Goodbye Zambia, Hello U.S.A.

Yes, come mid-May, we will be saying our goodbyes to our ministry partners and friends in Zambia and saying hello to our family and friends in the U.S..  Due to our adoption not taking place, Mickey's work has called him back into service.  Part of the deal with him getting time off was use of FMLA time, and now we are not covered by that time.  He has unfortunately already used all of his vacation and sick leave time to be here.  We did ask for an unpaid extension, but it was denied.  The Bible is clear about respecting authority, including employers, so we are following orders.  We are extremely grateful to the Des Moines Fire Department for allowing us to have the time we did have. 

As you can imagine, we have many mixed emotions.  We know that we obeyed God when deciding not to adopt and we don't regret the decision at all.  We both have great peace about it.  But to find out that because of this decision, we can't complete our time here and finish the way we wanted to finish is difficult.  

Also, after having so many things move so slowly here for so long, it is a jolt to the system to need to move so quickly all of a sudden. That is one of the reasons the blog has been silent lately!  But if there is one thing we have learned here, it is not to question God and His ways or timing.  This is the time He has ordained for us to return home, even though our plan was early August.  His ways are, without a doubt, better than ours, so although sad, we are trusting in Him.

We want to give our biggest heartfelt thanks to all of you who have followed our journey here in Zambia.  This year was made possible by all of you.  Your prayers, financial support,  and words of encouragement have meant so much to us.  The next few weeks are quite busy for us as we wrap up our work here, transfer responsibilities, pack, say our good-byes, and make arrangements for moving back home, but please be on the lookout for several blog posts to come where we will share in greater detail about all the different ways God used us this year and the things He has taught us.  It wasn't always easy this year to keep up with blogging, especially with power outages and running out of Internet data!  Mickey and I are looking forward to having consistent power and unlimited Internet upon our return. :)  We know there are many things God wants us to share with all of you and we hope you will come back and read them.  Living here and doing ministry here has been one of the toughest, yet most rewarding time in our lives.  We are especially appreciative that because of our time here, God has given Mickey a clear vision about how to continue the work we have started, even while returning home to Iowa.  We will be sharing that with you soon too!!! 

The greatest thing about returning home a bit early will be that we will get to see many of you. soon  This is the longest Mickey and I have been away from some of you and we look forward to many happy reunions.  Just so you know, we will be staying in the Quad Cities with my folks from mid May to the 1st part of June.  Next, we will spend time on the farm with Mickey's parents for a few weeks in June.  Mickey will be a bit busier than me as he will be traveling from both of these places up to Des Moines to work his shifts.  On the 14th of June, we will move to an apartment in Ankeny while we build our home there.  Please let us know if you would like to get together or just stop by my parents or the farm to see us.  We would love it!!!