ROAD TRIP!

Right now, everything we are doing is somehow linked with our preparation for Africa.  These next 8 months will sneak up fast, and our departure date is completely dependent on God to provide our finances.  So, in keeping with our current mission of building relationships with our good friends and acquaintances all over the country,  We are travelling through some mid-western and southern states in search of those who impacted Cecilia's life during her time at the University of Arkansas.  I am meeting many amazing people for the first time, and loving the southern culture of Oklahoma and Arkansas.  When we return, I believe I will retain a bit of the accent that I picked up here.  Y'all enjoy the road sign photos!

Here's a little montage of the states we've visited!

 That first one is Pennsylvania.  Fireworks, Karate Supplies, Swords and knives, pepper spray, and stun guns...  You'd think it was a dangerous place, but we didn't have too much trouble. Just to be safe, I picked up a little speed in PA and didn't stop for nobody.

Took a little tour of Cleveland, and somehow found ourselves in the mall in downtown.  It was closed on Saturday for some reason.  It was the first time someone approached me and shouted "May I help you?!"  in a mall.

That's missouri.  We've got a few more places to go, but not many till we head back to sunny Ithaca.  I do hope the snow isn't too heavy yet!

The Calling, Chapter II

By Nate...
Sometime in October, 2006
I'm sitting in an arm chair on Lake street. It's dark, it's late, I'm exhausted after a long day, there's nothing left to do but go to sleep, but I can't. I'm sitting there on the verge of sleep and awake, in that state where nothing is totally real, nor is anything truly dream-like. Another fellow was lying on a couch on the other side of this old living room in this old house on the hilly street which climbs towards the campus. I am awake enough to see that he is in the same state as I am, with nothing really left to do but sleep, but something kept us from it, and I can't speak for him, but for me it was that sense of being in a friend's presence, and just belonging. Being totally understood and totally accepted for who you are. That's the atmosphere into which I voiced these words,

"This time next year I could be married." To which my friend who, until that moment, was slipping off into sleep himself, declared, flabbergasted,

"What?"

"Yeah, I just have a feeling."

Well, it was more than a year.  It was 14 whirlwind months to befriend, fall in love with, pursue, court, propose to, and marry Cecilia. This is the start of our journey.  The very beginning.
December 8, 2007