We're Moving to Asia!

So we've decided to really get into the world of blogging.  No, we don't have any kids yet, and our lives have been incredibly boring as of late (ha, not really, but a lot of what's gone on you really wouldn't care to read about), but we do finally have some exciting news and are hoping that this will be a good avenue for family and friends to keep up with us.  

We are moving to Seoul, South Korea in June to teach English!

We have honestly been thinking about, praying about, and pursuing this idea since back in November or December.  I (Leslie) have become increasingly frustrated with teaching in American public schools (or maybe just the one I'm at) for quite a while now and have been wanting a change.  Michael has been trying to figure out where his next step will be, after taking a needed break/rest from Youth Ministry and trying his hand at sales (not his cup of unsweet tea) and now he's roofing houses until we leave.  We have just been seek ing the Lord's guidance in this for so long and He has just continually opened doors in this direction, while closing doors in other directions that we thought might be a possibility.  We think this is going to be such an awesome opportunity--to live in and experience another culture, while getting to work, get paid well, have an apartment provided, not many expenses, and TONS of cool places to travel to and food to eat!!

We've been working with a recruiting agency that I stumbled across online, and we have been very pleased with them thus far.  They have been so helpful and personable, and have tried to be very accommodating.  We are supposed to be signing our contract on Monday, with plans to begin teaching for Avalon English School June 2nd!  That means we will most likely fly out of the U.S. on Friday, May 30th--exactly one week after my school gets out!  Aaah!  I know we can do it, it sounds like a lot but we will make it.  One good thing about going over earlier is that we will be able to take some of our vacation days in September to fly to Denver for my brother Karl's wedding to Amy.   One little anxious tidbit is that we also have our first niece (Michael's sister Rachel is pregnant), Phoebe, on the way, who is due to arrive on May 26th in Houston, so we are praying that she makes her appearance on time or earlier so that we won't miss getting to meet her before we leave!  

So, basically we have 7 weeks to finish out a school year, get packed, moved, and sell a bunch of our stuff and hopefully see family before we leave to move to Asia!  I found out in January that I have a pretty serious colon disease called ulcerative colitis--basically my colon gets inflamed and full of ulcers, and stress definitely triggers it, so I am praying that I will be able to make it through the next 7 weeks without a major flare-up.  I am on some good meds to control it, but please put me on your prayer list if you think about it.  

Here are a few pictures of Seoul, from the internet.

  

We'll keep you updated as things progress!