still in the States

I am writing from the United States still, which means we didn't leave yesterday, August 6. We had hoped and planned on everything being set to go by then, but it wasn't. We are SO incredibly close to going, and I feel like it's within reach.

Good news is that we got our visas this weekend. We placed a frantic call into the Embassy of Hungary last Thursday to see what the deal was. They informed us that we "got them," and we told them that we didn't actually have them in our hands and were scheduled to leave the country in 4 days. Long pause in the conversation when the person on the other end said, "We'll get those out to you today." So basically they had just been sitting there on someone's desk. They even paid for every service needed to get those to us in less than 24 hours, and my parents called us on Friday morning to say they had just been delivered.

So our house is taken care of and so are the visas. The last step we needed to have finished by yesterday was raising support. We have 90% pledged or given, and so that last 10% just feels like nothing, yet it's the part that we have to have done before we can leave the country. I completely understand, but it is nonetheless hard. We need to raise a little over $400 a month ($10,000 or so) before we can go. I had blogged before about how small this amount is in comparison to the $100,000 we had to raise at the start. God has blessed us with amazing supporters who are giving sacrifically already, and so we are trusting God to provide that last bit we need.

I haven't had any time to blog lately because of the insanity that my life has been. It is so overwhelming to pack up everything you own and decide what stays and what goes. What stuff do I want to store for two years and what stuff do I want to give away? What stuff do I take to Hungary in my suitcase and what stuff do I have to ship? On top of it all I want to keep it simple but also not make dumb decisions at the moment because I am just so overwhelmed. A special thank you goes out to all of our small group who helped us in the process, especially Matt and Leah who where with us from dawn until the wee hours of the next day. We could have never gotten everything done without them. THANK YOU! WE LOVE YOU!

So now I am sitting at my parents' house, resting, relaxing, and spending time with them. This is important to me, and I am grateful for the extra rest. I averaged maybe 5 hours of sleep a night in the last week. I also got to be here for my nephew Daniel's first birthday, which was today. He had a huge party on Sunday and was dedicated at church. I will close with a picture of me and BooBoo on his first birthday!!!