What's Next?

Many knew that we thought we would be adopting and in the states for the holidays.  Then things changed with that as the birthmother changed her mind.  The big question was, "Do we still go on furlough?" or  "Do we wait until we hear about another birthmother picking us?"  

Well, we thought to wait it out.  However, this past week we bit the bullet and purchased tickets for our home assignment.  Yup, we are coming back to the states for a five, yes 5, month stay.  

Our options for home assignment were:

1) 4 years Romania with 1 year back in the states.  

2)  2 years Romania with 6 months back in the states.  

We felt option one was too long for both reasons for relationships on both sides of the ocean.

We have now been in Romania for 2 1/2 years - so we are over due to get back to visit friends, family and supporters!

This past week we received a few reports from close friends and family of some health concerns. At that point we were more assured that we need to spend some good quality time with those we love back home.

We plan to spend holiday time in both Minnesota and Nebraska, with News Years back in Arizona.  Then both of us need to take some continuing education courses for our therapy license and certificates.  

Adoption News:  We are so close to the top of the list at the adoption agency that every expecting mom that goes through this agency will read our profile and letter to choose from. Please join us as we continue to pray that during our time in the states our family will grow to include a beautiful, healthy baby.  

As exciting as it is to think about being in the states it is difficult to pack up when ministry and relationships here are going so well.  Please pray for us as we pack, organize, and visit with many before we leave here.  Oh yeah, all of this in ONE WEEK.  We will depart on Dec. 6th heading to Minneapolis first.

New Place to Call Home - Again.

I had heard it said that a missionary's life consists of getting used to moving.  Not always within the same city like us, but back and forth from the states and sometimes to different towns and cities.  We have had our share of mobility in our two and half years of living here.

However, we are so happy with this present move we made.  We left behind the apartment in the block building and are now in a large 3 bedroom apartment in a house.  The neighborhood is nice and quiet with a observatory across the street.  This makes parking our van so much easier!!!  I can not even explain the increase of cars we have seen here even in the last two years.  These Romanian cities were not designed to accommodate this and in the areas of block apartments it is the worst! 

Steve has been busy with distributing wheelchairs and equipment and other ministry things with moving furniture in between.  Hence, there has been no down time for us until this past weekend.  We celebrated my (Kristi's) birthday and our new place with having friends over.  

Adoption News - is that we have not heard anything new.  We are still in the waiting mode for a birthmother to pick us.  This has changed our travel plans and we will not be in the states for the holidays.  Unless, we get a call that requests us to come immediately to pick up a surprise Christmas gift.  Thanks for your continued prayer for us and our future family.

For the time being we expect to celebrate Thanksgiving with other missionaries and Americans here in Timisoara.  

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!