Who'd a thunk it?

Who would have thought, after three weeks of crying in church that I (Joy) would have made it all the way through the service today without crying? My day started out thinking about things that were never thought about. As I was heading to the church to practice my offertory I started thinking about the piano. It may not be the best piano on the planet, sure the action is stiff, but it was purchased in memory of my Grampa Wilson.
I never met Grampa Wilson (or Wentworth for that matter) - so there was no way for the family to know how much that piano would influence my life. It was from listening to that piano in church every Sunday that I developed a desire to learn myself.
As I have gotten older, watching my own children with their Grandfathers, I realize how much I missed not knowing my Grampas. I feel sort of like playing that piano is the closest I will get to him, in this world. So, I'm glad that I got the chance to play today, and that I even managed to play without crying.

Tonight is our farewell party at the church, and I doubt I'll make it through that without crying. We'll see...

Post Closing & Moving Sale Update

So we've been a bit relaxed in getting out this update.

The closing of our house happened Thursday morning/noon and went off without a problem. It was kind of funny because the loan officer who was there used to play hockey with me (Ken) a couple years ago. I recognized the face but would have recalled the name had he shown up in his hockey attire.

Beyond that we had our final moving sale today. We're pretty sure that between the two sales we moved about 75% of our stuff. It was sad to see some of it go (good memories and all) but now we don't need to worry about it.

Last night we picked up Snickers' new kennel. Ours was too small for her. Airline regs require there to be three inches above her head (standing). Her new travel house will seem like a mansion to her.

Our Dover Baptist Church family is throwing a good-bye party for our family on Sunday night (June 26th) at 6pm. All are welcome. We'd love to see as many people as possible.

I think that is all for now.

-knme

All Required Papers in hand

While doing our yard sale the postal person came with our papers from the Consulate of Guatemala (10:58am). As far as we know this gives us everything we need for our two year Guatemalan VISAs.

As of this writing the weather is holding well and our yard sale (moving sale) has been very productive.

-knme

Mostly Out

After a "fun fill" day of moving in the rain Mt Auburn is looking pretty barren.

Many thanks to Ed, Ken, Rachel, Luis, John and Nate for all the help. Without you the day would have been miserable.

Well, time to start the day...

Papers at the Consulate

I checked our tracking info tonight.... (suspense)... the papers arrived at the consulate this morning at 11:37 am.

The waiting game continues...

-knme

Back from the USDA!

We received our package back from the USDA at 9:20am today!

I'll be off to the post office with the letter and our police reports.

Please be praying for a quick turn around!

-knme

USDA Here it Comes!

The process for exporting/importing Snickers is quite involved. We have to have everything done before we travel.

Stage one was to get the Vet to complete the APHIS-7001 (international health certificate). Done.
Stage two is to send said certificate and the Rabies certificate to the USDA for endorsement. Done.

When that comes back we have stage three, to send all that off to the Guatemalan Consulate in Rhode Island for their approval. I hope to have the stuff back from the USDA by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.

Fun, fun, fun.

-knme

Appraisal Today

As Joy mentioned earlier the last hurdle for our house-sell is the appraisal. Well, that happens today at 11am.

Joy is off to the Women of Faith conference so myself, Abigail, Emma and Snickers will put the finishing polish on the house and then "get out of Dodge". I think we'll head to DBC to hang out... I have just a few things to drop in the mail.

Not too sure what we'll do from there... as it is raining cats and dogs I'm sure something inside will be in order.

I spent an hour and a quarter on the phone with Greg (CAG teacher) last night catching up on all the happenings at the school before he and his wife left for the States. There'll be just a few things for me to work on when we arrive in country. After getting off the phone with Greg (11pm) I worked on a draft plan for some of the changes and upgrades I'm proposing for the school. Finally hit the sack at 1:15am. Joy's alarm (5am) was all too unwelcome.

Very good... time to clean.

-knme

It's Official

After more than a year of waiting for this day, we spent all afternoon on the phone (not the part we were waiting for) and ended the evening with 5 one way tickets to Guatemala City. YAY!!!!!
The human part of our family will be flying out early in the morning on July 3. Snickers, our beloved dog (most of the time) will be flying out the night before. That means two trips into Boston, but that is the only way that she could be on our flight from Houston to Guatemala City. She gets to stay in a state of the art kennel, where she will no doubt get more attention and running time than she does here at home in the run of a night.

Our dear friends Andrew and Becky, and their boys, will be picking us up at the airport and bringing us to our condo. We are also planning to spend the next day with them at a waterpark, celebrating Independence Day. (Aside - I mentioned earlier to someone that we would be celebrating July 4 with them, and got the response - "Well, it won't be July 4 down there...")

For all of you that will be seeing Emma, a warning - she is convinced that her eyes are brown now. She has been saying so for days, but today she asked Aunt Susie to give her some. Susie rubbed her own brown eyes and then touched Emma's, so now she is thoroughly convinced that her eyes have changed to brown - "just like Susie's." Please, don't burst her bubble. She'll figure it out when she's old enough, or change her mind tomorrow.

Appraisal Sopray(sal)

Corny title - I just had to do it. We heard today that our next big potential issue with the house is the appraisal. Please begin praying that our house will appraise for what it was listed at (or heck, even more.) If it does not that could change our contract.

We spoke to the airline tonight and, thanks to Snickers, have to modify our plans slightly. I keep telling myself she is like one of our kids - though we wouldn't put them in a crate and stuff them under the plane. We would, however, pay to fly them and even go through a hassle if necessary. So, here we are - paying and hassling.

We will probably have to take a night/early morning flight - as in 2 flights with an overnight layover. Thankfully on the flight we are looking at the layover is long enough that we can go to a hotel and actually sleep. It means we won't get to Guate until July 3, but we will be there early in the morning which will be nice. That will give us time to find a grocery store and get some food.

Please pray for us as this is a difficult time of transition. I (Joy) have been very emotional lately about leaving my friends and family behind. I am certainly excited to finally be moving, but that is slightly tainted with sadness. Pray especially for Abigail as she goes through the process of leaving old friends and making new ones. I honestly don't know if she will ever find another friend as sweet and true and loyal as Hannah. (Hmmm...maybe if they move too she won't have to.)

Earliest leave date change

So, Snickers had her visit with the Vet today. Everything is good -- overall. However, the Guatemalan government requires her rabies be boosted within 12 months and longer than 30 days. So, instead of leaving June 29th the earliest we can leave is the 2nd of July.

We continue to ask you to pray our support team will be realized in full so we can hit this date.

Nine Days and Under Contract!

As I am the first one out of bed I actually get to beat Joy to the punch!

The title says it all. We listed our house on May 20th and had an offer on the night of May 29th. We finalized the offer over the weekend and signed the papers last night. What a huge relief!

What does this mean? Well, for anyone who spoke to us early in May you likely heard us refer to the house as an "anvil hanging over our head". Originally we were planning on renting the house while we were in Guatemala. However, there was some doubt as to if we would be able to rent it for what we would need to cover the mortgage. Should we have been able to rent it we'd then be waiting for the anvil to drop...maybe the renters got laid off or perhaps they had to move out for other reasons. We'd be left holding the bag (so to speak). Bottom line is we're just not able to handle these sorts of contingencies.

So, with the house (potentially) sold that anvil will go away. This will also change our monthly support requirements -- more on that in another post.

As things progress we'll keep you updated. This is a major step for us. One (major) step closer to use being able to leave this summer!

-knme