For those who don't already know...

Imagine if you will, returning from a perfect mountain getaway with your dreamy new husband to your cozy, recently renovated by said dreamboat, Cape Cod house. You pick up your daughter from her beach vacation with the family and settle into your freshly painted home to unpack and start a new phase of life. A phase where you begin your fulfilling job as CVM’s Southeast Regional Representative and thrive on the interactions with vet students eager to use their profession to serve the Lord and vets hungry for encouragement in how to minister in their practices. A phase where Angie starts a new school, makes great friends, and finally gets comfortable in English and North American culture. One where every Friday is date night sponsored by your generous parents and you can enjoy the colors, smells, and chill of your first autumn in four years while you work on your fledgling marriage.  

Then, turn this idyllic suburban picture of stability and peace upside down and you’ll have the upheaval we’re facing now. Haven’t God’s ways always been a stark contrast to the world’s, why did I expect any different? When has He ever encouraged us to stay in our comfort zones, let alone set up house in them? So, instead of surrounding ourselves with the aromas of cinnamon and pumpkin, we’re spending the fall in the wind and heat of Bolivian spring. Instead of starting our family in our native culture and language, we’re starting it on an unexpected adventure.  

Saturday morning, Angie and I arrived back in Bolivia. For the next four months we'll be back to our old normal in Santa Cruz, with VetRed, Spanish, and Angie's missionary kid school, with one awesome exception; Jon's coming to join us soon. Immigration's declared it necessary for Angie and me to finish out our first two years together in Bolivia before she can gain U.S. citizenship. And since Jon and I didn't write into our vows "until death or immigration do us part," he's not letting the latter stand in our way of being together as a family. His conviction to be where we are and do life with us, is even stronger than his instinct to be the provider, and for this I admire him very much.

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"So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” 

-Matthew 19:6