Move Again Friend

When Mike and I joined MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship), we were jokingly told that MAF also stands for "Move Again Friend".  I laughed and thought it was a funny joke.  I also thought to myself, "Maybe it is like that for others, but surely not for me and my family."  

Boy was I wrong!  Our family hasn't even reached the field yet and I can safely say that my clothes have probably been in a suitcase more often this year than a dresser drawer.  So far we have moved from Washington to Idaho, back to Washington, back to Idaho, back to Washington, and back to Idaho...see a trend here?  In between our moves we have also traveled to Alaska, Oregon, California, Minnesota, and Arizona.  The goal of course is to eventually live in Tarakan, Indonesia; but first we will move to Salatiga, Indonesia for one year before our final move to Tarakan.

It isn't a joke.  :)

If you have been following our journey with MAF, you are aware of the fact that the original plan was to move to Indonesia directly from our hometown in Washington.  The plan has changed because of the visa delays we have been experiencing trying to reach Indonesia.  This past week we moved out to Idaho to be near MAF headquarters so that Mike can help out in the hanger doing maintenance on the aircraft.  

We said our final goodbyes to our friends and family before we left home because as soon as our visas clear we will move to Indonesia directly from Idaho.  I knew deep down inside that it would be hard to say goodbye to everybody, but it was much harder than I thought it would be.  The reason it ended up being much harder (I am speaking for myself right now) is because I realized as we were saying our goodbyes is the sacrifice we are forcing our friends and family to make.  It is one thing for me to decide to make myself sacrifice, but it is entirely different to make somebody else share in the pain of sacrifice with me.  God called me to sacrifice and move to Indonesia, but by doing that is causes all my friends and family to say goodbye.  It doesn't feel good to make others hurt.  The whole reason we are moving to Indonesia is to share love, God's love, not the pain of loss.  

I guess the reason I am writing this is to tell everybody we are leaving behind, "We love you guys!  We don't leave easily.  Thank you for standing behind us.  Thank you for praying for us.  Thank you for supporting us.  We can't do this without you.  We understand that this whole process isn't easy for any of us."

Now I am starting to get choked up, so I will stop typing and just hit "publish".  :)

Colton Turns Six

We celebrated Colton's birthday a couple days early this year to fit it in between all of the packing, sorting, and goodbyes.  It was important to us to hit pause for a day, even though we are super stressed out and busy getting ready for the move back to Idaho, to make Colton feel special for a day.

Mike asked Colton what he wanted for his birthday dinner and Colton requested fried chicken, mashed potatoes, cherry tomatoes, and juice.

You'll never guess what type of cake he requested.  Yes, he wanted an aircraft carrier birthday cake again, making this the 4th runway-themed cake in a row.  He placed a fleet of aircraft on it all by himself.

Colton is growing up so fast, he was actually able to read his birthday cards by himself (not the fancy cursive writing though, he skipped over that).

Colton added some more Legos and airplanes to his collection.  Everybody did a very good job buying SMALL presents for him so that they will fit in his suitcase.

Cousins hanging out one last time, oh how we will miss cousin Riley!  One of the hardest goodbyes is going to be with our dear, sweet cousin Riley.

Gateway Church Sendoff

This coming Sunday March 30th is the last weekend we will be attending Gateway, our home church in Washougal, WA before we move.  Mike will be sharing for a few minutes during each of the three services (Sat 6:00 Sun 9:15, 11:00).  The church is hosting a potluck to send us off on Sunday after the second service.  Please stop by between 12:30 and 2:00 to see us one last time before we move on Monday.  We would LOVE to see you!  It is a potluck so bring a tasty dish along if you are able.

Here is the address to Gateway: 
1235 E street Washougal WA 98671

Idaho it is

Decision day has arrived and it is official, we are moving back to Idaho for a few weeks.  Mike will be working in the MAF hanger at headquarters helping out with the aircraft maintenance.  

We have been informed that things are starting to move in Indonesia and we feel confident we will be able to depart for language school in early May.  There is an end in sight to all of our waiting.  :)  We will be moving directly from Idaho to Indonesia, so we will be saying our final goodbyes to our friends in WA before we move on March 31st.

I don't know why God is directing our paths to Idaho again before we move to Indonesia, but we are faithfully following his leading step by step.   

