Mixed Moving eMotions

Merciful heavens~I used to not mind moving so much when I was a free agent.  Don't get me wrong~I love my "his & hers" lifestyle.  There is no one easier to share everything with than Kyle.  Lately I'm just getting terribly anxious about distributing all the things that must go.  Thankfully we have a great community of friends here who are taking a great number of things off our hands.  Also, we had a friend generously offer a suitcase for us to send back with Kyle's family when they come to visit in two weeks.  The strategy we have in place is good.

I was telling Kyle the other day how traumatic it felt to move out of our first apartment in Atlanta, dispersing most of our worldly possessions between our folks' homes, and then fly to France and settle in the dorm just within the span of a week.  It felt like a whirlwind of stress and packing.  Now for some reason we have all the time in the world and we are pacing ourselves, and still I'm terribly anxious.

My friend Maria said something that has stuck with me that I remind myself nearly on a daily basis now.  She said that Jesus didn't have a home for the whole time he ministered.  For three years he went about without the comfort of his own place to retreat to or even his own bed to sleep in.  How silly I get about living out of a suitcase!  It's beyond a blessing to think that for three whole weeks in September, we'll have an extended European vacation.  We're going to see new (to us) cities in France.  I'm going to take in Rome with my sweet husband.  We'll explore two Mediterranean islands during our last few days before flying home.  On top of it all, Kyle has made the arrangements for traveling home so simple.  We even have some really good news to share, but I'm not at liberty to say just yet.  Cliff hanger much?  Sorry... I'll reveal all soon!

I guess this entry is just a bit of a pep talk for myself.  I just have to get through a bit of packing,cleaning, and downsizing before we have basically a month of fun and really no obligations.  Remain calm & carry on!

Closing Up Shop

Oh boy, I have fallen behind a bit with the blog posts.  My teaching position ended at the beginning of July, and I thought I'd have a dearth of activities to enjoy, little less, blog about.  The time is moving pretty quick, and we have started the process of moving/packing up already.  Now you may be saying, "Leah, aren't you arriving back in the U.S. September 30th?  Why on earth are you fussing about moving in (what was then) July?"  Well, Kyle and I had a terrific opportunity to send back a large number of items with our friends, the Dunlaps.  They are having some items shipped home and are flying back Friday. On top of this convenient gift, Kyle and I officially have to move out of our dorm room at the end of August.  Next stop is a room in the building next door with a single bed... romantic beyond measure.  It gets better~ we share a kitchen with a great number of French undergrads who will likely be partying a good bit the first week of September before classes get started.  At least we have our own bathroom and will only have to be there 10 days.

I mentioned in Holiday Making how we'd be going on a roadtrip with the Hamilton family, and then we'd have a European honeymoon.  It's going to be stellar.  Then we'll move back to the states just in time for October.  As of yet, we have no jobs back home.  Kyle is interviewing like mad~he went to Paris yesterday for one and has a phone interview with a company in Atlanta today.  He's letting all these companies know that he is available for mid-October.  So... as it stands we will likely be living out of suitcases for more than a month straight... eeee...yuck.  Not exactly my idea of a party.  I ought not complain~during that period, we are going to have lots of adventures and great quality family time. 

A great weight has been lifted getting the "how am I going to fit this in my suitcase?!?" items out and ready to go.  Next on my to-do list~ create an inventory of all that we are leaving so that we can disperse the goods among friends, donate, or throw out.  The list ranges from furniture to plates to a bag of dirt (yes, remember Project Pretty Porch?)  We also need to start eating through the pantry.  In an effort to get the ball rolling on that, Kyle made the largest pot of lentils I've ever seen.  He is committed to eating it two meals a day seven days a week.  What a sport.  My personal goal for this time is to record our travel adventures well here so that Kyle and I can look back with ease~not straining to remember where we went or what we did...  With that, I have yet to recount our adventures from Perouge as well as a tour of Luxembourg with the Dunlaps.  All to come soon.... A plus!

It's official

Months and months and months ago, I applied for a teaching assistantship program in France. On April 6 I received an email saying that I've been offered a job. This venture began a while ago....

In the fall of 2007 I was an intern at Georgia Tech Christian Campus Fellowship. My boyfriend Kyle (who was also an intern) and I were approached about an unique opportunity to found a campus ministry in France through a program called Globalscope. Kyle and I spend the next few weeks doing research and collecting every bit of info we could find on the French university system. Ultimately we determined that Toulouse would be our ideal destination to plant a ministry and reach out to college kids. We loved the vision and pouring our passion into this project, but both felt that God's call on our life wasn't exactly this route for a handful of reasons...

Kyle and I spent the rest of our year in ministry loving students and dreaming about how to make our lives an adventure. Kyle got a full-time scholarship to grad school at Tech and I started job hunting. We got engaged in September 2009--about a year after we completed our France research. Taking this step really made it feel like we could talk seriously about world travel together. With Kyle's grad program, he has the option to take courses at Tech's campus in Metz, France. He studies abroad there in his undergrad; it seemed like the simplest way to move to France while we are still young and free. I continued to look for career opportunities both here and in Metz. The best and most exciting job opportunity came up--the French embassy sponsors a program for English speakers to become assistants to French teachers. It was a ridiculously long application process; I felt like I was applying for college again. I sent it in in the end of November and then we waited....
and waited...
and waited....
until finally we got word that I am going to be offered a position in the same place Kyle can take classes. We are going to embark on our journey in August...and these entries are bound to become a bit more interesting....

Oh, and of course we are getting married before we go!