Big news! No, HUGE! Really HUGE!

Okay, I got a little behind on updating my blog (is 5 months a little?) and trying to get caught up overwhelmed me to the point that I just quit.  Besides, after being here for 8 years, doing much of the same thing year after year, what is left to say?  And how many more pictures do you want to see of the Parliament building, even though it's beauty is really beyond words???

Well, I would have probably quit writing this blog forever except that we are now moving into a new chapter of our lives and I expect to have some more interesting things to write about for the next couple of years.  So, I'm back to my computer to share with you what is going on in our lives.

WE'RE MOVING!

I'll give you two hints to help you guess where.

Let me back up.  We began praying about a lot of things last summer when we got word that co-workers on our member care team decided to retire in 2015, several years earlier than they had originally planned.  Certainly, we prayed about who could possibly replace them because the truth is they are irreplaceable!  They oversee the member care work in North Africa and the Middle East, which is not an easy job!    Glenn and I will be moving into their apartment and taking over their responsibilities beginning in the fall when they retire.  (Hint #1)

Their city is more accessible to the countries in North Africa and the 3 countries in Europe for which they have direct responsibility.  From our new city, we will be able to fly directly into all of our new countries, and probably directly into just about any country in the world!  (Hint #2)  This also means that, in addition to the "ease" of getting to our families in North Africa, we can fly directly into Senegal to see our daughter's family.  No more flying from Budapest to Frankfort or Lisbon before going on to Senegal!  Yea!

It has not been an easy decision to make for we enjoy almost everything about living in Budapest:  our house and yard (most folks live in apartments so we appreciate where we've lived), the comfort and ease of living and getting around the city, and it's beauty!  The contact we have with our personnel who either live here or come here for medical care brings us great joy.  

What's not to love about our life here?  Oh, the Hungarian language! The only real challenge for us has been not being able to communicate with our neighbors.  In our new city, we will be able to speak to our neighbors because we learned to speak French before living in Cote d'Ivoire (a former French colony) from 1985-1994.  (Did you notice I threw in an extra hint there?)

Through much prayer, many conversations between Glenn and me and seeking counsel and feedback from our supervisor and other co-workers, we sensed God leading us to move to Paris to oversee the member care work in North Africa and the Middle East, and to be directly responsible for our families in North Africa.  One might say, "God gave us the green light to move to Paris".

So for the next few years I'll be showing you multitudes of pictures of the Eiffel Tower instead of the Parliament building!

Glenn and I have mixed emotions about our move.  We will miss many things about our life in Hungary, but we know we need to move to fill in the huge hole left by the Parkers upon their retirement.  We are most excited about being able to communicate on a daily basis with our neighbors and shopkeepers, and to be able to know what is going on around us!  Our French is 20 years rusty and "africanized", but we plan to worship in a French Baptist church when in town so that will help us tremendously with picking it back up again.

We are looking forward to the changes ahead, most of which will be positive.  We will miss our friends in Budapest.  We are selling or giving away about a third of our belongings because we're moving into a small apartment.  (I've done this 3 times before, but it hasn't gotten any easier for me.)

We will grieve but we will be okay.  We know this is where we are supposed to be so we are looking forward. (Play on word intended.  As the French would say, "double entendre" or "double meaning".)

There is so much to do to move from one country to another!  First off, we had to catch a train to Vienna, Austria to submit our applications for French visas to the France Consulate.  There is a French Embassy here in Budapest but they don't issue visas so we spent a day going, depositing, and returning.  Then Glenn had to go back 2 weeks later to pick them up.  

Then, in the midst of culling through our belongings before packing, I had to have surgery for Carpal Tunnel.  Not just one surgery, but two, five weeks apart.

Before going into my first surgery, I marked my right hand with the word nem, which means no or not to make sure they did the correct hand.  You know, the language problem ... and I needed the use of my right hand as we began packing!  

The doctor put me under while he did his magic.  Each surgery lasted about 30 minutes, I stayed overnight both times, and the next morning I was released after the doctor took out the drainage port.  Ten days later I went back to have the 10 stitches taken out. This photo was taken 2 days after my first stitches were taken out.  Today, I have a lovely, very sensitive 3 inch pink scar from the center of  my palms to my wrists. 

Last week Glenn had surgery for trigger finger on his right hand.  We had the same doctor, but he only made a one inch incision at the base of one of Glenn's fingers.  I had a more invasive surgery but Glenn came away with a much larger bandage!  Go figure!!  Glenn gets his stitches out in 2 days so he'll have a lovely, 1 inch sensitive pink scar. 

And then, in between all these surgeries, we began packing for our upcoming move to Paris.  

Glenn and I are excellent packers, having much previous experience! 

We've got piles and piles of packed boxes in the basement and the living room, and lots of dust everywhere! Basically, we're packed now with the exception of our dishes (Polish pottery).  We have a family of 5 coming for dinner on Saturday and we still have to eat for the next 2 weeks!

The movers come on April 7th.  

We fly to Paris on the 8th.

The movers deliver our belongings on the 9th.  

Glenn turns 60 years old on the 10th.  

Yes! The BIG 6-0!  For his birthday, we are going to WALK from our new apartment (new to us, not newly built) all the way to the Eiffel Tower.  It should take us about 1 1/2 hours according to Google.  We won't have friends nearby with whom to celebrate this important birthday so I wanted to do something unusual, memorable and fun.  Who else walks from their abode to the Eiffel Tower for their birthday???

Okay, that's our big news.  We hope you will come back in 2 weeks for pictures of our move and the beginning of a new journey:  our life in Paris.