Bye bye America!

I'm posting this from the plane as we sit on the Seattle Tarmac! We are thankful that we had fun times visiting with friends and family the last few months...although it never seems like long enough. We will miss you all! Our next post should be from Africa! Thanks for all of your prayers and support! If you haven't already, sign up for our newsletter to keep in touch!

Almost!

In one week we will be on a plane over the ocean on our way to Africa! Right now it seems impossible with all the things we need to do before we leave...but it'll all be over soon! Just hoping we don't forget anything major...at least we have internet, phones, and planes these days. Its hard to imagine what it was like moving to Africa 100 years ago. Despite the anxiety we are feeling now, we really do have it easy! Right now we have very limited Internet, but we will post more when things settle down. :).

Blessings in da skies

So, I'm feeling pretty blessed right now. We just left Kentucky and are on our way to Philadelphia. The conference we were just at in Louisville was full of great people. People we know and people we had the privilege to meet. Last year when we went to this conference we were not sure where would be going in the next year and we knew almost no one that was going to be there. We talked with many people and were more confused about where we would go than before we started. This year was different. We brought two people with us and had tons of friends that we knew would be there. We brought Tab's brother and our friend from Seattle, Mindy. Mindy is in the medical profession and was wondering about how she could get more involved in doing medicine overseas. We introduced her to people and walked with her from booth to booth to find organizations that she can serve with. By the end of the conference she had found several places that she would like to go.
At some point in the conference we got an update on our support raising. I was overwhelmed by the generosity of our friends. We still have a lot of support to raise, but the numbers on that sheet greatly exceeded my expectations. Some of the names on the list were familiar, and we thank you for your support. There were some names on the list we do not know. Perhaps we should know who you are, but we don't. You should let us know who you are. Anyways, thank you so very much for the generosity and support that you guys have shown us over the previous months. We appreciate it.
The last hour that we were at the conference we ran into the several people that work at the hospital we are going to. Up until this moment we had never actually met anyone that had been to our hospital for more than a month or so. Now we know four. It was great to meet all of them. It actually makes me feel a whole lot better knowing at least one person that will be there when we arrive.
Before we left Kentucky we did some fun stuff like eating at Culvers, and a fancy Bavarian type restaurant. We also visited Churchill Downs and watched the horsies.

The finish line at Churchill Downs.

This place was not what I expected. It was full of rich people impressing each other and what appeared to be unsuccessful gamblers.  

Mindy and I eating food

From Kentucky

In less than a month we will be in Africa. We still have much to do before we leave. Most notably Tab's oral boards in November and our long drive back to Washington. Right now we are in Louisville, Ky. In the past two weeks we have been in North Carolina, Birmingham AL, Savannah GA, Williamsburg VA, Cincinnati OH, and now Louisville KY. It was great to catch up with our long time friends in Birmingham that we haven't seen in years. It was a pleasure to be the first visitors to our recently transplanted Seattle friends in Savannah. We spent a week Tab's sister in Williamsburg. There's plenty about them on this blog already. While we were there, we went trick or treatin', celebrated two birthday parties, and celebrated a Christmas/Thanksgiving complete with presents for the kids Christmas music, pumpkin pies, and mini turkeys (Cornish hens). In Cincinnati  we visited one of Tab's former co-residents.
We are at the global health missions conference. Our friend from Seattle has come to the conference with us. And so has Tab's brother, he's actually been traveling with us for a few weeks now. It's great to have him around especially if there is something heavy that needs lifting. We are having a great time. We will be having an even better time after Tab has finished her board exam on the 14th. Right now, we are enjoying our time with friends and family.

Ode to CIT

Expectations are everywhere. I expected to post to this blog more than once a month. I expect someone to read it. If our expectations are too high, we get disappointed. If they are too low we may avoid doing something worthwhile. Managing our expectations is important. The last month or so we went through a cross cultural training program. When we first arrived, we were not sure what awaited us. Initially I felt there was a good chance we would not get along with many of the people there. I had been to places like this before. An obscure organization like this in the middle of no where, not far from the filming location of The Hunger Games. The chances of finding people that like us could be hard. That first night we settled in and resigned ourselves to only having to be there for four weeks, then we could continue on with our road trip. That first day everyone seemed to have already made friends. Well, it took a while but we finally broke in. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that most everyone there was awesome and just like us. They were moving away from everything and everyone they had ever known to live in place that they don't know or understand. They wanted to understand it, they wanted to know it. And that is why they were all there.
This is the moment where my expectations were exceeded. Over the next six weeks (we extended our stay by two weeks) our friendships deepened. The classes were great, thanks to great facilitators and our classmates' enthusiasm for the topics. Most nights were spent sharing meals together, playing games, and just getting to know each other. As they say, all things must pass. And so did this. The last day saying good bye was sad. So in the end, we loved it. What did you expect? Thankfully, there's Facebook!

