Overwhelmed with Community

What a weekend!  Gosh, we are only going away for 3 months but you would think we were moving away forever, the way we are being celebrated and honored with sendoffs!  I am completely overwhelmed with thankfulness for all of our friends and family here in KC who seem to care that we are leaving!  Friday night a group of neighbors had a little shin-dig here in the hood which was very fun.  Saturday, our church of 20 years, Heartland Community Church, was having an all elder meeting and they asked us to come get prayed for as they sent us off.  It was so special and really meaningful to us.  (Thanks to all of you who were there!)  Saturday evening we got to spend a fun evening with Ethan's brother Alex and his wife Nancy, and their daughter Sarah.  After that a bunch of neighborhood/kids' school guys went out to give Ethan another sendoff!  We had a great last lunch (for Ethan anyway) with my parents today, then a wonderful time with a long time family small group for dinner this evening, where they also prayed over us for our time away.  All of you are making us feel so completely cared for and part of such community here, that of course we will return and not decide to stay in Australia!!!  :)  Although I'm sure it will be tempting!  I can't leave out several lunches that I have this week (yes I'll be dieting a bit once I get down there after all of these great meals out!) with so many of my girlfriends who I will miss terribly while we're gone.  But believe me, I do know that 3 months will go SO fast and we will be back here in no time!  At least I need to keep telling myself that during the hard homeschooling moments...

Ethan is getting packed and leaves on Tuesday.  Then it will really feel real, once I have to deal with the 15 hour time change to try and find times to communicate with him, and I'll be getting packed for all of us after that.  We are so excited but just really anxious to get there!

This week our dear friends, Seth and Andrea Sears will be moving into our house.  I don't think I have mentioned in the blog yet that these good friends of ours for many years (Seth and I went to school from kindergarten through high school together) are missionaries in Costa Rica.  They have been down there for about 3 years so far, and have just recently returned to KC for a break from ministry until January.  For a few months before they came home several of us were trying to figure out housing for them and their 3 kids while they are here.  Little did we know that God would bring this opportunity to Ethan through his work, giving the Sears' a place to stay for at least a large chunk of their stay in the states!  We are all thrilled that God designed this to happen, so they will move in this week while I'm still here to go over some of the little details about our house before the kids and I leave.  What a win-win for all of us!

I know these pre-Australia posts are quite boring so I'll try to be quiet until the fun stuff starts up.  That's all for now!