On June 30th, 2018 we left our home and kitties with the Deffenbaughs for a year, because Chris has sabbatical and we decided to take the opportunity to do something crazy. For the past 10 years Chris has been teaching computer science at Iowa State University, then the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. The same decade I have been home raising our sons full-time. Needless to say, we are very thankful for this sabbatical. I studied abroad in Australia 16 years ago and have been wanting to share it with Chris ever since. So this has been a dream for a long time, and we’ve done what we could to make it happen, knowing that we are not ultimately in control, that God is our provider.

I told Wesley and Twill as we were driving down our road that day that we are going to Australia, but we have to climb a flight of stairs to get there. The first step was Uncle Forest’s house, the next Grandma Terry’s house, then family camp at Riverside, then Grandma Kim and Grandpa Dan’s. I didn’t give them any more of the stairs, because that was enough, or more than enough, for a 3 and 5 year old in that moment.

The truth was that it felt more like jumping off a cliff to me than climbing stairs, because I still didn’t have a visa to go to Australia when we left. Thankfully, it came the next day, but that doesn’t nullify the exhilarating leap of faith that I experienced leaving home.

Now we’re almost to the top of the stairs, with another cliff at the top. We fly to Brisbane, Australia this Sunday, August 5th. We have friends and a church family over in Brisbane who are excited to receive us into their homes and help us find our way over there. I am overflowing with thankfulness for this opportunity to experience and learn about God’s love through his people as we are foreigners in a different country.