These are those peeps. Some are not pictured, such as A.J., Chessy, Erica, the Espositos, Carneys and some others. But, yeah, this is most of them. 

Time is flying! We have one more week in North Carolina before we are back on the road visiting folks and eventually making our way back to Washington.  Luke has been learning a lot about language...creating new sounds using parts of his throat that he didn't know existed and using new words like "fricatives."  And, hopefully, learning lots of good tools to make Hausa learning more of a success. Three months is not long enough to learn a language, but that is how much time we'll have so we're going to do our best.  While he's been in class, I've been trying to study for oral boards. In reality, I've been applying for our visas, filling out paperwork, and working on our packing list. Maybe this week I'll get some good study time in because November 14th is only getting closer. Yikes. 

Fall is here...

Fall has arrived in North Carolina!  I have a pumpkin on our porch, a pumpkin spice candle burning, and ingredients for pumpkin cupcakes. The leaves are brilliant colors- green, yellow, orange, and red and there is a fall chill in the air. It reminds me that the summer has come to a close and soon (in 52 days) we will be flying to the land of perpetual sunshine and heat.

After four weeks of the CIT Equipping for Cross-cultural Life and Ministry course, I feel woefully unprepared to join a new culture. Don't get me wrong. The class was awesome, the instructors were fantastic, and we learned a ton of valuable information and tools. I would recommend it to anyone serving overseas. However, I also learned so much about the difficulties of ministering cross-culturally and about my own weaknesses. I reinforced to me that it is all about Jesus...and only He can make our ministry worthwhile. The good thing is, He is already there working and we just get to join in!!!

We spent the weekend at The Cove in  the mountains near Asheville at a conference called "Prescription for Renewal." Here are a few pictures from this weekend at The Cove:

Fall decorations :)

Billy Graham has the key to the city of Seattle...good to know in case we get locked out

On the porch overlooking the mountains

Luke was excited to find out that Billy is a Cowboys fan

Knitting and Knotting

The first day of class at CIT, they gave each of us a toy to play with if we needed something to do with our hands. Three weeks later, many of the women have started knitting in class. Although I'm not proficient at knitting, I can tie surgical knots!

Knitting ladies

My knotty doll

North Carolina

Greetings from North Carolina! After a four jolly weeks in Virginia, we have settled in to our new abode in at CIT We'll be here for six weeks total (we've already been here for three)-time is flying!

We are staying in one section of a Triplex on the CIT campus and it is awesome. For the first time in our married life we have a dining room, bedroom, living room, and china.  Yes, I said china!  Most of the cooking and baking supplies are a mish-mash of varying qualities that were probably donated over the years. Our dishes happen to be very nice silver and white china. Its fun eating on them although I discovered, after burning my finger on a tea-cup, that silver filigree gets quite hot in the microwave!

Our time at CIT has been eye-opening...we are learning a lot and mostly discovering how complex cultures are. We are getting lots of tools, concepts, and ideas that will help us adapt and communicate. As a bonus, we have found that a lot of the stuff we are learning also applies to marriage! :)

For your entertainment, here is an interpretation of an event from the worldview of a nail:

We have a date!

We thought getting shots made our trip seem real... but purchasing plane tickets just sealed the deal.  Yikes! We're super excited (and perhaps a little bit terrified) to have plane tickets to Africa. We fly out of Seattle the first week of December.

After some fun, relaxing times in Williamsburg, we are now picking up the pace of preparation. For the next few days we are in Charlotte, NC learning more about the missions organization SIM. Then,  we travel to the mountains of North Carolina for four weeks of training in cross-cultural ministry.  All the while, I'll be studying for oral boards, which I will be taking in Philadelphia on November 14th.

Thanks again for all of your prayers and support, hopefully we will be able to meet up with many of you before we jet off! :)

We've been in Greenville for a week and, although I've spent the majority of the time studying,  it has been a lot of fun reconnecting with friends from college and medical school.

We're staying with my friend M (we were roommates for 3 years during medical school) and her dog, Pepper.  Her house is a beautiful, restored home many times the size of our place in Seattle and we so grateful for M's generosity!

We also had dinner with T- we met in Biology class my first year of college (so we've known each other for 13 years!!!). We spent lots of time studying together, one crazy summer of adventure, and she's been family ever since. :)  Now she has a husband and an adorable kid and we had a great time catching up.

