Back in So. Cal and feelin'.....weird

I arrived at LAX at about 9pm on Thursday, June 14th, after about 36 hours of not sleeping and corraling a 2 year old on a 14 hour flight. Matt remained in Prague to wrap up some details (like selling our car) and hang out with friends who were coming to town. He'll be here on July 3rd.

Though exhausted, I was still able to appreciate the awesomeness of going through immigration at the airport and getting that little stamp in Anna's passport that says she's finally an American citizen! What a long process...

My parents are so thrilled to have her here. We all sang E-I-E-I-O the whole car trip home and she was bathed in love. When we arrived at their house, her response was, "Wow!" several times. She seems to genuinely love it here.

The next day was full of new discoveries: the playhouse that Grandpa built, the pool, all the fun toys, and the park around the corner. This is a good house for kids.

I, on the other hand, had a very hard first few days. I was really hit with sadness about leaving Prague and missing Matt. Sleep was a big problem for about the first week. Anna slept 4 hours, 6 hours, then 8 hours. She's finally back to 10-11, which is great, and I'm not waking up every hour any more. That helps a lot with perspective.

It's been great to reconnect with good friends, though I've felt lonely in the day while everybody is at work and I'm here with Anna. I have been so blessed the past year to have Matt around so much with us sharing a job and doing a lot of work from home. I will really miss that.

Last week I had a job interview (the final stage of the process for this job which I basically already have but just needed to formalize by meeting with higher up administration reps.) It went amazingly well, despite the fact that I was still pretty foggy headed from not sleeping. They said they really liked my writing (in my cover letter and essays) and were wondering if I would consider teaching Freshman Writing too. I'm supposed to have an interview for that in about a week. Wild!

So, if all goes well, I will be teaching in a 5 week intensive English program for international students who are hoping to go to college in the States. I will be helping to prepare them for the study skills they will need to succeed in the US university context. This excites me greatly and is basically my dream job. If we stay in So. Cal. in the fall, I can probably continue in the same job.

If you're reading this and are inclined to pray, here are a few current things that we're really needing God's help with:

*We need to sell our car in Prague and that has proved to be much more difficult than we expected. It's a bad time of year because everybody is leaving Prague in June. We may need to transfer it to a trusted friend and then try to sell it again in the early fall. This is less than ideal, but might work fine. Please pray for wisdom in how to handle it, protection for the car from any accidents/theft etc., and a good buyer who can be blessed by it as much as we were.

*We're still working on job possibilities and that takes a lot of faith. It's not an easy thing to apply from overseas. Please pray for provision of exactly the right job(s) and for peace in the midst of all the waiting and the big changes.

*This is a tough time financially as we are between jobs. We are praying that many of our supporters will understand this and be moved to continue their support temporarily until we are more settled.