And so it begins....

Hello my friends! Thank you for joining us on the amazing journey that God has set before us. We have had so many friends asking how they can keep up with us, and how they can pray for us. We hope that this blog will help you with both!

Let me catch you up on the all that has unfolded in the past couple months. God has done AMAZING things in our lives. I will try to be brief (as many of you know, that's not my strong point! :) ), but still give you the details needed to understand where we are and what we are doing. As I look back, I am in awe of how the Lord has shown He is such a personal God! He is alive and active! Look at what He has done! As you read, I pray that you will see the hand of our Lord along the pathway of our journey...

As many of you know, it has always been in our hearts to someday go overseas as missionaries. We've been waiting (sometimes patiently, sometimes impatiently!) for His perfect timing in that. In November of 2008, God began to move in our hearts that it was time to pursue the dream that He had planted in our hearts. We began the process of applying with the International Mission Board (IMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention. It is an incredibly tedious process, and it takes about a year from start to finish. The Lord opened door after door, making it so clear that THIS is the time.

After hours of filling out applications, writing paper after paper and attending interview after interview, we were informed that the IMB could not accept us into the program because of Nathan's (our second son) Cerebral Palsy. Wes called this "Black Monday," and it felt like our dreams were crumbling around us. Because our call to go was so strong, we couldn't leave it at that. We pursued it a little bit farther, and God miraculously opened the door for us to proceed.

We were then asked to make the choice as to where we wanted to go ... anywhere in the world. How does one even begin to do that? We prayed for wisdom and began looking at all the requests from all over the world. Wes suggested that we each go through and pick out our top 5 (out of hundreds). After a couple hours, we came back together and 3 out of 5 actually matched! (Another miracle of God??? :) ) Our top 3 were: Finland, Spain, and Hungary. We narrowed it down to Finland and Spain, and we talked (Skype is great!) with both missionary couples. It was quite a difficult decision, but the Lord finally made it clear: we would go to Spain!

Soon after that, we were invited to "Candidate Conference." The conference allowed us to check out the IMB more closely, as well as allowed the IMB to check out US more closely! They flew us into Richmond for a week, and we had the chance to meet with others who were walking the same path. It was amazing to see how God knit our hearts together in just a matter of days... there's something about talking and praying with others who share the same passion. We were so grateful for the opportunity and the new friendships! During the conference, we attended many informational sessions, as well as quite a few personal interviews. At the end of the week, we found out that that the staff had given us a "thumbs up" and we were going to be recommended to the Trustees. Whew! What a week! But it was just the beginning...

The weeks prior to Candidate Conference, we were packing and having garage sales. It was actually quite insane! :) We sold the majority of our belongings... in faith that God would open the doors for us to be missionaries! The call was so clear in our hearts, but one just never knows the path God might ask us to walk in order to get us somewhere we never expected. Thankfully, we did get the "thumbs up" at Conference!!

God worked out the details for our home in CA to sell at exactly the perfect time. (We actually signed the paperwork while we were at the conference!) We came home from the conference on a Saturday, said goodbye to our precious friends at Grace Baptist on Sunday morning, loaded the moving truck on Sunday afternoon, and pulled out for the cross country drive on Monday! Chelle's parents had flown in on Saturday to help us drive the moving truck all the way across the country to their home in Virginia. We were making memories!!!!! :)

God was so gracious, and the kids did so well with the traveling. As He always does, the Lord timed the trip for the perfect week. Wes' brother is in the army, and Wes hadn't seen him in about 15 years. Chelle and the kids had never even met him!! Paul (Wes' brother) was on vacation the week we were driving across country, and his home provided the perfect half way stop in our adventure! Chelle and the kids got to meet Paul and his sweet wife Devyn. They have two boys, Jordan and Jonah, and all the cousins had a blast together. They live in Oklahoma City (as I said, EXACTLY half way directly on our route home!) It was such a special time for our family. Paul was actually getting shipped out a day after we left so it was MIRACULOUS timing. :)

We made it back to VA, and Wes helped the family get settled. We unloaded and loaded and unloaded the moving truck over and over as we got stuff situated in storage AND in Chelle's parent's home. Wes left after a week to go back to CA and finish things up at the church there. It was a LONG month apart, but we all survived it (barely... ;) ). During that month in CA, God (again) orchestrated His perfect timing in selling our second vehicle. We had left it in CA when we drove across country, b/c Wes needed to drive something while he lived there for the month. God sold the Toyota Tundra two days before Wes left CA to come back and join us. We have been so in awe of how God has taken care of us. Wes came home the last day of June and the next day, we all set out for a two week vacation in upstate NY, where Chelle grew up.

We had a wonderful time with our extended family in a cabin in the woods near Skaneatelas Lake! During our week at the lake, the IMB Trustees met and voted on us... whether to recommend us for appointment or not. We received a call on July 8th that we had been recommended for Appointment in September!!!! What a joyous day!... THAT was a day for fireworks! :) And that marks the beginning of our great journey...