Departure Date 3 WEEKS

We have finally been cleared for departure, so this in between time is now over. We embark on our final preparations including purchasing tickets and packing and stuff like that. Thank you for your prayers and support.

Our departure however does not signify the end of our need. We will still need to raise $12,000 while on the field which is increasingly difficult when Leah's beautiful face (and Kevin's too I guess) is not around to smile and communicate our passion.

We solicit also your constant prayers and would like to be praying for you constantly. Please email us with any prayer requests. Please celebrate with us that our largest one is answered.

So soon we shall depart for Mexico City!!!

Yeah.

Still Waiting...

Well, for all of you who are watching our appointments as to whether or not we have been given the clear to go, we were supposed to have found out Friday, but we did not - hopefully soon though.

On a great note, we have had some new options with language learning that allows us a little more freedom with departure dates than we had before, giving us then many more opportunities to go once the money comes in. LAM is also very pleased with the trend of finances coming in, giving us a great amount of encouragement. Having worked for a sending organization before (Kevin) and seeing the financial response that most people got there, we are above par. So, a great big thank you to our friends and family. You guys are incredible encouragers!!!

Sunday

On Sunday Kevin and I were able to share with our church and it was really neat. Not only did we get to share what we will be doing in Mexico, but also what is going on with children at risk worldwide. I was so excited to be able to share. It was a little difficult to decide what to fit in in a relatively small time slot, but I think we did a pretty good job of a broad overview. If anyone else is interested in finding out more about what is going on with children around the world a great website is www.viva.org. It is an amazing resource. So this Friday is the big day for us, we will find out whether we will be able to leave in August, or whether we will be waiting until October. Our God is a big God and I really believe that it is possible for the finances we need to come in in three days, but I am also prepared for the possibility that we might be spending a little more time state side in preparation. If we are indeed going to be staying until October one of our biggest prayer requests will be for somewhere to stay. We have been completely dependent on people's generosity in opening up their homes up until this point, which has been a huge blessing for us. We know that we are cared for and loved, and won't be living out of our car! Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

July 14

Well our visit to Miami was good, though pretty exhausting. We missed our 6:15 am flight out of LAX (long story), so we had to fly standby. The long and the short of it was that we did not reach Miami until 2 in the morning. There was no lag time, however, because we had an 8:30 meeting the next morning. All ofour meetings went well, we were able to meet pretty much everyone in the office. We signed some tax documents, asked some questions, and also talked for a couple of hours with Connie Beefus, who is in charge of member care at LAM. Over all it was really good. In the late afternoon our contact, Anne Marie, took us to see some of the beaches and then we had Cuban food for dinner, yum! Tomorrow we speak in our church. I am excited for the opportunity to let them in on what Kevin and I are going to do, but also more than anything hopefully get them inspired to care about children-at-risk. :)