First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to AMELIA!! She’s getting so big. We celebrated with family a few weekends ago and for her actual birthday she got a whole doughnut from The Doughnut Experiment. 

People have been asking “How are Africa things going? What are ya’ll doing to get ready?”

When people ask that my mind kind of goes in about a million directions! Here’s why….

On top of working, managing a household, raising two precious girls, and maintaining life, 
1. We are applying for passports for our girls so that we can apply for visas so that we can get into the country.  We can’t get Visas, though, without proof of Yellow Fever vaccine. Michael has his, Madelyn is too young. So…

2. Amelia and I are going to the travel clinic this week to get our Yellow Fever vaccines!

3. Speaking of vaccines, we all have to get rabies and typhoid vaccines.  Amelia is getting her 4 year old vaccines early at two years of age (some people want to space them out… we see how close we can put them together! Hah! That’s what you get for having a pediatrician for a mommy!  Oh yeah dad’s a huge fan of vaccines too.)  Poor Madelyn will be getting some sort of vaccine almost every month between now and when we leave.  

4. Support raising. We may sound like broken records. Things are going well. We have raised our “one time needs” goal and now all of the “one time gifts” will go towards our HOUSE BUDGET!! WOO HOO!!!!!! Praise the Lord for all of the gifts that will make it possible for us to get to Africa! Michael and I have seen Him move people to give in ways we never thought imaginable. And I’ll be honest, at some points I do get discouraged and feel like we are never going to stop asking people to support us. But one day we will.  We are so grateful for everyone who has already gotten behind us either through committing to pray for us while we are there, through financial support,  for general excitement for our move/adventure/ministry or any combination of those!!  It has been so fun sharing the story of our future life in Africa!!  All that to say, we are meeting with a lot of people to continue telling them our story and inviting them to be a part of our journey if they feel led to do so!  We truly believe that the Lord is in control and that He will provide what we need.  If you feel led to give financially, great.  If you don’t, great.  If you feel led to join with us in prayer, great.  If you want to be our cheerleader and encourage us before we leave, great.  If you want to continue living life as if we are not going because the thought of us leaving is simply unbearable, you do what you gotta do 😉 . But in all seriousness, we do not want guilt or a feeling of obligation to us to push anyone to support us.  We want this to be God-driven.  Ok done. 

5. Speaking of house… once funds start coming in for our future house, we will start thinking about what we will want the layout of the house to look like. We will likely be discussing this with a missionary in Cameroon who is a general contractor. Exciting!  

6. Michael had to apply to be a PAACS attending. Submitted that a few days ago. 

7. We are starting to think about our shipping container because it takes a long while from the time we ship it to actually receiving the container at Mbingo.  And guess what, folks. We are LESS THAN 6 MONTHS AWAY from being in Africa!    So not only do we have to figure out the logistics of the shipping container (what size container, likely 20 feet… what company to use to ship it… where to load up the container…how to get our belongings from our house to wherever they will pack the container…what can we live without now…AND what can we live without there if the container gets stuck in customs…).  So in celebration of being less than 6 months away, I have started to purge by…

8.  Cleaning out my closet. I just went through and got rid of all my spring/summer clothes that I won’t be able to wear in Africa.  NOTE TO FRIENDS WHO ARE MY SIZE — free clothes if you can come get them by this weekend 😀 Otherwise they go to Goodwill. 

9. We are also in the process of figuring out what to do with our house. We’ve decided to rent it out while we are overseas so we have to find a property management company. We also are going to turn our house into an LLC which apparently is the thing to do in this situation per our financial advisor!  Also, there are a LOT of things that need to happen to get our house rent-ready. 

Anywho, that’s what we are doing right now 🙂  (Plus probably another 15 other things I forgot about.) We’re learning to embrace the chaos and enjoy seeing God working through this time of transition in our lives.



OK side note, if you guys don’t know Vivian, here she is. She is the MOST AMAZING nanny/friend/woman. She has blessed us by loving Amelia for almost 2 years now and is doing the same with Madelyn. She’s a gem. Just thought I needed to put that out on the world wide web.

We went to Atlanta to meet with some people to share about Africa and while we were at dinner, Amelia hung out with Gigi and Papa and watched the Georgia Game. In this picture, she is thinking “If Georgia wins, I wonder if they will move to the #1 spot.” Good question, Amelia. Good question. (They did.)

Amelia loved seeing her uncle Andrew 🙂