Category: Travel

Yep…you read that right. We are going to visit the good old US of A on Monday! How can that be, you ask!? Well, legally an embassy is considered to be part of the sending country and not the host country. And why do we get to do this you ask? Well, I forgot my passport in my pocket when we returned from Greece and it got washed (I’ll post some pictures later).

I talked to the Embassy today and they told me I needed to get a new one. ARG! This means a trip to the Embassy in Belgrade (the US). Too bad we can’t get reese cups or oreos while we are there!

Wow. It hardly seems like three weeks have passed since we left the International Learning Center. As I have written before, we finished our training on 2 April and left our previous home to travel around and visit friends, family, and places. Since then, internet access has been spotty, but I managed to blog a few times since then. This post is an account of what our week looked like two weeks ago. So much has happened, I don’t really know where to start. What follows is more of a brain dump than a “real” post, but I hope it helps clue you in to what has been going on in our lives.

  

Lydia turned one at the start of training. In the middle of training, she also decided to give up her bottle all on her own.

I found some interesting humour on the internet.

We blew way by the 1000 post mark on maxsons.org!

I needed new glasses so we spent some time picking them out. It turns out they were wrong so I had to send them back.

We were invited to visit the WVCSB Evangelism Conference in Cross Lanes. We don’t have any pictures, but we had a wonderful opportunity to meet different people in the state. Before this, I knew the people I knew, but not many others. Being from the great state of WV, we had a wonderful opportunity to meet people.

We met even more people when we went to Faith Baptist Church in West Union, WV. We went there one Sunday just because it was the closest Southern Baptist Church to Berea, WV where my grandpa lives. Not only did we get to meet even more wonderful people and share about our travels overseas, but we made many friends while we here too.

We found out that God provided a place for us to live. We don’t know the address yet, but we’ll let you know when we know.

We purchased a cell phone that will function as a VoIP phone overseas in addition to simply being a cell phone. I won’t bore you with all of the technical details, but what this means is that you can call a US phone number (773-801-5334) and ring my cell phone overseas without paying for an international phone call. We can also call the US without paying for an international call thanks to technology. God is shrinking the world all the time and removing barriers so more and more people are without an excuse to say No to Him.

We were able to visit the Creation Museum. We had been wanting to do this since it opened and had the opportunity while we were in Cincinnati. This is an awesome exhibit put together by Answers in Genesis to not only reveal the real history of the Earth and Universe but to share the Good News that Jesus came to save men and restore their relationship with God.

We were able to hook up with some old friends while we were in Cincinnati too. We had a great visit with my college roommate and his wife. We hadn’t seen them since we both moved from Columbus almost three years ago.

We spent tons of time traveling around to visit family. This was the hardest part of the entire time. We saw people we weren’t going to see again for two years and had to say goodbye. That was rough.

We played phone tag with another old friend of mine in Huntersville, WV. The church (FBC Huntersville) agreed to pray with us as we are going. We wanted to get to see them, but it didn’t work out. 🙁

In all of this, we had a great time. It was awesome to see how God worked things out and gave us the opportunity to do many exciting things. We also didn’t get to do lots of things we wanted to do.

We leave the US on 27 April. Please pray for us as we go. We are excited and terrified at the same time. We don’t know what to expect; however, God knows what lays in store for us. He has ordered everything as He has been present many times over.

Today we started by taking a look at the mower the brke while we were mowing Uncle Doug’s place. Turns out that the entire bearing unit had sheared off the mower deck. So, we took that off and set it asside…we figure we can order a replacement at Marietta Ignition. After that, we started mowing the field next to the house (the horses used to be there, but they went up to the farm). Well, after about 30 minutes, the mower broke so we spent some time working on that. It turned out that the bolt holding the middle blade to the shaft wouldn’t tighten up. We looked around for a replacement, but didn’t find one. It was just about lunchtime, so we took a break and eat.

