Movin out, movin on.....

We successfully moved out of our house and in with my parents. We are staying in the apartment in their basement, but spreading out to sleep at night. I guess the smallness of the apartment will get us ready for the crowded conditions when we arrive.
We still have some things here to move-our good china, yard equipment, stuff we will not use but want to keep. But we should be completely out of the house by the end of next week.
I am still tutoring at the house until the house sells.
Please please please "think about" our house selling in May. It is already going to be difficult scheduling a closing for it, with all the time in June and July we will be out of town. I trust that it will sell. But I am just impatient. I need less fear and anxiety and more trust and faith!!!

We are in a pile of forms to be completed and registered with the government and medical forms and school forms......so I need to get back to it. I will try to blog more as last details are wrapped up.
Continue to "think" about our family as we prepare for this journey.

Do any of you know Morse....?

Final word came earlier- we are hired.
I have to edit for content now.
Lots more to come about our new "life".
Will keep you updated.

Moving Right Along.....

We are still waiting for results from the testing and formal offer from the company. This is taking much longer than we expected or are use to. I am an immediate results kinda girl- good or bad, just give it to me. So this has been hard. My apprehension seems to be being met with telling me to rest . He says has it covered and it is all plan, way, timing. So I wait.

We have shown the house twice and have 2 more coming to see it this week. I am constantly picking things up, sweeping, vacuuming. This is not fun- living in a house with 4 kids and trying to keep it clean enough to show on a moments notice. Hopefully, it will sell soon and we can get to moving by the end of the month. Please continue to pray that it sells before we have to leave the first of August.


I still am unsure as to what to do with my tutoring students in the fall. The lady that was going to take it over needs free afternoons to take her middle school aged kids to sporting events,etc. I know someone else will come along who wants to work a few hours a week and make some extra money. If you know of any teachers that might be interested, let me know.

One thing I am struggling with through all of this is negative responses. We have people, some we barely know, saying very negative things about us going. Some do not mean to, but it is not helpful at all and we need building up and affirming, not doubt. But again, the L keeps telling me this is the Way, Plan. So I cling to that. Just pray that I keep my big mouth shut and have restraint not to say something sarcastic back. So far I have just smiled, nodded, and said, "yes, it is going to be very different for us."

Very different indeed- did you know they eat snake over there? More to come on that later....

Just one of those things.....

We are moving in many ways right now....and it is causing big change for me.

First way- moving through the process. We are on the final step- mental testing. We are not having to go to Michigan. We are being tested right here next week. One kinda short test and one test of 550 questions!!! If I wasn't mental before, I will be afterward!!!

Second way- moving out of the house. We are putting the house on the market Sunday. Please pray that is sells quickly. We are planning to move out in April regardless into the one bedroom apt at mom and dads. If that doesn't help get us ready, nothing will.

Third way- moving stuff out of here. Planning to have another sale next weekend and get rid of a lot of stuff. I never realized how much stuff we have accumulated. It is such a freeing sensation to get rid of all of this. I will be so much happier with less to worry about.

One thing I have noticed through all of this is how attached we are to having a home. I didn't realize how much a part of who I am is connected to my house and stuff. I have noticed that in getting rid this stuff and the feeling of security from things, I am relying more on . We, as Americans, have fooled ourselves into thinking we need all this stuff to be happy and secure. But the more I purge, the more secure I feel. I want my faith to be just that. Using things for security was robbing me of that blessing of relying on for safety, protection, belonging.

I do not want to be defined by what i drive, live in, wear. Without all of these distractions and idols, I feel free to find my meaning in who I am in . This concept is just settling over me and it is amazing.

More to come.....

I am amazed daily......

The further we get in the application process, the more convinced I am that clearing a perfect path for this is all fall into place. Daily sends things to me, reassurances that this is the path for us, the plan for our family. If you had told me a year ago this would be happening, I would not have believed it at all.

I am still hard a work, cleaning out closets, clothes, cabinets. It is a major deal- you do not realize how much "stuff" you have accumulated until you try to weed out 50-70% of it.
I am amazed at how is working through facebook though. The day I put my status as "cleaning out for sale" I had an old classmate message me wanting to buy any and all kitchen stuff. Also he wants teen type clothes for his daughter- two things I have a ton of to sell.
Then got a serious inquiry about the house...and we aren't even showing it for another 2 weeks!!!! Plus a friend had 2 people at work ask her if we were selling- they were interested too!!

