week, on July 17, we crated the rest of our life. And let's all say, Ouch, again because that was a painful-like process.

Hot.mess.

Hot.mess.

Once everything was packed away and sent to the crating company, we became squatters in our own house.

Happy to be squatters.

 The very next day, we went and got tats, courtesy of Kevin at Bleed Blue Tattoo.



Jesus said to him, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God." Aka. Kelli, give it all you got and don't look back.



William Borden quote. Read his story.

Sunday, July 22, we skipped town and headed for FPO in Virginia!

BEAUTIFUL West Virginia



Dinner at Applebees in Beckley, WV where we stayed for the night.



hu-larious.

After dinner, we walked back to our hotel and watched The Blind Side until about 10:00 pm. It was the most relaxing night we had had as a family in a looong time.

The next morning Waverly swam!

Hotel with a swimming pool, duh.

Then we got in the car and continued our journey to Virginia!!

Over it.

More to come...

Transition

Wanna know what I’ve learned since May? Our lives will ever be in the constant state of transition. Our greatest transition yet was moving to Virginia for two months to live on the IMB’s International Learning Center “compound” for training before we leave for the field. This type of transition would be considered “abnormal” seeing as how none of my other friends and family will ever temporarily, or permanently, live on a compound of sorts for any reason. But as crazy as it sounds, it’s not half bad. And by that I mean, it’ll work for two months and three days.

Our living quarters are quite small. We live in a “quad” with four other missionary units; a married couple with no children, a married couple with a baby, and two journey-girls who share an apartment. Our “quad” consists of four apartments leading off of the common area. Each apartment has a small kitchen nook, complete with stove, oven, microwave, sink, mini fridge, eating utensils and a few cooking utensils, a breakfast nook, two bedrooms, one bathroom, and a laundry nook, complete with washer and dryer. Each married couple, with or without children, have their own apartment; those who are single share an apartment with one other person of the same gender (duh).  Our quad, quad 6, is in a cul de sac of sorts with a playground smack dab in the middle. This is good and bad: good because the kids all play together there and bad because that’s all Waverly wants to do when we leave the house.

We all eat together in the main cafeteria where a staff cooks for us three meals a day. Can’t really beat that. In that same building is a computer lab, library, a few staff offices, and meeting rooms. Attached to that building is Waverly’s “school” for those 4 and under. We have a medical facility where we will receive our required inoculations, mailroom, and an administration office. All of this is on the other side of the campus from our quad.

In the middle of the campus is the “school” for kindergarten and up and children’s library. The adults’ seminars/classes are held in that same building just across a portico.

We do not have access to televisions on campus, nor do we have wireless internet access except for in the computer lab and that building. Transition: We had wireless access all.the.time at home. I write this post in a Word document from our apartment and will post it online when I get to the computer lab later.  We also had a TV at home and I am bummed to be missing Project Runway… L

Yes, we make fun of the living condition here, comparing it to various communal living situations that you may see on TV, but it hit me this afternoon how thankful I am that the IMB can provide all of this accommodations for us so that they can pour into us for two months before sending us to the field to pour into our various people groups. Our employer spends two months feeding us, housing us, providing for us, and training us to do our jobs. And they’re thorough about it too. I am thankful that we have not major expenses for the time being and I am thankful that our job currently consists of learning.

Most everything about our lives has changed in the past couple of months and it will change in the next couple of months, but the Lord has been gracious in all things. We have all made this transition fairly easily. Waverly has been amazing; she loves her “school” and her friends. Chandler and I, on the other hand, have struggled a bit with adjusting to this new way of life. Being homebodies, having people around all the time can be overwhelming; we’ve run the gamut from hanging out with our friends constantly to not hanging out at all. We are still looking for the balance.

But balance is worth finding, even if, in 6 weeks, everything is all messed up again.