I've also been able to meet up with the other two members of "The Fun House"- A and J. Back in the good ole' days we all  (J, A, M, and I) shared a house in Columbia and together made it through the second year of medical school.

Its been a blast catching up...makes me wish we lived closer to the South!  (although the humidity has been intense!)

                                                                  Me, A, J

Training is done, but our preparation isn't

We have been busy! After we left Danville, Kentucky, we went to Bristol, Tennessee. In Bristol we started our summer of training. It was a conference at the Christian Medical and Dental Association called Preparation for Medical Missions. It was three days with amazing speakers that all had wisdom and stories from their time as missionaries. Just as we arrived in Bristol a massive storm came through. It was a great relief to us, it had been almost a week straight of near 100 degree days. I was ready for some cooler weather.

During the three days we got to know some of fellow post residents and find out when and where they are going. On Sunday our friends K and R showed up and we all drove to Boone, NC the headquarters of Samaritan's Purse. Samaritan's Purse is the parent organization of World Medical Missions, the agency sending us out to Africa for two years. When we got to Boone we had a pizza party. That night Scott, R, and I played Pandemic (a board game). It was cool. The next three days were an orientation for Samaritan's purse. We met  many of the executives and directors of Samaritan's Purse and had a tour of the entire place. We got to meet our program coordinator's family...finally. They were so much fun to hang out with and so nice! We want to go back through Boone again this summer just to see them again. We got to spend lots of time with K and R because R was our chauffeur for the three days.   After six days of sitting and listening to speakers I was tired of it. The last day I got a massive toothache. The same pain I had at the end of June. I did not sleep very much during those six days. Every night we went putt-putt golfing or out for ice cream or did something else that kept us up late. So I was sleep deprived and started to grind my teeth. Thankfully, two days later the pain was gone.

It was sad to say good bye to all of the people we had gotten to know over the previous week. Some of them we may see again before we leave for Africa. I hope.

This storm greeted us as we got to our hotel.

CMDA welcomed us with this sign

David Stevens giving a talk about cultural mentors. 

This is the group of post-residents and families. We are all headed somewhere crazy in the next year. Some of them are leaving next week. It was awesome to get to know them all.

Mini golf tournament. I came in second. I want a rematch! 

Our Friends K and R hopefully we will see them again in November or December

And We Are Gone

Last Tuesday we moved out of our Place. Finally. It was only a few days late, but who is counting.

This is our finished place.

This is my buddy that came to say goodbye.

We made it to Chelan for the fourth of July. Tab's parents have offered to store some stuff for us while we are gone. So, we spent most of the week packing and sorting. We did spend some time with family though.

 Cowboy breakfast at the ranch is always an awesome way to start the day.

Later, we played croquet. However what we call croque is more like mini golf with croquet mallets and balls. The obstacles can be really unique. Here, I dented my truck's door with a croquet ball that was supposed to go underneath however it mysteriously leaped into the side of my truck.
In the back of the truck you can see the plywood base we built to help store stuff better on our long road trip . It allowed us to put our blow up mattress in the back. Last night, the 9th of July, Tab and I slept on it. It work out just fine. However, we were in a WalMart Parking lot.

On Sunday the 8th we had the opportunity to speak to Little Stone Church in Chelan, about our trip to Africa. It was great to talk to everyone and answer all of their questions. The support that we have received from family and friends been great and we appreciate everyone's prayers and well wishes.

Yesterday morning we left Chelan and drove for hours until we couldn't anymore. We cross Washington, Idaho and most of Montana. This morning we got up and crossed Wyoming and stopped near Denver. It was about 18 hours of driving. We talked, listened to music, Sermons, and some podcasts from the global health missions conference. It has been a great drive, the USA is so beautiful. Tomorrow We are gonna go tubing and camping with my father and step mother  near Golden Colorado. It will be fun.

Par... wait for it.... Tay!

