Making a Mess

One of the first things that happened on Tuesday, after we found of that we are for sure moving to Portugal, was that I realized how much stuff we have. We have a house full of stuff and 3 months to sell, sort and pack it all. We moved the house around so that we would have a sorting room. It is a mess, a big mess! Right now I am sorting things from the attic and things we aren't really using. There are 3 options:
Sell it- So far this is the biggest pile. I am amazed at how many things I have around the house that I don't need. What I do need it a nice and warm Saturday to have a HUGE yard sale.
Store it- We are trying to keep this pile as small as we can. Things we still want but don't want to take. So far it is mostly sentimental things, the girls baby blankets, things from Africa...
Ship it- We have desided to send a small shipment (yes, ship as in on a boat). Things that will make our place there feel like our home.
I guess technically we have a 4th option, which would be the things we will pack in our suitcases, but that is mostly clothes and a few small toys and books.
It's very exciting and a little overwhelming all at the same time. Any friends in Jackson who want to come "shopping" at my house come on. Ellen came today and put her name on a few things. It's kind of like a first come estate sale:) I know someone out there is dying to get their name on my old, faded. stained plaid loveseat...

Approved

We got Big news today! We are moving to Lisbon, Portugal.

Today we got Approved, which means we are going and it's time to start sorting and packing up. It feels like we have waited forever to get this confirmation, it's great to be on this side of the waiting. Now we can plan, dream and prepare to begin working and living in Lisbon. It is so exciting, and a little scary. Scary because we have a lot of transition coming up, lots of sorting and packing, way too many goodbye to say and a new language to learn.

For now we are just celebrating and feeling amazed at this new journey God is leading us on. Thanks for praying for us and keep praying- we have lots of new and exciting things ahead!

A Good Potty Day

We have started the inevitable mess of potty training Tirza. We got all the "things" out last month- the potty chair, the Dora seat for the big potty, the thick panties and the princess ones for incentive. I thought she was used to the idea so we stepped things up the last few days. It did not go well, at all. She did not want to be interrupted from playing for all this potty stuff. If you know Tirza you know that she is very vocal about her opinion. She let us know, mostly by throwing huge fits, that she was not happy about this whole potty training. The only way we could get her to go was to put on a movie and let her sit on her potty chair until eventually she went.
I was a little discouraged and worn out from the tantrums, so I decided today to give her a break from it. After lunch today she came and told me that she needed to go potty, we ran to the potty and would you believe she actually went!!!! YEAH! And this happened several times today!
We are far from done but progress is GOOD! Yeah Tirza!

Missing 2 Little Boys

This is the day we took the DeLaughters to the airport to head back to India. We had so much fun with everyone here. It was sad to send them ALL off. Yes, I did say ALL. Us Bustrums are now the only ones from my clan left in Jackson. Hopefully not for too long.

We were very sad to send the DeLaughter off but we had a good distraction for the evening. We got to go have dinner and ice cream with some friends we met at our Candidate Conference. It was a lot of fun and we got to meet their sweet little 9 month old baby boy.

Christmas Day (a little late)

Holiday Blessings

Our holidays have been very blessed this year. My whole family is together... we have been living in 4 different countries so ALL of us being together at once is a rare occasion.