An Exciting Announcement!!

NO Ruth is NOT pregnant!!!!  NO we are not adopting a new child into our family!!!

As of the beginning of May we are now home owners in 2 different countries!!!   We were able to buy a house here in Papua New Guinea from a family that has lived here for 20 yrs.  He has worked in the Aviation department as a mechanic. She has worked in the schools doing various tasks.  They've  had 1 son graduate from UIS and their daughter is graduating with Meliah's class.

This mom's thoughts, concerns, prayers on the upcoming furlough

In the missionary world, this is true across the board, the task of preparing for furlough takes a lot of brain cells with all the decisions that need to be made.

• Every item you pick up is saying you need to make a decision about me.  Are you going to pack me, store me for future use, give me away to some other needy missionary or national, is this a pack me for furlough or a pack me for storage and last but not least, "will I need it in the next couple months?" 
• You stand in the store and say to yourself, I don't like this time in my life.  I don't want to ponder every item in my cart-if it will be used up before then, or will it store ok, or do you want to share a bag with me to a friend who is going furlough at the same time.  It is almost like a Go Fish game.  Do you have a bag of flour, yes.  Do you have a small amount of chili powder?  No Go Fish (to store). 
• You count the cans in your pantry and figure out how many more days you have till you leave and try to think through the variable of how many meals will you be invited to. You do the same with the meat in your freezer.  Who says that Algebra isn't used in real life???  Ok, I don't think I will stretch the math concept that far.   
• You spend hours and hours on the computer figuring out college things. Google maps is on your favorites tool bar because you are trying to figure out how far it is to point A, then B then C. And how you can throw a map lesson or a history lesson into the stops as you travel. After a long morning or afternoon on the computer you are frustrated because nothing was taken off the to do list but 10 things were added.   Your brain is mush and you go walk around the house to try to put items in boxes.  
• When your child comes home from school with their shoe being held together with masking tape and all you can say is, xx amount of days left, keep the duct tape close by for repairs.

• You go to hang up laundry outside and anything with elastic is stretched out past recognition, your undergarments are holding together with very little material, the white clothes are now a brown- well that is what you think that piece started out as white.  Anything that had color in it is now down to a pale likeness of that item.