less than 2 weeks!

Okay, well we are leaving in less than two weeks! panic mood has set in. I wake up in the morning and wonder what in the world we were thinking, leaving our families for a year! We are both excited, and i know we will be fine when we get over there, but right now we are both so nervous!!!

We just got back from a trip to St. Louis and Branson. We needed to pick Blaise and Ansley up from K-2 (Kanakuk), and dad wanted to take us to a Cardinals game. We had a great time. I got to visit friends at K-Kauia (spelling?) and K-Kountry...but it made me homesick for kamp!

Dad got his first senior coffee on the trip! At McDonalds, you get the senior discount when you're 50, and he has been so excited about this!

Dad and Bech in front of Busch Stadium!

Here is Papa and me on my birthday.

Mom and Dad went to D.C. this summer to visit Katy, my sister. She is interning at the Heritage Foundation. They are with Ed Meece (spelling?) in this picture.

For Bech's moms birthday, Bech and his brother made homemade pasta...here it is drying out...it was amazing!

Here we are at Cantina Loredo, at the Branson Landing, after picking Blaise and Ansley up. This is one of Ansley's favorite restaurants...she LOVES the guacomole.

And, finally, one more picture in front of Busch Stadium...

On another note, Bech and I have figured out video chatting on skype. We also set his mom and my mom up on it. If you want to talk to us next year, get skype...our name is "marleyevans"...okay, so it's not very original!

less than 3 weeks away!

In less than 3 weeks, we are leaving for Malawi! We are both growing very nervous and sad. At the same time, we are very excited...I am just a bundle of emotions! Another couple going to ABC posted pictures from the apartment they will be living in. They are living in the same complex, so the pictures were so exciting for us! We now get to start picturing our home for the next year. I can not wait to unpack and start to get it all put together.

Lately, we have just been spending a lot of time with family. We have been out to my 90 year old great uncle's land (Uncle R.J.) to pick blueberries. We have celebrated my birthday with my family. We threw a suprise 50th birthday for my dad. We have been out on Bech's parents sailboat twice. Everything has been fun. We have been relishing time spent with family, trying to soak it all up before we leave!

Another thing we have been doing is final preparations. We have been working on health insurance for over there and updated contacts lately (something tells me that 1-800-contacts does NOT deliver to Malawi). We still have some more errands to get done, but we have accomplished a lot.

On another note, we have almost raised all of our funds! As of June 30th, we were still about $5,000 short...this is a big relief! We have really generous and kind friends!

I will try to post before we head out, but if not...the next post will be from the "Warm Heart of Africa!"