Monday, April 1

I apologize for the delay in posting. Some of you may have heard our news, but for those who have not, the sale of our house fell through. This means that we will not be moving to Ecuador as soon as we thought. This does not mean that we are giving up. Our house is now back on the market and we are doing whatever we can to move. We have decided that we will be switching to the local Spanish congregation next week. This way we can improve our Spanish and be able to make the move to Ecuador smoother.

Monday, February 4, 2013

  So our Internet has been down for about a week so I am only now being able to update. Saturday was our Special assembly day and so we were able to say goodbye to the friends in the circuit. We also had the privilege of going out to eat with the Bethel speaker and his wife and our Circuit overseers. We had a wonderful time! It was very encouraging and up building hearing the speakers experiences. 

                Yesterday we went to the local police department in order to get fingerprinted. This is because we need a criminal background check and a fingerprint card is necessary in order to attain it. So the five of us headed to the police department expecting it to be a quick thing. We were able to quickly get back to the room where the fingerprinting takes place. My dad volunteered to go first so he grabs a fingerprint card that already has our names on it and proceeds to get fingerprinted. When this process is completed I noticed that I was currently holding a card that had my dad’s name on it. So I mention this to my dad and that is when he sees that the card he was using belonged to my brother. This meant that the process had to be repeated using the correct card. After him, I was fingerprinted. When I was done the policeman noticed that my fingerprints were not defined enough while using this ink. This meant I had to go to the actual JAIL in order to be fingerprinted. The other three had no issues being fingerprinted and so after they were done we headed to the jail so I could be properly fingerprinted. While I was waiting for the ink to be spread I saw the white backdrop with heights marked. The policeman allowed me to get a “mug shot”. Jackson was also able to do this. Throughout the whole process I was taking pictures. 

           

Sunday, February 24, 2013

      It was a week ago today we received an offer on our house. This is very exciting because we have been trying to sell our house in order to move to where the need is greater. Over the past two years we have showed our house with the hope of reaching our goal of moving. And finally last Sunday, we received an offer. And later on in the evening we had a contract on our house! Now one week later we have bought plane tickets, leaving April 23. This leaves us with about two months to pack up our entire lives and begin a new one 2,728 miles away. 

      This isn't your typical move. Moving abroad is much more difficult and stressful. Because of the cost of shipping items to Ecuador, the items you bring with you on the plane are basically all you have. For us this means that our entire lives need to fit into two duffel bags each. Keep in mind that they cannot weigh more than 50 pounds a piece. This means that we are basically starting over again in a foreign country. The majority of what we pack needs to be clothing and shoes. This is mainly because we will not be able to find a lot of clothes and shoes in our size.

      This is an exciting chapter in our lives, and we only have two months to prepare for this adventure. Thankfully we are not alone in this move. Over the years we have, through the Internet, come in contact with others that have made this move for the same reasons. They have been really helpful when it comes to finding out what all is needed in order to make this move successfully. From the simple things to the big things, it is made it much easier  knowing that others have done this and that they can help us know what this move actually entails. 

      I will be posting on this blog throughout these two months, and hopefully continue it after we move to Cuenca, Ecuador.