Preparing and Packing

These next few blog posts will be about how we have been preparing and how I am packing up our belongings for long-term storage to go overseas. David, along with others have encouraged me to post about how to scale down from the 1600 sq. ft. home that we have lived in for 3 years now, to a 1 bedroom apartment that we will live in when we get a renter, to moving into David’s old bedroom at his parents house this summer until we leave in August, and then how to pack to move overseas.

In the area of Preparing, we knew that we have always wanted to go overseas and knowing this I intentionally did not collect too many personal belongings. We have tried to be minimalists. When registering for our wedding registry, I only registered for the specific necessary items that we did not already have. I always knew that our current location in VA would be temporary.

When we purchased a foreclosed home in March of 2009, we bought with the intention to remodel and sell before we left the states. However, when we did complete a room, I was not focused on decorating to fill every inch of wall space, I focused on leaving the room fresh, clean, and ready for a potential buyer to see the possibilities. Now that we are trying to rent our home before we leave, I am glad that I had this approach, less material items to be attached to and less holes in the walls!!!

Here are a few photos of the finished basement:

However, David and I seemed to collect many items and various furniture, which we didn’t necessarily need, from friends and roommates that were moving away and could not take with them. I wanted to get rid of things that we did not want or need but David encouraged me to store them because we have a good size storage area on the other side of our basement downstairs.

Here are some photos of the unfinished side of the basement that we use for storage:

This was great when we had a yard sale because we had many items to sell and both of our yard sales were productive. Now that we have an August departure date we have begun selling furniture. The only furniture we will keep is our bed and matching end tables from the living room. David’s parents have been so gracious to let us use his old bedroom for storage. In my next post I will share how I am going about packing items for long-term storage. 

26 AND COUNTING!

God's blessings abound more and more every day. I can't express how amazed I am at the wonderful people that have been put into my life throughout the past 26 years. 26 years ago today my dad found out he had another son and my mom realized that the pink blankets would not be used any time soon. As I was driving home from work today I was overcome with awe at how God has blessed me throughout my entire life. I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to all those that have taken an interest in my life and has helped to make me into the person that I am today. God has placed so many people in my life that have guided me when I was not sure where to go, counseled me when I was confused and lifted me when I was down. You will never know the impact that you had on me and people like me until you get to heaven but I just want to say thank you.

Just a quick update on whats going on in our lives. God continues to work and to His praise and glory we continue to seek prayer and financial partners. Praise the Lord we are now at the 10% level for our monthly support and 11% for our moving fund. We have officially started trying to rent our house out (see the link here) and continue to sell furniture and pack things away. Please continue to pray for guidance and wisdom in our coming decisions. Thanks and God bless.

Praise the Lord things keep moving along!!!! We signed the papers to rent our home yesterday so please pray for some good tenants to come quickly. As soon as we can find somebody to rent we will be moving out so please pray for all the packing and organizing, as well as the last few things that we need to do to get the house ready to rent. We are looking to sell most of our furniture so if you see anything that you would be interested in please shoot us an e-mail. Thanks and God bless.

David

Psalm 69:16

What we have been up to for the Past 4 Years

David and I met at Word of Life Florida’s summer camp in June of 2005. This was my 4^th summer working at the camp and I was going to be counseling again. David had just finished his first year of college at the Word of Life Bible Institute. When we first met, I kept telling him how familiar he looked to me and that I could not place where I knew him from. He told me later that I met him when I was a student at Word of Life and the traveling Drama team that I was on came to his high school. I remember going to his school but I honestly don’t remember him. I am almost 2 years older than David ;) Anyway, we had the same groups of friends and the same day off each week during camp, so we had the chance to get to know each other a little bit. One sunny Florida day, a group of our friends decided to float down the Weeki Wachee Springs. The Weeki Wachee is a wonderful Florida attraction; we would take inner tubes and float down the Weeki Wachee’s lazy river. This gave us another opportunity to talk and we talked about what we wanted to do with our lives. He wanted to be a missionary; I wanted to be a missionary. He was registered to go to Liberty University in the fall of 2005 and I was planning on going to Liberty University in January 2006. We became good friends and when the summer ended, I met his family quickly before leaving to go on a mission’s trip to Mexico with my church in Jacksonville. We exchanged phone numbers, spoke on the phone ALOT during the fall semester and when I came to Liberty University (LU) in January of 2006 we were officially a couple :)

To prepare for missions work David began his undergraduate studies in Cross Cultural Studies and I began my studies in Teaching English as a Second language and a minor in Cross Cultural Studies, which meant that we had a few classes together. We attended classes and had a blast during our dating time at LU.  In July of 2007, after I returned from a 2 month mission trip in Guatemala, we went to VA Beach, VA for a day trip and it was that afternoon that he asked me to MARRY HIM!!! I was totally surprised and asked him if he was serious. I totally wanted to marry him, but was just shocked and could not believe that it was actually happening. He on the other hand was a little nervous about my answer and said yes I am serious and he waited for my reply. I said YES!!!

Here are a couple of our engagement photos:

We were married on January 5, 2008 in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. It was the most amazing day!!! I can still remember waking up and getting ready, looking out the window at him until it was time to go down, and our ceremony and reception. I loved taking pictures and felt beautiful all day.

Here are some photos of our wedding day:

After we were married, we were blessed to rent a beautiful townhome and David was working in Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) at LU. I did not find work until April of 2008. During the first 6 months of marriage we continued our undergraduate classes and looked for a home that we could fix up and sell/rent with the possibility of making some money to help support our ministry overseas. I graduated with my undergrad in May of 2008.

In August of 2008, I began work on my Masters of Education at LU and David began taking night classes to get his Journeymen’s in HVAC.  At auction in February of 2009 we purchased our first home. It was a true foreclosure and needed lots of TLC and hard work. It looks completely different inside and out, but here are 2 photos of the front of the house.

When we first bought the house:

 After a bit of work:

David graduated with his undergrad in May 2009. For the next few years we worked a lot and fixed up our house.

During our time at Liberty University we were looking for possible opportunities to go overseas once our schooling was completed. Fast forward to May of 2011, and David was offered a new HVAC job with a local hospital here in Lynchburg. I began working as a Full-Time ESL teacher in June of 2011 and I completed the final requirements for my Masters in December of 2011. In October of 2011, we committed with Tony and Marcia Haug to work with them for 2 ½ years in Shimonoseki. We are currently fulfilling our job requirements until this June 2012 and then we are planning on moving to NC where David’s parents are and staying there until we leave for Japan in August.