This month has been one long party. It seems nearly every night we have cause for celebration. Last night was our anniversary and today is Tab's last day of residency. I have lost count the number of dinners and bbq's and such we have gone to during the past month. Tomorrow is another going away bbq. It will be fun. We finally have our prayer cards and timelines and we are handing them out to those that we see. Our time in Seattle has been great. My experience here in Seattle was very different than I thought it would be. I never thought I would meet and become friends with so many people and I never expected to be so sad to leave. At the same time we are excited. Excited to meet new friends and new experiences and to tell our old friends about all the cool stuff that we are about to do in Africa.
I am currently at Tab's office using her computer. Every hour that passes another link from the countdown chain goes in the trash. In three hours it's all over. It seems more like the last day of school around here, it's mostly about saying goodbye and cleaning out your locker. Soon we are all headed for dinner.
Side story, two nights ago I woke up to a sore mouth. After a few minutes the pain went away. When I got up in the morning the pain was there again and disappeared again. No problems all day, then I brushed my teeth and sat down for a while then bam! I was in a lot of pain. My whole left side of my face ached and there seemed to be nothing that I could do to ease the pain. I could not sleep, I just laid in bed and moaned. I took some pain killers and iced the side of my face, it gave little comfort. At 8 in the morning I called the dentist. I got an appointment for 11. by 9 am the pain subsided enough to sleep. My alarm woke me and it was as if nothing had happened. I went to the dentist anyways. After x-rays and an exam he was pretty sure it was not an abscess.  After talking I realized that the pain was most likely cause by me clinching my teeth. Why have I been chlinching my teeth? Oh, I don't know, maybe because the list of things we need to do is long and the time to do them is short. Right now, my jaw muscle hurts, my teeth are fine, my checking account is lighter, and I finally realized that I need to relax and have faith.
LUKe

Soon!

So, the last month has been an adventure. We had the amazing opportunity to go to Hawaii. It was great. We saw some cool fish, did some kayaking, and eat some really great food. Plus, we had some amazing company while we were there. It is something that I will never forget. Now that we are back, we have been working on the prayer cards that we will be giving out to people to remind them to pray for us. Also, it will have this blog address on it, so that hopefully more than one person will be reading this. Our home is almost empty of furnishings and everyday I look for something that has already been moved to Tab's parent's home. For me, school is almost done and Tab has been counting down the days with an app on her phone. It should be 31 days by this point. In addition to extensive traveling this month, we have spent a lot of quality time with friends and family, as we are leaving soon and won't see them much for a while. We have been overwhelmed by the support that people have shown us and to realize the extent that God has blessed us with so many loving and caring friends and family. On a few nights I have been moved by the overwhelming support that we have received from our friends. This experience has just highlighted how blessed we truly are. We have four weekends left here in Seattle, we are going to try to make them good ones.

This Just Got Real

Well, we finally did it. We are headed to West Africa. We probably won't get there until December. That seems like a long time, but, we leave Seattle in July. That's only about three months from now. Things are moving very fast. The past five years have gone fast.
One of the things that we had to do this week was to get immunized against a plethora of diseases. Tuesday morning we met with a PA to organize a vaccination schedule. The docket included vaccines for Yellow Fever, Rabies, Typhoid Fever, Meningococcal disease, Polio, Tetanus, Hepatitis A and B.  I'm not gonna lie, listening to the PA rattle off all of these diseases and more made me think a little bit harder about what we are about to go and do. Tab is a world traveler and had many of these vaccines already.
After we figured out the schedule the nurse prepared the vaccines and we prepared to become pin cushions.
As we were about to begin getting shot up, the PA mentioned that Clinical Research Center was doing a Research study on the affects of the Yellow Fever Vaccine. The study needed to test the blood of people before and after they had received a Yellow Fever Vaccine in the hopes of finding vaccines for other virus' like west nile and dengue fever. She mentioned that the study would pay us $50 for the first blood draw and $25 for proceeding  five blood draws. So, Tab and I decided to do it. We had to give 280 mL of blood before we got the yellow fever vaccine, then about 15 mL at 1, 7, 14, 30, and 60 days and two more times in the next two years, after the vaccine was administered. Tab went first, her blood draw went fine. But when it  was my turn, the first needle stick didn't produce any blood flow. So, the nurse tried the other arm. It also provided no blood flow. The nurse had to go back to her office to get more needles. The Yellow Fever vaccine is only viable for about an hour after it has been prepared. The pressure was on for her to get the blood before the vaccine expired, in six minutes. The third time was the charm. As she was finished collecting the last vial of blood, the PA was injecting me with the vaccine in the other arm. I had been poked eight different times, for Yellow Fever, Rabies, Meningoccal, Polio, Tetanus, and three times to get a blood sample.
About an hour later I started to feel pains in my abdomen. After that, I got a headache and chills. Throughout the night I had body aches, dizziness, nausea, and a headache. I couldn't sleep. But, I still had to get up to draw some more blood for the yellow fever study and a titer test for hepatitis. That makes ten pokes in two days. I was feeling horrible. The PA told me that I could spread out the vaccines over a couple of days. But, I am stubborn and declined. Tab was feeling pretty bad too from all the vaccines, one pathetic lot we are. We went out for diner for surviving the worst of it.