Whoo!

School is starting to pull into full swing and it is looking like a good year! I am going to start working with the classes I will be student teaching this week and Matthew has some lectures he is going to give so we are excited about that. The Writing Center is also starting to roll forward so that is fun!

Updates on life: we are doing SO well in our support raising and it is a overpowering blessing every time we get a new update! We have three churches backing us now as well and that has been humbling. We spoke to our first board and we were really nervous and excited. It was so weird being asked to advocate for myself in that way! Very cool but unlike anything I've ever done before.

Updates on wedding: Since I was smart enough to plan out a lot of what I wanted over teh summer I don't have much to worry about right now! Mostly just not getting chubby off of college food so I can fit into my dress (which was probably the first thing we bought for the wedding!). Starting to look at caters and flower people and so on. I'm really looking forward to just being able to be relaxed about the whole thing!

God is great and we are looking forward to an amazing year of endings and beginnings! (I know that I am a teacher because when I say year I ALWAYS think September to May, not January to December)

Back to School!

Today is Matthew and I's first day back to classes at Bethel and we are both excited! We've had a great time here and it is really sad to think that this is our last year.
We will be getting married this coming May and if all goes well leaving for Russia sometime around mid July ish.
The support raising has been going really well and it has been very cool for both of us to watch.
Wedding planning is mostly thought out so now we are renting, buying, and making!
Should be a good Senior year!

I finally finished the blanket I've been crocheting since December!

Wedding!

While this has nothing at all to do with Russia, Matthew and I officially have a date and place for the wedding!
Hooray!

Summer!

Matthew and I have begun work on letters to churches and we received another update about how many people are supporting us and such.

Seeing that list really just blows me away for two reasons. The first being that I cannot believe we are actually going until I see that we are making tangible steps toward actually getting there! Then it hits me in a huge wave!

The second being that I feel very blessed to have people who are so willing to help us even though many of them have met only one of us (since we grew up on opposite ends of the same state) and some of them have met neither of us! That is a lot of trust and a lot of generosity that we have seen!

I feel like we should update more on here but it's summer so things are a little slow right now. They will speed up though! I'm fairly convinced of that!

Support Letters Again!

Hello from Amanda!

We just got an update from WP and we both feel very blessed to be able to say that we already have supporters! I have gotten some very encouraging mail and Matthew has gotten email and phone calls all from people encouraging us and praying for us.

This has been very blessed and is looking good so far!

Matthew and I were also able to meet up with a friend of his from Russia and that was a good time indeed!

Letters Are on Their Way!

Our first letters are now officially on their way!
I've been busy stuffing envelopes and sending them out in batches everyday this week. I have lovingly addressed them all by hand, working diligently each day after work. We're excited to finally have something to send out to people. In some ways this is the end of the first part of the whole process of going to Russia: all the applications, approvals, references and calls with IA and WP are over and now we can begin the task of raising our support.
I realized that its probably time that I wrote something here, since my name is also on this blog:-P I'll try to keep posting here as well as we find out more information about Russia.
-Matt

Support Letters!

I got to see Matthew from Wednesday to Sunday and it was a lot of fun (especially since we hadn't seen each other since school got out!)! We went and saw UP and went to a Coldplay concert and hung out at Indy. Our families also met and talked about wedding stuff.

All in all a good time!

Right now Matthew and I are beginning to print and mail support letters!

Let us know if you find this and have not received one and would like to!

Amanda

A Picture!

As pointed out by Julie, our amazing contact in Russia, being able to see what we look like is nice!

So here is a picture for anyone who has only seen one or none of us!

So It's Been a While

As of late we have mostly been budgeting (which is weird because I have no idea how much anything costs in the "real world") and working on our support letter.

We are getting close to finalizing the thing which is great and soon we can print and mail away.

Matthew and I are going to be able to hang out starting tomorrow which is a blessing because we don't see each other very often in the summer. We have a concert on Friday and then back to work on Monday!