{"id":3355,"date":"2015-03-09T17:24:10","date_gmt":"2015-03-09T22:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/?p=3355"},"modified":"2015-03-09T17:24:10","modified_gmt":"2015-03-09T22:24:10","slug":"packing-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/2015\/03\/09\/packing-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Packing Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, you might wonder why it\u2019s been 2 months since I\u2019ve uttered a word on the blog. Honestly, it\u2019s just been too busy to write anything down. Ever since we\u2019ve shifted gears to go to Asia Pacific in March, it\u2019s been pretty much non-stop preparation.<\/p>\n

Some things we\u2019ve had to consider\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"PAMPIAEOHGAEKAJP\"-How do you buy shoes that work in rainy\/dry season and fit in with the cultural norms, plus fit my size 12 feet?!<\/strong> I ended up with some Crocs that seemed to fit what I needed. Any shoes that can be hosed down and don’t mold are a bonus.<\/p>\n

-How do you find clothing that works with different heights, new cultural norms (having to dress up more than usual), and fits your growing belly for a few months, plus afterward?<\/strong> You guess and hope for the best.<\/p>\n

–Which computers do we buy that fit our needs for language learning?<\/strong> We ended up with one Mac and one PC, but\u00a0had to say goodbye to my 10 year old mac from college \ud83d\ude41 .<\/p>\n

–How do you keep all of your records in order while gone for 4 years?<\/strong>\u00a0Well, you go mostly digital and have your loving mom keep a few other folders in her file cabinet.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We also spent time\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"action– packing everything we own into 5 totes<\/strong> and finding out that we really didn\u2019t need some things as much as we thought we did. Goodbye to most of our kitchen items.<\/p>\n

– rearranging our banking stuff to be best for overseas, which meant tons of yucky paperwork and plenty of confusion<\/p>\n

– learning how to work with health insurance– a grand welcome to adulthood!<\/p>\n

– doing our first round of taxes as self-employed! (More necessary yucky) Many thanks to the tax folks down at NTM who processed them for us!<\/p>\n

\"aunt– getting tests done for visa requirements (HIV and drug tests) and finding out the gender of our baby. We’re having a BOY!<\/strong> My sister and I scheduled our ultrasounds together and we ended up with one of each—she and Paul are having a girl! It was the last sisterly thing we’ll get to do together for a while, so it seemed fitting to celebrate with such a fun occasion. And not to be left out, Auntie Ruthie decided to jump in the middle!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But the hardest\/best thing was\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Saying goodbyes!<\/strong> We are 100% ready to go and super excited to be on our way, but we are also leaving behind so many people that are near and dear to our hearts. We are convinced that it\u2019s very much worth it in light of those in our future who have never met Jesus.<\/p>\n

\"emma<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"DSC01571\"Some of the kids at WCC made us cards, and then one little kid\u00a0handed Payton the two erasers (the pink and red thingys) and said, “You’re going to need these for all of the mistakes you’re going to make over there.” How true!<\/p>\n

We also got to see our friends who are leaving for West Africa\u00a0only a month after we leave. These guys have been a huge blessing and encouragement to us during our journey–we were all in training together. They always had a bed ready for us when we passed through Missouri, as well as a hot meal.<\/p>\n

\"PryorWe couldn’t say proper thanks to all of you<\/strong> who have been a part of our lives through this time, but know that we thank God for each one of you! So many people have housed us, fed us, and clothed us–we most certainly didn’t do this alone!\"Creech<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, you might wonder why it\u2019s been 2 months since I\u2019ve uttered a word on the blog. Honestly, it\u2019s just been too busy to write anything down. Ever since we\u2019ve shifted gears to go to Asia Pacific in March, it\u2019s been pretty much non-stop preparation. Some things we\u2019ve had to consider\u2026 -How do you buy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1068,"featured_media":3359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[72509,1],"tags":[516,495,81651,350,83281],"class_list":{"0":"post-3355","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-standard","8":"category-uncategorized","9":"tag-goodbyes","10":"tag-packing","11":"tag-spiritual-family","12":"tag-thank-you","13":"tag-transitions","14":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1068"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}