KomarickA: Prepare & Pack

Note: My apologies! I wrote this post about 1 week ago and thought I had published it. This info is a bit dated, but still pertinent. I hope to have another post about our trip south soon. K.

As I think back over the last few weeks, the best description would be "Prepare & Pack."
Once we returned from our last trip to Bonne Fin with the work team that did renovation work on our house, it was time to get make final preparations for the move.

On May 17th, we had the opportunity to gather with our church family for a Farewell Potluck, Singing and Presentation. It was encouraging to be together and to share a bit of our God's plan for our lives. Bro. Kirk Plattner, who serves as the Mobilization Coordinator for ACWR, and his wife Sis. Keri made the trip out to Sabetha to be with us and to share missionary information with our church family. Rick and I are thankful for their past work in the mission field as well as their current work in supporting new missionaries in the sending process.

On May 25th, the Saturday before Memorial Day, we held a garage sale to clean out a bit before our move. The sale was well attended and quite successful. The Pampered Chef items went especially well. It seemed like a stressful time during the preparation for the sale, but sale day went well. Most of our sales were in the first 45 minutes!

Selah enjoying ice cream during our garage sale!

At the end of May, Rick concluded his work responsibilities with KSi Conveyors, Inc. and I was thrilled to have him home and focused on the upcoming move.

In Haiti, work continued on our home with the Haitian Crew as well as a work team that traveled down with Sis. Heather Steiner. Here are a few pictures of the continued progress.

Work being done on the Stone Wall that will be part of our Wash Depot

Most of the homes on the HL campus have an unattached outbuilding called a Depot. This building serves as a wash room for laundry as well as area for storage. Our home had these facilities as part of the house. We choose to take out the wall of the wash room to give us an eat-in kitchen. It was also our preference to have the wash room outside the house.

Kitchen Cabinets with a coat of Rouge (Haitian Red)

June brought an urgency to get packing and a busy schedule for Mom and kids with Krae taking Swimming Lessons, Mara and Krae participating in a week long Art Workshop and Mara and Krae participating in VBS at church. During the first couple of weeks of June, we frantically packed and purchased the items that will go to Haiti on a Sea Container.
We have decided that Amazon Prime service is a pretty good deal for us!

We traveled to Lester, IA the first weekend in June to attend the Knoblock reunion and say our farewells to that side of the family.

The weekend of June 8-9, we listened to our nephew, Marcus Baumgartner, give his testimony of faith and then witnessed his baptism. It was a wonderful weekend, yet busy as we loaded a moving truck with the items we are taking to Haiti. Unfortunately, Rick injured his back during this process and was in pain for a few days. A special thanks to Dr. Simpson and Dr. Lukert for their chiropractic adjustments and prayers for his healing!

Rick and I pulled out on Sunday evening for the trip to Bluffton, IN. He was driving a 24' moving truck and I followed in our personal vehicle. We drove to Springfield, IL that evening and then on to Cincinnati, OH on Monday to an IKEA store.

We purchased the majority of our furniture at IKEA. It might take two men a week to put it all together once the boxes arrive in Bonne Fin. That said, loading the pallets for the Sea Container is simplified with furniture that is not assembled yet. This was our first time in an IKEA, so it was a fun day. Pulling three flatbeds and one regular shopping cart up to the check out counter was a bit challenging, but we were thankful for the ease of finding items and some help loading our items into the moving truck. (especially with Rick's sore back)

We hit Sam's Club in Cincinnati (three shopping carts and another session of loading into the truck) and then made the final leg to Bluffton, IN. Apostolic Christian World Relief sends supplies to missionaries in the field from the Bluffton Distribution Center (BDC). Bro. Bob & Sis Mary Honegger oversee this service and are amazingly committed souls. This was our first visit to BDC and we were quite impressed with the work that is done there.

Our "stuff" after unloading at BDC

Rick, Rich Pfister & Steve Fischer waiting for the fork lift to move another load off the truck.
(Yes, they are working and not just hanging out in the truck!)

Once we unloaded the moving truck, we had a bit more shopping to do, but we were able to have dinner with Bro. Rich and Sis. Amber Pfister who are on furlough from HL. We were able to meet their new daughter, Baby Esther, who was born in late May - what a little sweetie! Bob and Mary Honegger hosted us overnight; we enjoyed getting to know them and hearing about how they support mission service. We thank God for the work they do in His name!

On Wednesday, we headed back home with a stop in Morton, IL for a day(Thursday) of pre-placement counseling at Apostolic Christian Counseling and Family Services. We arrived back home in Sabetha at about midnight on Thursday night. It was an exhausting week, but we are thankful that all went smoothly. Our children spent the week with Grandpa and Grandma Aberle and had a great week.

We were home for a day on Friday and then headed south to Kiowa, KS on Saturday to say our farewells to my family and our church family there. This was a quick trip with our return on Sunday, but we were thankful to be with loved ones for the short time we were there.

Once we were back in Sabetha, we had about 10 days to pack up the rest of the house and pack our bags for travel to Haiti. I am going to write more about our final week at home in another post since this one is getting a bit long.

A couple of highlights for our kids during the last few weeks have been farewell parties with some of their friends. It meant alot for Mara and Krae to have some special time to be with their friends and say farewell. Here are a few pics from their parties: