Down to the Wire
Our tickets have arrived, and we are getting down to the wire to get everything ready to go.
Just to give you an update from our last posting: -We moved out of our house the middle of May and into a guest apartment of an awesome family from Ada Bible Church. It has been a huge blessing to be able to stay here! -Paulo has spent the past 3 months producing a recording project for an urban kids choir here in GR. There have been many long hours and nights with no sleep, but the project is finally done and sounds amazing! He went down to Nashville earlier this week with a friend who has been helping out with the project to do the final mixing. The project has definitely kept Paulo very busy, but he has enjoyed working on this side of music industry very much! -We have also done some traveling to visit friends and family this summer. It was so good to get to reconnect with old friends in Minnesota in July and to see family that we won’t get to see for a while. Paulo’s brother and his family traveled up from Texas the last week of July to visit, and we enjoyed spending time with them. We also were able to do some sightseeing around Grand Rapids that we wouldn’t normally take the time to do. Here is what’s in store for us in the coming weeks: -We are busy doing last minute errands and packing. We finally got all of our visa issues sorted out and sent that off yesterday. Now we just have to wait to have them processed by the embassy and to be sent back to us. -We will be having a going away party a few days before we leave. We are still in the process of figuring out when and where, but we will keep those of you in the Grand Rapids area posted. -We finally received our tickets, and we leave on Thursday, August 18. It is hard to believe that it has been six months since we signed the contract to go to Kuwait. Time sure flies! We are both excited about this new adventure in our lives but will miss you all very much! Please stay in contact!
Selling, Moving, Saying Goodbye
With our life changing moment by moment, we are so excited to see what our future holds.
Kuwait is just a few months away. Things are shaping quickly. For one, our house has sold. It was only on the market for four days! Now we are in the process of selling everything and packing. Last week we had a moving sale where many of our friend came out and bought stuff. Although we had rain on Friday and snow on Saturday we did very well. This weekend we are going at it again. After that, we will need to find a place to stay until we leave in August. At that point we know that saying goodbye will be the hardest part. Regardless of the friends we make in the Middle East - friends can’t be replaced. You all will be missed.
A Christmas Greeting
For our friends who have already seen this, here is a video to watch when you really miss the goofy side of Paulo and Karin. For those of you who haven’t seen it, it is a valenzalife must see and a glimpse into our pre-Kuwaiti past.
Instead of sending a typical Christmas letter in December of 2004, we sent a dvd with pictures and this greeting.
