I haven’t written much about our process in moving to Mongolia for a while. There are many moving pieces and I know that Tom has mentioned many, so if I repeat what he has already said, I guess you get to hear a different perspective. There are definitely mixed emotions. I am seeing many miracles and tender mercies across the board.
We are living a mostly empty house, but still have so many things to sell/give away/get rid of that we are not taking to Mongolia. One piece of furniture at a time, one item at a time, or sometimes many as we have had a couple garage sales and taken many loads to the Goodwill. It feels kind of nice to live simply and figure out the things that are truly necessary. I didn’t realize how much our belongings have become in a burden in some ways. Just some new thoughts for me.
We are trying to balance our time with preparation to move to Mongolia and spending time with the people we love here while we can. The picture above is of Raeni doing sparklers with our neighbors that have hosted us for fireworks every year since we moved here. It is definitely a tradition we will miss because of the friends we will miss and the memories we have made. This year Raeni could not get enough of the sparklers. I bet she did 30+ sparklers that night.
We also were privileged to go to a barbecue to celebrate Independence Day with all our family here and some more treasured friends. We started out the hot afternoon by playing slip and slide kickball and were having a lot of fun doing that when we saw a large, black, ominous cloud rolling in. We had 30 minutes to pivot and grill all the meat for dinner and move the outside tables inside. Just in time, we were all inside and storm hit hard. There was wind, lots of rain, lightening, thunder, all of the fun and excitement of a good storm. Then the lights went out and made it so much more memorable. Ben and Jamie, the hosts, we amazing and found enough fairy lights to scatter around the house. It felt very magical and we were having fun eating and chatting. About the time we finished eating, the storm ended and we moved outside for more fireworks (we had done them with our neighbors, the Brummer’s, the night before), and the crown jewel for the kids–gutter ice cream. It never disappoints for the young kids especially!
We are loving the time with family and I would say we go in spurts of feeling sad because we are leaving, and then excited because it is something new and different. We no longer have any pets and that has brought many sad emotions. We miss Millie immensely and our cats are missed, too. Not as much for me, but maybe that’s because I am more of a dog person. I digress. I know my children love the cats and they have added positively to our home and family in many ways.
We had to take our furniture out of every room to put in new carpet in order to sell the house. We have no dressers anymore and our bedframes are in the garage. It didn’t seem worth the effort to put them all back up for only a month and a half just to take them down again. Jack and Hyrum have officially graduated to a mattress on the floor with no more cribs, although they often end up on the floor.
And it was weighing a little heavy that it took us longer to get our house on the market because I have heard what the market is doing. Not a lot of people are selling very quickly and we needed to sell quickly. We were doing what we could and I was trying to knock things off our list that were within my control to get the house ready, but it seemed an immense job while living in the house with seven children and still keeping up with the normal things like laundry, cooking, etc. We were also expecting carpet to be put in and it happened to land while we were out of town meeting little Elora and visiting Matthew, Mia and other family. I had mentioned to my sisters that if they could maybe go in and do whatever decorating they could do to help us stage the house, that it would be very appreciated as decorating is not my best talent. They agreed and while we were gone, they not only came in and decorated, but the three of them, Rebecca, Rachel and Jamie, organized and cleaned and spent two whole days making the house look so beautiful and desirable. They said they had fun doing it and that their kids just hung out down the lane at Jamie’s so they could really focus. Looking back now, I can see that the timing of everything was so very perfect for that to happen. I know that is not a coincidence.
When we got back from Idaho, we stayed with Ben and Jamie for a few days until after the open house so as not to undo all the hard work that had been done. Then a few days later we had two showings in one day and then subsequently had two good offers. We took the better one and now we are under contract and will close pretty soon. Knowing the market and how it could have been, I know this is also a miracle. We have been incredibly blessed and have so many small things happening all the time that are evidence to me that the Lord is in the details and that He is helping us in this process.
Tom is currently in Mongolia. He has been there for over a week and a half, and he may be there that much longer. He needed to go to finalize the business he has started, get his visa, and he is currently waiting on his resident card. There is an order that comes to all of these things. In order to get his resident card, he needed an address, so he rented an apartment in Ulaanbaatar close to the mountains. It is a beautiful location and on the outskirts of the city. And in order to finish setting up his business and have access to his business bank account, he needed to complete the application for residency. And for many of these processes, he has needed a notary and a translator. He goes into better details in his posts, but needless to say, it took much longer to do all of these things and to apply for his resident card. And there is a huge national holiday going on there right now called Naadam. So the government will be shut down for almost a week which will make this process longer. He had his flight scheduled to come home a couple days ago, but had to cancel because if he leaves the country before he gets his resident card, he would have to start the whole process over again. I am so grateful he is going through an attorney for this stuff. It would take us years and so many (more) mistakes otherwise.
We miss him terribly, of course. I helps that we can video chat and talk to him. Every time Hyrum sees him, he asks, “A hold you?” He misses his daddy. And I know Jackie does, too, he just expresses it differently and I do believe Hyrum is more of a daddy’s boy while Jackie is a mama’s boy. They pretend to feed Tom their breakfast every morning and yesterday I hung up before Jackie had a chance to say goodbye and that was not okay. He needed the closure. So we called Daddy back to say goodbye. I know in the eternal scheme of things, we will see him soon and before you know it we will all be living in Mongolia together.
Lucy is coming close to finishing her high school and graduating she is on target to finish before the end of July. What a huge miracle that has been. And she will be able to get a visa through Tom’s business as one of his representatives after she turns 18 the beginning of October. We will have a few shorts weeks to get all of that lined up for her before her tourist visa of 90 days runs out. Exciting stuff! I know we will be able to figure it out with the Lord’s help, just as we have all of the other obstacles before this.
As we have been looking into how to better customize what Tom will be doing in his business and what is needed in the country where we can contribute, we have asked many questions of people living there and those who would know about what is happening in the country. We are hearing that this is not a good time for Americans in Mongolia. They don’t want us there, etc. This doesn’t deter us at all and I know why. I have felt more strongly than almost any other impression from the Spirit in my life that we are to go to Mongolia. And not just to go, but to go now. And all of the things happening to open the doors to getting us there are evidence to me that God wants us there, even if others do not. And that gives me an extreme level of peace because I know He can direct us to where He wants us to be and the people he wants us to touch and the things He wants us to do.
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