The past two days have been filled with catching up on the nitter natter that gets forgotten on the road.  But, we’ve also had a great time with family!  We have been staying with my (Lisa’s) aunt.  Tuesday night we went out to see a ball game with my cousin and his family (his son was playing in the game – and was awesome) and went out to dinner after.  Last night we hung out with my other cousin and her family.  It was good to catch up with their families and such fun to have Levi and Amelia meet more relatives.

Today we are headed out to the greater Chicago area…not a long drive and for that we are grateful!  However, things are busy busy with continued trip planning, paperwork, emails, and all of those little things!  Pictures to come, hopefully, when we’re not busy packing and getting ready to go!  Thank you for your continued prayers for our travels and that we would find people to partner with us in this ministry!

Our last week…

Today marks two weeks on the road and the map above shows our stops just since last Tuesday…2098 miles!  It has been a busy and an awesome week.

Tonight and for the next two nights we’re getting a bit of time to catch up on all of the paperwork, phone calls, and miscellany that has built up during our long days of traveling.  We are staying with my (Lisa’s) aunt just outside of Milwaukee.

My cough/cold is mostly gone, but now it feels like I have allergies?  It’s weird, especially since I haven’t had allergies since high school.  Oh well, that’s an easy fix if that’s the case.

Also, for Father’s Day yesterday, Matthew got to feel baby kick (or punch or squirm…who knows) for the first time!  Woo hoo!!!  Tomorrow I am 19 weeks along and MY halfway thus far…I’ve never been more pregnant than 38 weeks and a couple of days, so I’m going to go with it…but since each baby is different, I’m also not counting on it!

So, today we drove for six hours (eight hours on the road, thanks to two crazy kids) and are ready for bed.  But, there you go – our longest days of driving down…and now the real fun of constant visiting begins!

Our last day here was FULL.  But, in a good way!

Church this morning was with good friends and fellow Congo lovers, Dr. and Mrs. Rice – they travel to DRC frequently, fly the best airline (MAF) and work out at the hospital in the village of Vanga.  Our paths crossed a year and a half ago and it’s fun to get to see them – we had Dr. Rice and his medical students over to our house in DRC and we’ve been to his house here in St. Louis.  We were also excited to go to church with them this morning – their church supports the Congolese population here in St. Louis and is really an international mix, including sermons in English, French, and Spanish and one of the worship songs this morning was in Swahili (we think), the language spoken in Eastern Congo.  Actually, we didn’t get to hear the regular pastor preach, because he and a team from the church we on a mission trip…in Kinshasa, where we lived in DRC!  So, it was a fun place to visit and be worshipping with people who are from all over!

Immediately after church we went to a friend’s house for lunch.  The Mrs. is our pastor’s daughter from our church in Tacoma and she and her husband have two little boys, the same ages as Levi and Amelia, along with two more boys on the way!  Levi and their son, Charlie, got along a little TOO well and were being such boys – it was hilarious!

After a long afternoon visiting, we came back to our host’s house for a delicious dinner of ribs and fixings.  And the sweetest gift…a post for later this week for sure…  After dinner Levi was desperate to continue riding the bike and most everyone took a walk around the block.  The humidity here is slightly reminiscent of the weather in Kinshasa, which is great, and Levi wasn’t bothered, despite coming back really sweaty.

We had to rush off after the walk to meet new friends – connections from Matthew’s dad and his wife from Atlanta.  This couple and us have other mutual friends and their six-week-old little girl, who shares her first name with Amelia’s middle name, was such a bundle of joy.  It was a pleasant end to a busy day of visiting.

For the two of us – people who are not naturally social – we are enjoying the visiting deputation allows us to do!  We are excited to share about DRC, or even just chill and chat about whatever.  In the end, finding partners in ministry is the goal, but building relationships with people all over the US is a fantastic means!  We don’t want random financial support, but we really want people who love us, love the ministry we’re doing in Africa, and want to be part of it!  We know we can’t see everyone, but we hope that maybe you are praying and considering about whether you would join our ministry team.  Just a small monthly commitment can go a long way to partner with us – and we hope you feel a part of the ministry to DRC!  If you do feel called to join us, please visit here and sign up!

Tomorrow we take off for a family visit in Milwaukee!

We have been in Missouri since Friday morning, since we left Kansas City (on the Kansas side) and drove across the border.  Finally it’s hot enough to say that it’s summer and we’re no longer cold.  The humidity reminds us a little of home (Congo)!