Another concern I had was my tutoring students. I have done this for almost 13 years and some of them have been with me for 6-7 years. And at this time, I do not know of anyone else in Gaffney tutoring. I was really getting anxious about what would happen with them....and the kids and parents are too!!!
I have prd about it and poured my heart out. These kids I have grown very close to. I had one the other day making a book for school and he asked me if he could dedicate it to me and I teared up. It was weighing heavy on my heart. And I know hears my prs- He doesn't want me to have anything distracting me from the plan for us. He cares about even the smallest areas of our lives. He knew/knows my heart and concern for these kids, most with ADD and ADHD.
Yesterday, after my mini-cry about the dedication of the book by a precious second grader, I received another facebook message from a teacher who moved from Gaffney but is moving back home this summer. She is interested in "babysitting" my tutoring kids (her words, not mine) for a few years while we are gone. We are meeting up this weekend to talk. I am so excited and relieved!!!


Also, I had my formal interview this week. For 92 minutes I answered question after question over the phone with the HR director. And it was wonderful!!! By the end, we were both in tears and snubbing over what a wonderful thing this is and how is really in the middle of this. He said, "You know, I have been thinking the past few minutes. Your accent, I know you are Southern if not from South Carolina. And I am thinking how there is this girl from South Carolina and she and her husband are going to take their family to China to work in our schools and how can reach out all over the world and lead people places they never expect."
That was what got both of us. Just putting it to words... known all along this was the path for us.
It is truly amazing....exciting....humbling.

I can't wait to see what is going to happen next!!!

And so it begins........

All great things have humble beginnings. We weren't looking to go overseas, just something more, something different, something meaningful.

I was up late one night surfing the web and a site popped up for teaching in International Schools Overseas. So I clicked on it to read....and 4 hours later went to bed. . Then I saw it said they need a Financial Director and a Special Education- exactly what the two of us do. So I started praying, searching, and reading.
I talked to Bob about all of this. He was very open to the idea and committed to pray about it too.
We found 3 schools that seemed to "fit" us and looked over all the info. We contacted all three schools and all 3 were interested.
The first school seemed perfect. It is in Vienna, Austria, where Bob and I have been several times. I thought I love that area and my kids can go to Paris, and see Germany, and ......then God reminded me this is not a vacation.
The second school was in Istanbul, Turkey. Not top spot on my "to visit" list, but ok, we will see.
But we "sensed" that was not the place for us either.
The third school was in China. Of all places!!! Probably last on my "to visit" list. But everything seemed to be put in place for this to happen. May I present the
"Could we be going to China?" list....

1. As we started to pray about this, China seemed to be everywhere....every news cast, every web video, every person.

2. Bob said before we go he wanted to talk to someone who had worked for the school, but no longer did to get the "real story".
Within a week, a friend of mine from high school came over to dinner with others from high school and mentioned that she knew a girl who spent time in China and she would have her contact me through facebook. We got in touch and she taught for the SAME SCHOOLS (only 6 of them in all of China). We went to dinner last week and she was able to share a lot about the schools and the company- said it was the best 2 years of her life so far!!!


3. Madeline is very apprehensive about going. I so want her to see this as an opportunity to grow in her faith, trust the plan for her life.
In two different youth activities last week the college leaders spoke about seeking the will, doing the hard thing, trusting help you through it, and being a light to the NATIONS....yes, they used that word!!! And Brandon was looking RIGHT AT HER as he spoke. And he has no idea we were thinking of doing this.
She is now e-mailing a girl at the school and starting to feel better by the day about this complete change in her life. She even said last night, "We may get over there and I not want to come home after 2 years, but could we come home for the summer?"


4. Our possessions- I have told Bob for years, I would not care if our house burned as long as I got my pictures and family videos out. I do not care about "stuff"- makes me nervous as a matter of fact.
Yesterday an overwhelming sense of "get to it and clean out" came over me. So even though I am sick right now, I started cleaning out my closet and drawers, keeping about 1/3 of my stuff, selling the rest. And a feeling of peace came over me....it felt sooooo good.
(Side note: as I looked over my "professional clothes" to keep to teach in, they all have an oriental look to them- lol)
Then last night the superintendent of schools called us. We talked for almost an hour. At the end, he asked if we had listed our house yet and when we said no, he said Get to it!!! He said it another time and then as we closed the conversation again, but more adamantly...."Get it listed"....just re-enforcing my overwhelming urge yesterday.
So today we are working hard, cleaning out and throwing away. Plan to list the house on March 20th.
Please pray for us that it will sell asap!!!!


So I am off to work....much more to share later!!!