More Letters!

That's right, another round of letters will be on their way soon!

Thanks to the magical power of the US Postal Service, we are able to send letters online. While its a little more expensive then doing them by hand, it is much more convenient. We're sorry if these look a little less personal than the last round of letters, and we hope you understand. We just wanted to say THANK YOU to all of you who have been so generous in your support, encouragement, and prayers and to give a quick update for those who haven't had a chance to read our blog.

We are very excited about what will be happening in the near future! 2010, the year of our departure, is already here, and soon we will be moving into the active preparation stage as we work on visas and other logistical things. That means that we should have more information to share in the coming months, so please check back here. Things have been a little slow for awhile, but that is going to be changing.

Our sense of anticipation is growing, and we are both eager to be in St. Petersburg and working at the school, and nervous about taking this big step. Amanda just started her student teaching this week, so she will be getting some major practical experience for what we'll both be doing next year. I'm going to have a chance to "borrow" a 3 hour class for a night from a professor to continue to work on teaching myself. I feel far less qualified than Amanda to be doing this, but I am eager to begin working with IA so I can start preparing more for the classes that I will be doing there. It's all crazy and a giant step outside of our collective comfort zone, but we know that this will be an amazing experience and we feel so blessed to be able to have the opportunity to serve like this in Russia.

-Matt