We had a few extra hours in our travel day on Friday – after a leisurely breakfast with our host family in Kansas, we decided to do something touristy in a historic part of Missouri.  Both being avid Oregon Trail fans, we knew being near Independence should be something exciting.  We found a living history museum, based in 1855, that was easy to get to and enjoyed an hour walking around and seeing the buildings.  Matthew spent quite a bit of his childhood acting as an interpreter for a living history museum in Washington, during the same period, so it was fun to experience it in a different part of the country.  Levi and Amelia really liked the animals, especially the tiny shorn lambs!

Levi liked the horse, but didn’t want to touch it…

Finally, we began the relatively quick three and a half hour drive to St. Louis.  The kids, being beyond over tired at the long week of traveling with few breaks, fell asleep quickly and STAYED asleep for the entire drive, minus the last twenty minutes!!  It was a huge blessing for our peace of mind, and their own little bodies.

We arrived at our host’s house just south of St. Louis just in time for dinner.  This family is in the process of adopting from DRC, to add to their two little girls, just about Levi and Amelia’s ages.  The kids are all getting along fabulously.  And we are having a great time, though the traveling of the week is still causing them to be overextended.

Today there was a great get together with several families all through the process of adopting from DRC and we really enjoyed talking with them – hearing their stories and their love of Congo, and sharing what our experience had been.

Despite all of the excitement, the day was hard to end because both kids are just done with being so tired.  But, they’re sleeping now…so that’s what’s important.  But, we took some videos of them doing fun things this afternoon…highly recommended for grandparents!  🙂  Amelia learns to scale a wall and Levi learns to ride a bike (with an appearance by an adorable Amelia).

Thanks to everyone who came out today!!!  And tomorrow is a busy busy day for us, again, but we’re so excited to see so many people!

Whew – a whirlwind two days and driving 900 miles has been busy!  Two nights ago we were in a busy little town in Wyoming.  Now we are just outside Kansas City, KS.  Yesterday (Wednesday) we started as early as possible and drove six hours (seven hours with kids!) to just south of Denver, Colorado.  The landscape was fantastic to watch turn into hilly, green pastureland, from the rocky, barren mountains of Wyoming.

We stayed with friends, Travis and Jenny, who brought home their little girl from DR Congo in January, where we got the opportunity to host them for a pizza night at our house.  It was fun to see them again and see how much their daughter had grown over the last six months.  They invited several friends over for a big dinner and we chatted with everyone – it was a nice, relaxing night.  Amelia and Levi had a great time playing with new friends and new toys outside.  When we arrived and drove through downtown Denver that afternoon it had been quite smokey due to some nasty wildfires, but by evening the smoke had mostly dissipated – leaving only the sound of the water bomber overhead every half hour or so to remind us that a fire raged not far away.

We went to bed way too late and got up extra early for today’s (Thursday) drive from there to just south of Kansas City.  It was one of our longest planned drives on this trip, so it’s nice to be out of the way.  It was nearly nine hours of driving – so 10.5 hours on the road.  But, we made it in time for dinner and the kids did really well – maybe they’re adjusting to life on the road!

The lady of the house here, Laura, and I met through friends adopting from DR Congo over Facebook and we are excited to get to know them.  At the same time, it’s so funny how we are strangers to them, and them to us, yet here we are!  They have five kids, though their teenage girls are away on a city missions trip this weekend.  Their boys got along so well with our kiddos this evening and it was nice to have yet another night of good friends for Levi and Amelia.

My cough is starting to die off, but it’s still driving me crazy.  Levi and Amelia are doing well – their favorite truck games are to point out the many cows and horses along the way, sing silly songs (like “Row, Row, Row Your Cheese”) and make crazy noises at each other.  It’s so fun to hear them playing in the backseat and a little less fun to hear them fight…but that’s what brothers and sisters do, right?  Today, Levi started out the morning by asking when we would see real dinosaurs (on our drive).  We explained that they aren’t around anymore…they ran out of food.  Levi argued that they could chase people and eat them.  Such a thoughtful little dude…

Tomorrow we head to our last stop of the week: St. Louis.  We will be there all weekend – what a nice break from driving everyday, though we have lots to fit into our short time there.  And, seeing as it is now after midnight, I’d better get to bed…

Today we drove from Nampa, ID, through the top of Utah, to Rock Springs, WY.  You’d think a random stop in Wyoming would mean we’d have our pick of hotels.  And you’d be wrong, like we were.  We had to go to FIVE hotels (plus a few calls) before we found one and got the last non-smoking room!  They say it’s just because it’s summer.  The landscape is so awesome – nearby there are fossils of schools of fish “swimming” in the rocks.