After lunch, we made a trip to Harrisville. We got some replacement bolts (they proved to be too long, but that is for another time), gas, sugar (to make food for the bees), and grass seed. We spent the afternoon discing up the field. Once that was done, we sowed some grass seed in it and drug it to cover the seed up. We figured it was going to rain tomorrow so we can spend the day working on the mower.

I talked to Cyndi a few times. I’m currently trying to get some new glasses before we head overseas. I didn’t get that done before we left Richmond and that is turining into a hassle. We are also looking at buying a cell phone before we leave here (I’d like a camera phone with mp3 player that will work via wifi to get this slick program to work on the phone).

I don’t know what we are going to do tomorrow. We need to work on the mower. I’m sure there is also several other things we need to do, but I don’t know what that is right now. I’ll write more tomorrow morning and evening.s

Well, our training is finally over. Today is our “graduation” of sorts.

If you are in the Richmond area and want to swing by the ILC, come on out. It starts at 2pm. We’ll post pictures and more later this evening.

Yesterday we were given an opportunity to go into DC. For us, it was neat, but not very different. Having lived in Richmond for two years, we had been to DC several times (though never with Lydia). But, for others in our training class, it was a first: first time in DC, first time on a Metro/subway, etc….

We took some busses to DC and were dropped off at Union Station. For more information about that, see this post. We had some tasks we had to accomplish relating to observing/helping internationals, etc…. But we also took some time for a bit of sightseeing. If you want to see some pictures, they are below… 

It was a great experience and we were able to help a few people and just model Christ’s love by having a good attitude and being kind and friendly.

We did a tremendous amount of walking (except for Lydia!), including a few extra blocks when we got turned around coming out of the metro station.  Our time was really flying and it was way past time for lunch when we realized there were no “international” restaurants in sight.  So we ended up at Chipotle 🙂  Not exactly an adventure in ethnic cuisine, but it sure was tasty!

It was nice to enjoy some familiar landmarks and we are especially thankful that the rain held off until the end of the day.  It was overcast and a little breezy at times, but it was a nice early spring day and we were on the metro headed back to Union Station before the first drop fell!

We are also very thankful that Lydia is such a good traveler.  We were on a tour bus with no seatbelts, which meant no car seat.  Safety wasn’t as big a concern as keeping her entertained, but she did great…just playing, snacking, getting passed around…  It was a pretty fun time for all of us:^)

Lydia and Cyndi looking at the US Capitol	YAY! We are in Washington DC!
The Jefferson Memorial as we are on our way to Union Station
The Indonesian Embassy looks just like a house from the outside	While in DC, we saw Marine One flying.
Lydia in front of the Washington Monument	Lydia with President Lincolin
Lydia and the Mall	Just some random Lydia picture to fill up space
Lydia and the bus ride	Our friends were very helpful
First time on the Metro!	Lydia even did a good job standing up
We ate lunch at a Chipotle
It was hard riding in the stroller all day	Asleep on the way home

We had a great time, but, right now, it is time for breakfast. I’d better get going so I we can eat and get everyone ready for class today. I imagine we’ll blog more about it later.

We had some friends invite us over for dinner last weekend. We had a great time! Thanks again for the good food and fellowship.

Today was the first of three shot days for us. There are TONS of stuff to get shots for! At first glance, it doesn’t make sense for us to get all of these shots; however, when you start looking deeper, some of them (like the rabies shots we have to get) can prevent some very expensive treatment later on.

Oh, yes, Lydia had to get them too. Below are some pictures we took of the event:

That Hurt!	Even Lydia Got Shots

Or are we there? Well, the good thing is we are somewhere! We’ll post some more information later; however, we moved into our training facility on Monday (today is Tuesday, I know….) We begin the sessions tomorrow. Basically, this training is to teach us a bit about culture shock, moving overseas, legal matters, how to adjust, etc….

Oh, Lydia’s first birthday was Monday. We’ll get a post about that (and her 1 year doctor visit) up, hopefully by the end of this week.