leaving this week

We are counting down the days now until our departure from New Zealand on Sunday for Central Asia.  We leave Christchurch on Friday, so we are in the midst of packing, cleaning, and saying goodbye to friends here.  This stint in Central Asia will only be 4 months long, as we are returning to New Zealand in September to prepare for the arrival of Baby B2, but it still feels like a momentous departure, as we are beginning a whole new life in a new country.  After leaving New Zealand on Sunday we will fly to Bangkok to get our Central Asian visas, and then on to our new home.  

We received some encouraging emails this week from our future teammates over there, with some photos of houses they've looked at in our potential town.  Very encouraging-- bathrooms complete with bathtubs and toilets, yards with grass and trees, and enough space for our growing family.  So we are starting to get more excited about the move and feel the promises we've received about God going before us to prepare a way are definitely coming true.

Thank you for your prayers for us, and for following our progress on this blog!  I will try to keep it more updated with our actual lives (and not just Will!)... sorry for the patchy posting.  We're not sure what type of Internet access we will have in our new home, so please be patient over the next 6 weeks or so as we get settled and figure things out.  We will try to send out an email update via dial-up when we arrive.  Please pray for safe travels and for us to get our visas in Thailand without a hitch, and for our initial adjustment to our new home to go well.  We know everything is in God's hands, and we trust Him to make a way for us!

"Baby B" #2!

We are excited to announce that we are expecting "Baby B" #2 in October!  Here are some beautiful photos from our 12 week scan last week.  Amazing!

dancing to the Fire Engine song

Will loves to dance to his Julie Wylie CD... or any music, for that matter-- commercials, car radio, etc... he's a little cutie pie.

Shantytown

On our visit to the West Coast we spent a morning at the historic Shantytown, inspired by the New Zealand West Coast gold rushes of the 1860s.  Will loved the train and the playground, and we had a good time, too-- even got to pan for gold ourselves!  

An old steam train

the sign says: "Spare the rod, spoil the child!"

Panning for gold... !

Not exactly striking it rich, but pretty cool, nonetheless!

Holiday on the West Coast

We had a fabulous few days over on the West Coast of the South Island a couple weeks ago, gearing up for our last busy month in New Zealand before plunging into our new life in Central Asia.  Here are some photos of our trip... the beach, and a weka (a bird unique to New Zealand) that showed up outside our cabin:

En route to the West Coast 

On the beach:

on the beach 

A weka!

like father, like son