Update #3.

I'm waiting to hear the ding dong of my doorbell signaling that my nephew and niece are here to play with Auntie Anne, but for now I'm going to take these couple of moments to squeeze in a third update:).

One of the first questions we are usually asked when talking about Thailand is what's the next step? That's a logical question! I think I have a sensible answer:).

The very next step on our agenda is graduation. Nat is going through the same Bible Institute I went through and graduated from in 2007 and he is soooo close to being done! He plans on graduating in June of this year from Lehigh Valley Baptist Bible Institute and also plans on graduating from the same Bible college in South Dakota that I graduate from - and that's supposed to happen in May!

His day pretty much goes like this: 8:30-4:30 (work), 4:30-5:30 (rest and dinner), 5:30-? (Bible Institute). He has been very diligent in getting his courses done and I'm am extremely thrilled (can I say proud in a good way?!?) over how much he is getting accomplished! On top of all of this, he has been experiencing severe neck pain and yet has endured through all the pain. Long story short, a van door was closed on his head while we were in Thailand and it did some hefty damage to his neck, so on top of everything else, he is trying to get his neck adjusted and back to normal. If you think of him, please pray for the pain to be relieved!

So when people ask what's the next step?, we say graduation - rock #1!

There are two more "rocks" that need to be moved into place. Rock #2 is Botswana and rock #3 is being sent as missionaries from our home church - Lehigh Valley Baptist Church.

Let me explain in a little more detail.

Botswana is a country in Africa where my church recently sent our latest missionary family to begin a work there. My good friend Rachel blogs often about her experiences and adventures while living in Botswana:).

Both our current pastor and our missionary to Botswana would like Nat and I to take a trip sometime to Botswana to get some more hands-on experience working with people. We're not sure when the timing of this all is going to work out, but we are "planning" for August or September. As I mentioned above, my husband has been doing a Bible Institute marathon (full-speed!) for the past few months and will continue on that course until he graduates, so I think we're going to need to catch our breath for a little bit before plunging into this new project:). Plus my uncle has severe cancer and we're not sure how long he has, so we really, really want to take some time to visit with him in North Carolina (after Bible Institute is done!). So that's rock #2!

Rock #3 is our church members voting on sending us out as missionaries. From the beginning, we have always wanted to be under our church/pastor's authority and wouldn't even think of putting a baby toe out from under that authority! So we wait for the right timing of that to take place. Our church members and pastor have done a wonderful job communicating to us that that will take place, it's just a matter of when:).

These three rocks will take us through to the end of this year, and that's fine with us:). For now, my husband continues working on staff as an assistant to our pastor and I'm still working at the bakery as well as volunteering at church/school wherever help is needed!

There is plenty keeping us busy!