Celebrations & Sadness!

The last week and a bit have been really busy for us. We have had two lovely commissioning services at both our home churches (a big thank you to you all for supporting & encouraging us through all our preparations!). Abigail turned 1 ... which has come round really quickly ... what happened to our little baby?!! We had fun making and decorating her a monkey birthday cake ... as we nicknamed her 'Monkey' when she was just a bump! We had a 1st Birthday/Farewell tea which was really fun ... thank you to all who came to celebrate with us ... it was lovely to be able to share a little bit of time with you ... we really appreciated the distances some of you travelled to be there with us!

We spent most of our final week with close friends and family ... those most difficult to say goodbye to ... it was great to have some time with them as a lot of the last few months has been spent travelling round seeing other people. We also tied up as many loose ends as we were able to, with paperwork and other mundane things that were necessary ... but not nearly as exciting!

Our final Saturday was spent celebrating the wedding of some good friends from All Nations (Gemma & Simeon Locke) ... it was a lovely day and gave us the opportunity to catch up and say goodbye face-to-face to many of our friends from our days at college! It was also a nice break from all the packing and organising we'd been doing!

Our final farewells on Sunday afternoon and very early Monday morning were probably the hardest ones we had to make ... to leave family in tears is not an easy thing to do when you're the ones going away to make them sad ... but we're really blessed to have their love and support knowing that what we're going to do is the right thing for us and part of God's plan for our lives! We had a fantastic day of travelling ... the long 8 hour flight was quite empty ... so not only did they allocate us the bulkhead with more legroom with no problems ... but Abigail got her own seat (no extra charge!) which made it a win win situation all round! The transfer at Toronto was hassle free ... no queue at immigration and lovely immigration officer who shared his birthday with Abigail!!! She travelled like a dream pretty much the whole day ... we really appreciated all your prayers ... they worked!!!

We arrived safely at the Dunkleys, 20 hours after our alarms had woken us up back in the UK! Abigail had slept for a total of about 2 hours over 3 naps the whole time and was still smiling ... although looking somewhat dazed!! All three of us had a good nights sleep and today have started to settle in ... a visit to Walmart to pick up some supplies and then having a quick look at some of the houses from the outside that we will be viewing properly tomorrow!! When we said we were staying in the basement flat of a friends log cabin while we found ourselves a house ... not sure if you pictured the lovely house where Mark & Abigail are pictured standing outside the front door to the flat?!

Thank you so much for all your cards/messages/emails/calls etc saying goodbyes and all your prayers and encouragement ... it has made this huge transition in our lives a lot easier! We will be in touch again soon ... hopefully with a house update!!

Goodbye to all our worldly goods!!!

Well, here we are with just 9 more sleeps until the big move across the "pond"!! Having been working towards this for so long we're still surprised at how quickly these last few days and weeks have whizzed past us! This week we said goodbye to all our boxes ... the majority of our possessions really ... they have been sitting in Mark's parents garage since our move from Dorset at the end of June ... just waiting for our visa numbers which we only got at the end of last week! It was a relief to finally get it all sent off ... but to think that someone else will have control of it for the next 8-12 weeks is slightly concerning! ... hopefully it will arrive sooner rather than later ... or it could be nearly Christmas til we see our things again!!

We just have final bits and pieces to sort out ... including a load of paperwork type stuff ... we did have it all organised neatly in a pile ... but as you can see Abigail thought she could be helpful and sort it out again for us ... individually piece by piece!!! In this photo you can see she decided that she would have a "filing" break and read a magazine!!

We have also celebrated Mark's birthday this week ... we met his sister Amy (who shares the same birthday as him ... but three years apart!) from school for lunch!! ... and in the evening took advantage of Tesco's generous clubcard restaurant voucher deal and went out for dinner in the evening without having to spend a fortune!!!

Now we're preparing to spend tomorrow afternoon with friends and family at a farewell and Happy 1st Birthday tea for Abigail ... and getting together the last things we need to before we fly to America on September 21st! The good news is we've exceeded our minimum support raising target now ... so that's one less thing for us to worry about!!

Thank you again for all your thoughts, prayers and support for us in what have been a crazy mad but very fun few months preparation!!

Did we have the X-Factor?!

Abigail certainly has the X-Factor ... but then we would say that ... we're her parents ... clearly a fan of going to the park though ... she loves the slide and the swings the best ... but the see-saw with daddy is also a winner too!!

We've been continuing to enjoy travelling round and catching up with people (Below three awake girlies ... and one very fast asleep one in Oxford!!!) ... and can't believe that there are less than three weeks left to fit in as many people as possible before we go ... our flights have been booked for 21st September ... so now we have an official date!!

Well ... we've ascertained that Abigail has the X-Factor ... but what about the rest of the family??!! Last Friday we had the joy of going to the US Embassy to see if we had what it takes to get a Visa to the USA ... in order for us to train with MMS ... our 'appointment' was at 9.30am and after a 3 hour wait ... not quite sure why you have to wait that long ... we were finally seen for just less than 5 minutes ... and approved!! Yippeee ... that was our final hurdle!! Abigail enjoyed the morning in various cafes (including the one in Selfridges) with her Nana Kukhu, Grandma and Gramps as well as a stroll in Hyde Park!!! Definitely more preferable!!

After our appointment we met up with a good friend from our days at All Nations ... and enjoyed the deckchairs they've set up along the Thames in the sunshine!!! How very civilised and very relaxing after our long wait in the morning!! While at the Embassy, it was reassuring to see that nobody is above the waiting process ... X-Factor presenter, Dermot O'Leary also had the pleasure of waiting for his number to be called that day too!! (For the non-Brits ... he presents the UK equivalent of American Idol!!)