Well that's one school year behind us! (well, at least here in Ecuador—it's crazy to think we just finished my fourth year of teaching!!)
It's always hard to end a year because that means goodbyes, usually for the summer. Here that's even more emotional because there are people who are not coming back. Many of them have been great friends over the past year and it's sad to see them go!
Today Clinton and I spent the afternoon and evening sorting out our things to “pack” for “moving.” I put both words in quotations because while we are moving to another apartment, the main thing we're moving is clothes. We have a couple kitchen items we bought over the year as well as a television, but other than that...not much. Since the apartment we've been in at the dorm is furnished, we did not need to buy any furniture. The biggest blessing is that we're moving into another furnished apartment! While we did need to buy a couch and some additional kitchen supplies (from the people who are living there currently), we did not need to buy anything else to outfit the place.
Tomorrow we'll move our stuff over to the apartment and then we'll have two days of living out of our suitcases that have been packed for our trip home for the summer! We'll be leaving on Tuesday morning...actually...Clinton's birthday (= He's not overly thrilled to be flying on his birthday, but a huge gift is getting home that evening!!
Summer will be quite busy for us. We'll be in Pennsylvania (Clinton's family), Indiana (My family), Connecticut (my sister), New York, Minneapolis (for my first doctorate residency!), and then Ocean City, NJ for a joint family vacation right before we're back in Ecuador! When I think about it this way, it feels like my summer has already gone by.
THANK YOU for your prayers and support over this year. We could not have done this without your encouragement, financial support, and constant prayers. This wasn't an easy year, but we are thankful that God as been constant in our lives. He has truly provided opportunities to understand our role here in South America!
