Field Personal Orientation (FPO) half way done!

Hebrews 12:1 says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

It is absolutely mind blowing to me that we are already half way through with our orientation. These past four weeks have flown by. Our weeks are packed full and there are many exhausting days but it is all worth it. 

A typical Monday-Friday around here looks something like this

0700-0800 Breakfast
0800-1200 Classes and small group time
12:00-1:00 Lunch
1:00-3:00 More class time
3:00-5:00 I pick up Hudson from "school" and spend time with him until dinner and Joseph sometimes has more afternoon classes
5:00-6:00 Dinner
6:00-8:00 Free time/ play with Hudson/ do assignments/ exercise etc... 
8:00- 9:30 Hudson to bed and then a little bit of relaxing before bed.(Yes we go to be early!)

Then repeat!

We love getting to know the people we are living with and training alongside of. So many wonderful believers disciplining us and worshiping alongside us. We are blessed to have wonderful quad mates and although we have only known each other a month, we are certain we are building some life long friendships. 

We are praying that we keep up endurance and can keep pushing through this next month and soak in all of our training. We do not want to waste any of this time/opportunity that we have been given to be well prepared to head off to the field (Malawi).

Here a few pictures of happenings since our arrival to orientation.

Hudson turned 6 months old!

Hudson on his first day of "school"

Crazy hair after bath time

Fishing down by the lake

Sitting in a "big boy chair" at the cafeteria

What a blur!

Sorry it has been so long since our last post, but boy oh boy have we been busy!

Since our last update we have done quite a bit of traveling! We finished up our last couple of weeks in Texas with my parents. It was so wonderful to spend almost the entire month with them! We were spoiled, and Hudson loved the time with his Nana and Grandpa! 

After leaving Texas we hit the road to drive north to meet up with some of Joseph's family in Gatlinburg, TN. We were so blessed and surprised by how well Hudson did on that road trip. We were able to make an 9.5 hour road trip in only 11 hours with a 5 month old!!  PTL!

View from our cabin in Gatlinburg

Gatlinburg was very fun. We enjoyed the Smoky Mountains and time with family. After we finished our time there, we headed up to the Lynchburg, VA area to spend 10 days at Joseph's parents. Unfortunately his dad was out of town while we were there so we missed time with him, but grandma didn't mind having Hudson all to herself!

Family day at the pool

We left Lynchburg and headed to Cedarville, OH. We were able to spend the afternoon with some of Joseph's cousins and his great aunt from Indiana! It was so nice to see them and catch up since we hadn't seen them since our wedding. We also were able to stay with our pastor from college and his wife, which was a huge blessing to catch up with them! While in town, they were gracious enough to let us speak at their church and get some more prayer partners. Dayton Avenue Baptist Church was where we attend while attending Cedarville, so it was so nice to see familiar faces and catch up.

Makenna, Luci, Hudson, and Marissa

From Ohio we traveled up to the east side of Michigan and spent time with my grandparents. It was wonderful to see them with Hudson, they loved their great grandson!

At Bronner's Christmas Wonderland

After the east side of the state, we were able to travel to the west side of the state to spend time with our dear friends, the Millering family, to celebrate with my childhood friend Denee and her fiancé Sam for their wedding. No matter how much time we spend apart we are able to just pick up where we left off from and it was just so great to be together! It also was fun seeing all our babies together!

It has been a whirlwind these past weeks traveling around the United States seeing friends and family but we wouldn't have it any other way!! But now our time of traveling has come to an end for a little while as we are in Richmond, VA  area for our 8 weeks of training with the IMB. Please pray for us during this time as we will be very busy attending classes and preparing to move to Malawi! 

I think that is all for now!