Packing, Praying and Parenting

I must apologize for the lack of recent posts. My time the last 45 days or so has been spent packing, parenting and praying.

Parenting is definitely the most entertaining of these three. Yesterday, Henry (who is 2) walked past me in the kitchen, carrying a large Mr. Potato Head in one hand and a length of plastic vacuum sweeper tubing in the other. As he sat the Potato Head on the floor, carefully turning it around to face him, he said, 'Mom, I'm going to fight the potato.' He said this very seriously.

He then proceeded to step back, adjust the angle of the potato again, and then began beating it with the tube a la the 'Office Space' scene where they take the printer out to the field and demolish it as Feels Good to be a Gangster rocks in the background. Henry is a fun kid. He also loves to help and is pretty good at organizing and cleaning up with a little instruction.

Ruby loves to draw and is very good at it. Our floor is littered with paper covered on both sides with monsters, families, Super Readers and anything else she thinks of. She is also starting to read and is interested in piloting her own plane. She is torn between being a pilot and an artist when she is an adult, but I assure her that since she is four years old, there is time to grow into who she will be. Much of my non-active parenting time has been spent reading books about Aspberger Syndrome, which seems to be where Ruby is right now.

Packing is fun at times but not as much fun as parenting. Most of what we are taking is going in 18-gallon Rubbermaid totes, and the goal is to pack 20-28 of them full, weighing between 45-48 pounds apiece to stay within airline regulations for checked baggage. The cost of shipping this way comes out to $63 per cubic foot, but the big pro to this method is that everything is with us when we arrive, versus waiting on a ship to arrive months later. If we didn't have children, we might wait for the shipment. But settling in as soon as possible is important to the kids, or I'm thinking it will be. This will surely be the topic of future blogs once we're on the ground. :)

The packing process began with all our belongings piled in our living room. Think about moving everything in your house to the living area and you see where we are.

First, we sorted through and put everything we thought we wanted to keep in one pile. And when I say we I really mean I. After the keeper items were separated, the other items were sorted by where they were to go - recycle, resale, thrift store, trash.

Next, I went through the keeper pile and identified items that can be made or replaced easily in Africa. Children's drums, curtains and step stools went into this category. Also, I removed keepsakes like wedding gift vases, childhood memorabilia and the like and took those to live with family.

Speaking of family, Buddy Lee has been sent to live with Len's parents and I miss him terribly. This may cause tears or emotional outbursts without warning. Be warned.

Now I'm focused on finishing up packing totes, taking inventory of each one and labeling them to hopefully ease moving into our home in Dar, which has been rented as of February 1. It is a nice little ranch house with three bedrooms, and it's just sitting there waiting for us!

We're at 75% funding and at 90-95% we buy our plane tickets. Len and I have been praying and working on this, and God-willing, we will be in Dar in March! We are ready to get there and begin the transition...having been in transition since we moved here (to a friend's guest house) in August, we are ready to begin transition to a longer-term place before this feels too home-y.

We are praying fools and this year has brought unwarranted blessings and praises and also tragic requests and needs; thank you all who have trusted us to pray for your needs and also those who rejoice with us. Len and I were talking tonight about how God has blessed us with friends beyond our wildest dreams, dear friends with whom we share life. Thank you!