We are excited to have some answers and we are thrilled to be able to see our friends in Idaho one last time before we leave.  We are also excited to eat at Chick-fil-A again!    

Moving Date

I am breaking one of my own rules right now and I am writing a post with no pictures.  Gasp!  Don't worry I'll keep it short.  

Mike and I had a meeting today over the phone with our MP Coach (supervisor) at MAF to look at some options for us because of our current visa situation.  The "situation" being not having them yet.  We still have no idea when they will be approved.  In years past the visa process usually took 3-4 months, this year has been different.  Our paperwork has been filed for 7 months now.  We are praying and resting in God's perfect timing in this situation (we aren't perfect, we do have our moments of unrest aka: "freaking out").

Meanwhile we have put in place a plan "B".  On March 31st we will be saying goodbye to Washington.  We will either be on a plane to Indonesia, or driving a car to Idaho.  MAF has found a fully furnished house that we can live in close to headquarters and Mike will be working in the hanger doing maintenance on the MAF aircraft.  

In conclusion.  Our family is moving on March 31st.  We need to hang out as much as possible right now Washington friends!




      

February Update

No visas yet, we are still waiting for them to be approved by the Indonesian government.  The end of March is now the earliest we will be able to depart for language school in Indonesia.  

In the meantime, we wait, and pray, and we wait some more.       

Today we drove out to the place our crates are being stored at to finish packing our shipment.  This is the shipment we won't see until we move to Tarakan about 1 year from now.  In fact we haven't seen any of this stuff since the end of July; it was kind of bittersweet to see all of our stuff today.  I know that they are just possessions, but it is a bit unsettling at times not to have access to most of our things.  This whole packing experience has been a lot more emotional than I thought it would be for me.  It consists of going through our possessions, pairing them down, and putting them into storage.  I honestly didn't think I was THAT attached to my stuff.  God is always finding teachable moments for me in our journey to Indonesia.

We can however, add a bit of fun to this process.  You're welcome future Angie.  Ok, future Mike, future Colton, and future Macie I'll share.

  

Entering every. single. item. into an Exel spreadsheet with it's new and current value.  Good times.

Colton has been missing his old MAF buddies and has started writing notes to a few of them.  It is fun (and sad at times) to have friends that live all around the world!

Last trip to SEA??? Maybe not.

A couple of weeks ago our family packed up the Jetta and made what we thought was going to be our last major road trip before we moved to Indonesia.  Mike and I were invited to share about our ministry with MAF at a church up in Pt Townsend, WA.  While we were up there we decided to spend some extra time and say goodbye to our family and friends who live up in the Seattle area.  

We were literally sitting down at our goodbye dinner with our family (gearing up for it to be a sad evening) and I decided to check our email.  We got word in an email from MAF on the VISA situation in Indonesia.  Basically it is not good.  Slow, very slow is the process at the moment.  VISAs usually take 3-4 months to process and ours has been waiting for approval since August.  It is very likely that late March is the soonest we will be able to depart.  So what was supposed to be a goodbye dinner turned into a "never mind, not yet" dinner.

Can you say, "Emotional roller coaster"?

So we wait. 

We have been told to pack like we are leaving in February, just in case, but probably March is more realistic.  If our VISAs are approved within the next couple of days a February departure is still within our reach.  

Here are a few highlights from our trip.  We lucked out and had gorgeous weather!  The sun was actually making an appearance in Washington, in the month of January!      

We found a cool Asian Market to pick up a few fun items.  Soon though we will just call a store like this...well the market!  If you look closely the sign Colton is pointing at says, "Balut, $1.25".  In case you are unaware of what Balut is, it is basically a duck egg with a baby chick partially developed inside that has been cooked.  Yum.  They come from the Philippines.  Mike used to eat them all the time in his lunch.  Just kidding!  We passed up on this great deal and decided to keep our money.

Mike's grandma lives 2 miles away from the ferry terminal that connects Pt Townsend and Whidbey island so we hopped on it and visited her for the night.  Colton wanted to check out the bunkers at Fort Casey so we did some exploring. 

This was our last trip on a ferry for awhile.  We were glad that we caught this one in time because the Seahawks game was about to start and we didn't want to miss it!