Farewell Weekend

Here we are already at the middle of the week time is in warp now.  I know I should be doing other things to prep for furlough but at the same time the need to blog a history of our last few days here before furlough can't be resisted. 

Now that much of the house is boxed up for storage we're able to focus on packing suitcases.  Not an easy task for a family of 10 but added to that is trying to figure out what to bring.  The need to bring clothes that are in decent shape but ones we can leave behind in the states after they are replaced by newer clothes is also a consideration. 

I'm beginning to run out of steam.  I never sleep well before a trip.  Even though I have lists I fret that I'll forget something....something important.

This past weekend was a good diversion for me to not fret about packing.  We had 4 farewell parties.  The one for me was on Friday night (you can read Mi Depedida post for that). 

We didn't have church on Sunday morning because of the run off elections so Saturday night we had a sleepover for Kaitlin with 11 girls.  They started off the night at the beach.  Before they left to swim the girls presented Kaitlin with a signed poster and a picture of all of them.  Then they spent the night awake - laughing and having a good time together.  I made coffee cake for them for breakfast and then they all stayed for lunch.

Sunday night was much different....we had a house full of teen guys.  And, well, we knew it by the guy odor and the exhibition of testosterone.  HA!  Not too mention they are much louder.  And they break things.  The guys played spoons and soccer and whatever else guys do.  Scott fixed them two sauce spaghetti which they all ate ravenously.  Then they broke a window with a baseball and left scared after I called out, "BRANDON SCOT".  Poor guy it wasn't even him. 

Though the broken window was an unwanted extra task Scott was once again able to make contact with the glass man.  We've said all this time, "The glass man needs to be saved."  And we've kept that guy in business for the 3 years we've lived here!  And we continue to pray for his salvation.

Monday night the couples in the church had an asado (BBQ) in our honor.  The meat was great but even better was the time of fellowship.  Things got really silly after the meal was over.  We're so thankful for people that we can laugh and have fun with!  God has blessed us richly to be able to wet our feet, so to speak, with people who have been so understanding of who we are - imperfect sinners saved by grace, learning to live in another country who make all the mistakes of those learning a new culture and learning to do the work of the ministry on the foreign field - and still loving us at the end of it all!