Farewell Party

It was such a blessing to see so many friends at our Going Away Party last Sunday. We are blessed through relationships and how great of a support foundation we have! Thank you all for being such great friends. The pictures we took of us with our friends are all in the slideshow. On Thursday (July 17th) we finished packing, loaded everything up, and cleaned the house. Actually, friends did most of that...THANK YOU! We didn't think we would make our July 18th leaving date or time, but so many people helped us pack, take things to Goodwill, clean (one VERY kind soul even cleaned our shower!), packed the truck, and everything else. On Friday we left for Kansas at 12:00. Outside of one severely blown tire (the spare worked fine, which we luckily forgot to load in the truck so was in the Focus trunk) everything went smoothly. We've been sitting around a lot the past few days and are loving time with our families. One thing we are waiting on: Our Visas haven't gone through yet due to a paperwork issue, but it should be getting taken care of. Also, for those that don't know, we got our house rented. It happened practically in one day and is such a blessing to have it out of our minds. The couple renting seem very nice and like a great fit for renting our home.

$100 Bandaids

I've been shot 3 times and am alive to tell the story. Ok, maybe not in the same way you think... on Thursday we got vaccinated! We are now vaccinated for Polio, Typhoid, Meningitis, and whatever the t,d,a, and p stand for in Tdap. This is in addition to the many shots we got before going to Ecuador in 2003. The woman who gave us the shots was very friendly and extremely knowledgeable. Our appointment took about twice as long as we expected because she was very thorough....I suppose a good thing. While we had strength to endure the poking, the promise of Wily Coyote and Road Runner bandaids and lollipops also helped. Surprisingly the shots were complimentary, but the bandaids were approximately $100 each. Please note: The following picture may spark fear and eye damage (from the intense whiteness). Keegan's tanning attempts have as yet failed to realize any noticeable changes.

Departure Update

We have now purchased our airline tickets! We'll be flying out of Wichita, KS on August 7th at 10:30 AM. We'll arive in Addis at about 8:30 PM their time on Friday. As far as Colorado goes, we'll be leaving Colorado Springs on Friday, July 18th so we can spend time with family. Due to some generous and supportive friends, we have more than enough finances to cover our tickets and they were a lot cheaper than we thought. We've been tremendously blessed in this amazing way! Selling of the furniture is also coming together, as is our home...hopefully!