Two Week Countdown!

WOW! Our time is almost here! We are so excited, and crazy packing and taking care of details here and in Peru, and trying to make the most of quality time with friends and family!!

It's been a roller coaster ride the last few weeks, and the Lord is certainly preparing us to be flexible (which we are told is key to serving in Peru!!). We've had several bumps in the road with our living arrangements (here and Peru), my sweet nephew Graham got sick while staying here with us and had to be hospitalized briefly, and I could go on... but the thing that we are learning is that God is providing us with peace that He is sovereign over ALL things!!! What a comfort that has been to us. It is my only hope when things don't go my way, to know that the Lord has a better plan and He sees a BIG picture that we may never see. I just came across this verse that sums it all up: Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:21

Sweet Baby Jake

What a HUGE blessing that Baby Jake Taylor Goldman (my nephew) was born while we were in Mobile visiting on June 22. We arrived at Rebecca and Justin's home at midnight for a quick stop to sleep on our way to the beach, and one hour later Justin woke us up and said that they were headed to the hospital!! Two weeks early!! I kept thinking, wow, God really doesn't have to be this good!! It was so much fun to take Graham to the hospital the next day to see his new baby brother, and we were thrilled to see baby Jake!!

Ben coming off of a fun water slide!

Luke climbing a wall on our beach trip.

Sam wants to be big, too - until he started climbing!

We had a brief rest at the beach after moving out of the house, while Marcus was able to get the rest of his continuing education hours needed. It was a much needed break from the packing and moving, so that we could return and get back to business! The kids had fun swimming and playing in the ocean (oil-free!). Another blessing in June was a girl's getaway to Birmingham, and it was such a treat to have special time with great, sweet friends!!

And, yes, I was the Statue of Liberty in our "Almost Annual 4th of July Popsicle Parade" (I think that's the title!). It was really fun, and the kids were so glad to have a chance to be in the parade one more time before we moved. It was a great way to celebrate our nation's independence, and it will be very different next year celebrating in a different country!

So, we are on the countdown now! We fly out of Birmingham to Lima, Peru on Wed, the 28th! On Thurs, the 29th we will fly to Arequipa where we will spend about three months for language school and adjust to the culture. We are looking forward to this time for our family! In some ways it may be restful to focus on our Spanish and family time, and have a break from going a hundred different directions. The kids will be going to a Peruvian Christian school, and will (hopefully) learn Spanish by immersion. Marcus and I will be in school each day ourselves.

Please pray for our peace of mind and wisdom as we finish our last two weeks in the US!!

Peru Plans Continue...

July 28 is our official departure date!!!

We can't believe that the time is really almost here!! We fly from Birmingham to Lima, Peru on July 28 (in 6 1/2 weeks)!!!

We are so grateful for the Lord's provision of all the details! It seems surreal to think we will be living in a different country soon, not just visiting! Please pray for all for all of the details to continue to fall into place - moving out of our home, final decisions of what to pack and what to leave behind, and all of the business that needs to be taken care of! We know the Lord will provide - He has made so clear all of the details to get us to this point. We are amazed at how things continue to work out, not always as early as we would like, but His timing is perfect. What a lesson to learn!

We will be in Arequipa, Peru for language school for about 12 weeks, and following that time will fly back to Lima, then make our final move to Trujillo, Peru where we will live for about 18 months. During this time we do not plan to return to the US for any visits, and know at times this will be hard to miss family so much! This is becoming more real as the time nears for us to leave! We hope to soak up as much family and friend time as we can over the next 6 weeks amidst all of the planning and packing that continues!

Memorial Day Lake Trip

Each year Mimi and DoDad plan to take our entire family on a lake trip together, and this year it worked out for us to get together Memorial Day weekend. We usually go to Pickwick Lake or Smith Lake, but this time we traveled further south to be closer to Rebecca, since she is expecting baby #2 very soon! We had such a great trip and enjoyed hanging out together! Of course we ate lots of food, kayaked and even walked the hills, but we enjoyed relaxing (as much as you can relax with five kids in one house!) most of all! We have great memories of spending time together with Mimi and DoDad, Rebecca, Justin and Graham, and Katie and Talmadge.

Busy May!

Sam's Birthday Party in the Park

Happy 3rd Birthday to Sam!

Rebecca's Baby Shower

Cousin Time in Mobile

Shiloh National Park

Gum Tree Fun Run with Friends

Sarah Caroline and Mrs. Ginger Howe, piano teacher and friend

May was a busy time with the end of school, field trips, piano recital, cub scout awards, a family reunion, the Gum Tree Run/Festival, a day trip to Shiloh with family, and Sam's 3rd birthday!! Time flies by so fast, and we feel like the school year just began! Much has happened for our family since school started, and our children have grown up so much!!

It seems that this year had a few extra tears shed than normal, and with everything we do now, it may be the "last time" for a while! I broke down leaving sweet Calvary Baptist Preschool for the last time, and am so grateful for the seven years I have had children in school there. Leaving Church St. the last day was also emotional, and we are also thankful for the time our children spent there. We have had four different teachers at Church St. and they all hold a special place in our hearts, as well as the support staff!

I also had a great quick visit with Rebecca in Mobile so that I could go with her to her baby shower. Graham and Sam had fun having some cousin time together! It was great spending time with Justin and Rebecca and meeting their sweet friends from their church in Mobile.

It really is hard to imagine that Sam is three! He is keeping us entertained with all he has to say these days, and loves to be big like "the boys" or "his boys" (aka Ben and Luke!). If I ask him to do something he quickly responds, "I N'am." He told us this week that bananas come from monkeys, and really, that's smart, right? There is always an image of a monkey getting bananas out of trees! He has been enjoying Dr. Billy's tomatoes growing next door, and gives a report on the "potatoes" often! He is precious to us and I am heartbroken that my baby is getting so big!!

