TCK PFO

By Amanda

For two weeks, beginning this past Sunday, Matthew and I will be in Houghton, NY for a Third Culture Kids Pre-Field Orientation. Done through the Association of Christian Schools International, this is to help us learn about the specific needs and gifts of students who grow up in a culture outside of their own and outside of that of their parents. It will also cover how to teach these students and how we as foreigners are to adjust to the cultures we will be entering.

So far things have been pretty good!
The airport we flew out of did not send our luggage on time so it ended up arriving in Buffalo hours after we had left. This in and of itself is not a big deal but we gave them my cellphone number to call when it got there (for when and where to find us) and it began to die shortly after we got to the college. We tried to get a hold of someone (ANYONE!) at the airport or at United who spoke English as a first language, but that did not happen. My phone finally died despite all efforts and I even set out asking many people if they had a charger that would fit my phone, and met great people that way. We were finally able to tap into my voicemail and another couple here who also was missing luggage was able to get through to the guy delivering it, so we waited and talked to them until it came.
While that was a stressful way to begin, we were able to meet people because of it so there was some good! And a good story!

While we know that the students at IA do not love the term "TCK" (there is a Facebook group about this!) it has been helpful to come to a better understanding of what others see in them and also what Matthew and I's culture is like to other cultures.

More updating to come!

If you want to see wedding pictures you can take this link regardless of if you have Facebook or not:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2027583&id=62401192&l=b9bfaac3d6
It poured the day before the wedding and rained a bit the morning of but we were able to have the wedding outside and at the park all as planned. The lawn people were a bit far away because the grass was swampy but other than that everything was great!

Thanks for all of your prayers and support!

Heading off

We have a date of departure now! August 2nd is when we will be leaving.

Now that we have a date it seems really close!

We've been married almost a month now and so far we just spend time with friends and family in the area.

Settling in has been pretty easy, though neither of us really look forward to packing everything back up again.

We will be attending a 2 week confrence soon as well so that should afford a bit of a break for us as well!

Thank you for your prayers!