can it really be?

Apparently we've been trained. It took 9 weeks but now we are ready to be deployed to East Asia to do the job we feel led to do. Do we feel ready? As ready as we possibly could! We have been on information overload for about a week now. And this week doesn't slow down one bit!

We have awesome news to share: we got the apartment we were hoping for!!!! It was finalized through the night last night. The landlord apparently kept her word and waited for us, regardless of the fact that she had received other, and better, offers. We think we will love this place. It's just nice to know that we have a home waiting for us to live in.

I think I posted pics already, but maybe I will post a few more....

After being sick with strept throat last week, Jacob is finally feeling better. We actually got to go to a waterpark on Saturday to escape the heat of the day! The kids loved it and are looking forward to spending even more fun days at grandma and grandpa Slocum's pool in GA.

We will leave Richmond on Friday to start traveling to GA. We think it will take about 11 hours! Not excited about that, but it will give us plenty of time to prepare our lists and start thinking of what comes next.

As we finish our week here, we will be leaving some precious friends behind. Actually, they will be going on to their jobs while we go on to ours. Hopefully we will be able to stay in touch, even over timezones and deep waters. We are really looking forward to the few weeks we have in GA with our precious families!

Apartment

The layout of our apartment in Asia. Our logistics guy is meeting with the landlord this week. We are HOPING all works out in our favor so that we can have THIS apartment - we kinda like it!

Master Bedroom

Our kitchen table and chairs

The Sunshine Kitchen

Not sure if we get the fridge or not - it looks like a nice one!

Hallway/Entrance into our bedroom. Bath is to the left, living room on the opposite side of closet wall

Courtyard in the center of the complex. Hannah's room, the laundry room and the kitchen look over this

Hannah's bed and bedroom

Hannah's window seat

Our living room, looking from kitchen area

Week Number 7

One night we had African worship in the fields. Jacob wanted to bring his blanket to sit on. He ended up tying it around his neck and being "SuperThomas" all through dinner and the walk to the field. So cute!

Only 5 more weeks to go!!

This is the world's tiniest grasshopper. He came to visit during the service.

Sunset one night

Sweet Sister Time

Amy and Jared visited us all the way from Louisville for a very short but sweet weekend of saying goodbye and making memories. The following pics are from our visit to a local park here in Richmond.

Such a beautiful, happy, married couple! It's only been 6 weeks and they are the picture of an incredible marriage.

My sweet angels - they loved getting off campus and just enjoying the park. Hannah kept asking, "If this is a park, where is the playground?"

It was at this moment that I realized how perfect it is that Amy and Jared will inherit our kids if something happens to us....don't they look like naturals?!

We found a HUGE fallen tree that Hannah just HAD to climb on. What a monkey!

This is the beginning of our goodbyes. First we took the kids to school where they said goodbye to my two precious children. Hannah will be 8 and Jacob will be 5 the next time they see them. It was very sad.

We laughed and hugged as we quickly said goodbye between sessions.

We took one more picture of the 4 of us in our little ILC kitchen.

We fed them breakfast

And then they apparently got a hold of our camera and took some crazy pictures. I'll spare you the details, but here is my favorite.