Peru Mission T-Shirts

Our sweet friend Jenny Smith has had these cute t-shirts designed as a fundraiser for our family. The t-shirts are $15/each and available in youth small, medium, and large, and adult small, med, large and X-large. If you are interested in a t-shirt, you can email Jenny at jennifer_smith1886@comcast.net or myself at marcusandwhitney@gmail.com to place your order. Checks can be made to Lawndale Presbyterian Church, or you can try the PayPal button on the right side of this blog to pay and place your order. If you are not in the Tupelo area Jenny will be glad to ship them to you! Thanks, Jenny, for the great idea and cute design!

Update on Peru Plans

Our time to move is coming closer, but not yet! We continue to clean out, pack, organize. We are making a lot of progress - I have two suitcases completely packed, we are practicing Spanish, and all of the home school curriculum has been ordered! But it is never-ending, and I suppose it will not end until we get on the plane! At this point we have not sold our home, and Marcus is going to work until July 14. Our desire would be to leave the third week of July and start language school the first week of August. We are learning (daily!) that our desires and plans are not always God's plans, and this is about Him, not us. So we must be patient and let Him unfold the details for us.

We have also been busy visiting friends and churches to raise support, and that is coming along well. We are so thankful for the Lord's provision and our friends' generosity. We are now at about 55-60% of our need for 18 months. It is encouraging and yet another reminder the Lord is leaving the doors open for us to go!

As we have visited with people, I get very teary when I see the Peru Mission video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dm_HJ7HzP0). We are ready to be there, be part of the culture, have relationships with the people there, and attempt to serve them. I was reading someone's blog last week who is working there now, and she had written such a profound reminder of what it's all about:

http://pattycakesinperu.blogspot.com/2010/03/hope.html

Greenville, SC

As part of our planning for Peru, we were blessed to have a long trip to visit Greenville, SC in March! Marcus and I lived there for three years for his family practice residency, and we absolutely love this city! We love the people there, our church, the downtown, and the scenery. We just love it and have great memories!

On our way to Greenville we stopped to visit our special friends, Dan and Mary Hoover, in Columbia, South Carolina. They have three beautiful children and we had such an encouraging visit with them. Our kids had a ball playing with them, and Mary cooked a yummy dinner AND breakfast for us all before we moved on to Greenville!

While in Greenville we stayed with our dear friends, Jim and Shelly Nichols. We had a great time visiting with them, and I might also say Shelly was a great hostess! Every time we came in she had a load of our laundry washed and folded... now that is a true friend!!

Our crew with Jonathan, Will and Jacob Nichols

The main reason for our visit was to be a part of Mitchell Road Presbyterian Church's Missions Conference. We had a wonderful time seeing old friends, familiar faces, and meeting new people as well. It was encouraging meeting other missionaries (REAL missionaries - we don't think of ourselves as REAL ones... yet). This missions conference they have annually, and we feel played a big part in giving us a heart for missions when we lived there. We loved visiting with Elizabeth and Andy Lewis, who are good friends we met in Sunday School while there. Andy is now the pastor of Mitchell Road, and they are doing a wonderful job loving and leading the people there. We also met William Castro, who is originally from Trujillo, Peru and connected with friends of Peru Mission. He came to the US for seminary and now leads Hispanic ministry at Mitchell Road and in Greenville. I could go on and on about each person we saw and how encouraging this church is.... www.mrpca.org

Visit to the Greenville Zoo

One special treat was a visit with Mrs. Ada Chapman. She was our neighbor there and is a precious lady! We had not kept up with her, and weren't sure if of what may have happened to her. When we moved away she was in her late 80's! So when we drove by we noticed that everything at her house looked the same, so we stopped by to check. She answered the door herself, and after talking for a while I asked her age - 96!!! Isn't that wonderful??? She still lives alone, and DRIVES to church and she and her sister spend the night together two or three nights a week for fun! Katie and Rebecca and I like this idea for our old age.... :)
At the end of our trip, we also made a couple of extra stops to visit friends. We drove up towards Charlotte, NC to visit with Reagan and Alan Jones for dinner and a great visit. Marcus and Alan were good friends in medical school, and we had a great time seeing them! Then we headed back south, and on our way home stopped in Atlanta for lunch with Kristy and McKay Caston. They lived in Tupelo when we first lived here, and now are planting a church in Dahlonega, GA (north of Atlanta). What an encouragement to have a week visiting with sweet friends!

Happy 6th Birthday, Luke!

Luke celebrated his 6th birthday a little early with a few friends at Chuck E Cheese! He was really excited and had a great time, but was very shy when Chuck E came out!! His real birthday was on March 5, and we celebrated with cake and went to the zoo in Greenville, SC! Luke has grown up so much, and we love him dearly!!

MSU Basketball!

Boys watcing for Jarvis after the game, hoping for a high five!

This basketball season we were able to go to few home games, and it was a lot of fun! We are a bit sentimental, and so the last game we were able to go to, we took all four kids even though it was a Wed night at 8:00! We must be crazy! But it was fun, and the kids enjoy being at MSU, and Sam says "Mississippi State" the cutest way when we drive on campus. They also love the ice cream, and are sad there won't be MSU ice cream in Peru. It was a fun night, with some NCAA records broken!!

Happy 60th Birthday, DoDad!

Sweet DoDad, my dad, celebrated his 60th birthday on February 17th! We got to have a night out with my parents, Rebecca and Justin, and Katie and Talmadge, and celebrated together in Oxford for dinner. We love DoDad so much, and appreciate all that he has done for all of us. He is a wonderful person, and has been a great father and grandfather!