D-Day Update

What a blur!!! It did not look like we would make it out of town on our scheduled date of departure but...by the grace of God and help from unbelievable friends, we made it.

Five hours behind schedule at about 11 am this morning Joy, Kerry, Jacy Klaire, Judah, Josie Kate, Jaxon, and a God-sent 18 year old short term mission partner Liz Johnson set out on our journey towards Haiti.

Joy was up all night with her cousin Tricia trying to get everything packed. I got about 3 hours of sleep then we spent the morning fighting tears and struggles to finally make it out the door.

We are currently sitting in a hotel room in Savannah, GA. I was still cramming stuff into every nook and cranny I could find on the bus and weighing bags right up until we pulled out of the driveway. I would have to say it was every bit as difficult as we thought it would be to get gone.

We really did not get everything done we wanted to get done but we had so many friends agree to come in and fill the gap to finish things up. We still have things to get rid of and the house is still a mess in many areas but this weekend was truly a blessed time. We got so much more done than I thought we could but God is good!

At about 11:00 last night I realized I had forgotten to get a form notorized that I have to have to drop off the bus. So I spent a couple of hours this morning getting that done. Who knows what else we have forgotten to do... BUT we are out of Hickory with the bus and well on the way. We are so humbled by the support we have recieved. From financial backing from our church and others to a powerful prayer time last night by the people from Moriah Baptist down the road from our house. God really sent the right people at the right time to get things done.

As we expected, telling the family bye was the hardest part. It was SO much easier since we knew we would be back in October for the missions training and conferences. But, it still did not make the time with our older kids easy. They are struggling, as expected, but we are trusting by faith that God is going to do great and mighty things through it. We appreciate everyone's prayers for Logan, Megan, and Luke.

We will get to West Palm Beach tomorrow. If we get there in time, we will drop the bus off tomorrow. If not, we will drop it off Wednesday morning. Then we want to visit a couple of ministries we will be working with. We will rendevous with Tracy Robinson and his daughter Kristen and Julie in Miami on Wednesday night and then fly out on Thursday morning.

It is still a bit surreal at the moment but we are starting to get over the stress of packing and getting the first step behind us. The next couple of days should be exciting to say the least.

We'll have a full report and some pictures posted soon.