It's all becoming more and more real

It's becoming a tradition for me to blog on Sundays with my most recent updates.  This week was action packed!  Monday was the day I officially put in my letter of resignation with my principal, school and district.  At staff meeting on Wednesday it was announced that I will be leaving at Christmas and I was touched by the kind words and support expressed to me.  I'm not going to pretend like it isn't hard to look around at our close knit staff and see tears in the eyes of the people I have grown close with over the past five and a half years.  It is such a blessing to be told that they are proud of me and excited for me in this next chapter of life the Lord is leading me through. 

On Thursday evening when I checked my financial support on I was thrilled to see that I was only $300 away from being 100% fully funded each month, and then by the end of Friday I was $150 shy of the goal!  Praise God!  Needless to say, all of the aforementioned action that happened at work and now seeing that my funding is SO CLOSE to being completed have made my going to Costa Rica very real to me. 

Some next steps for me are to start the process of getting a visa, and that involves a lot of paperwork, a visit to the Costa Rican consulute, and I'm sure a lot of waiting and being patient.  Getting prayer cards designed and printed to send out to all my wonderful supporters needs to happen in the next month or so as well.  

This weekend also made me realize how much I care about my group of junior girls from church and how much I'm going to miss them.  Many of these girls have been in my small group (along with my fabulous co-leader and friend Jessica :) since they were in seventh grade.  We have seen them go through junior high and all it's drama, entering high school, changes in friendships and boyfriends, and now getting their licenses and thinking about college.  I am so thrilled that a good chunk of them are going to be on the youth team that is coming down to work with me and the rest of the SI Costa Rica staff in July.  It was be so special to see how God works in and through them at the ministry sites and through the experiences in the Costa Rican culture.

                         Jessica and me with our beautiful high schoolers :)