The drive was about seven hours, so it took us nine.  We had an extra long lunch break that included a Target run for a few items, though.  The kids did pretty well today, but it helps to have two of us in the car, unlike last Tuesday’s drive by myself.  My cough is still really unpleasant, but I’m hoping it’s starting to go away…pray for that, please!  It’s wearing me out!

Tonight we were checked in to the hotel and in the pool in about five minutes.  The pool was a great way to get all the kinks out from sitting in the car all day.  We walked across the street for some food and now we’re settled in for some sleep…at 9:30! Why does sitting in the car all day wear everyone out?  Oh well, it’s much needed, either way.  Last night we were up way too late, but had a great dinner with some friends – a guy I went to high school with and his awesome and equally pregnant wife.  By the way, I’m 18 weeks today!

Anyway, all is well and tomorrow we make the five hour drive through the rest of the bottom of Wyoming, turning right in Cheyenne and straight south to Denver to our very first “real” stop on this epic adventure!

Two years ago we bought this yellow truck.

1986 GMC

And by “we” I mean Matthew.  I mean, hopefully you can’t see ME (Lisa) gushing about how cute it is and “ohhhh, shouldn’t we take it home, PUH-leez??”  So, Matthew bought it on a very good deal, that also happens to be a very good story if you ever remember to ask us in person.  Then he made a few improvements, but the engine and driving components ran well, so that door on the side?  Well, instead of a little work room, it became a full blown apartment.  It has a sink, toilet, shower with hot water, two beds, table, and cabinet for storage.  It’s actually quite nice.  The back half still is open box for moving, hauling, or large man toy storage (motorcycles, perhaps?).

Then, we (again, we = Matthew…with help from his brother, Andrew) drove it, containing all of our worldly possessions from Alaska to Washington state, where we would spend a few months raising support for a crazy African adventure and store what little we were keeping.  We have family there, it’s where we grew up, so it made more sense to store our stuff in WA.  And wasn’t that such an adorable moving truck to do the moving job?

The plan was to sell it.  Unfortunately, our motivation was lacking and Matthew’s dad was gracious enough to let it sit in his driveway…for 1.5 years.

Now, we had a new plan of attack – move all of our things to Idaho.  This is more of a home base for us now, since MAF’s headquarters are here and my parents will eventually live here (they bought a house here while the market was low and will move here when my dad retires in a bit).  Plus, the dry climate is far better for long term storage.

And, to go with the new plan, the faithful moving truck!  So, it’s nice we didn’t sell it, I suppose.

So, last week we emptied the truck into my parents’ garage and it was finally time to say goodbye.  This time we are more motivated (mostly by a lack of other parking space) and the cash from the sale will cover our very last student loan.  Woo hoo!  It isn’t sold yet, but we found a truck and parts consignment place to take it and sell it for us for a very good deal.

And now for something completely different…random phone pictures!  We have an old iPhone, but no data plan.  So, it takes nice pictures…but then they collect for a bit.  Here are a few good ones from the past few weeks.

Amelia is addicted to slides – and her great aunt Edie takes a picture.

Matthew’s Uncle Bruce with his nephew and great-nephew

Levi and his buddy Finn

Amelia enjoys accessorizing

Tomorrow: We begin driving on our first REAL road trip stop…

The lack of blogging is mostly because the past two days have not been interesting enough to say anything about.  Matthew has been unloading the truck of our things into the garage.  And I have been sick.  This cough might actually take me out…it’s terrible.  Unfortunately, it’s just a viral cold…so lots of tea, rest, soup, and steam…and hacking at the children.

We visited MAF headquarters, picked up some more prayer cards, Matthew wrote our next prayer letter, and hopefully this weekend we’ll get a few more things done to better be caught up on the paperwork side of life.  See?  Terribly boring…

Please continue to pray for the little last details to come together for our road trip as our appointments come up.  Please pray that my cough will subside quickly!  Your prayers make a difference in our lives and we greatly appreciate them – thank you!