Kirbys in Catania

Alan and I have been excitedly preparing for our trip to Italy the past few months.  We have been so blessed to receive the support of Westside Church of Christ, various friends, and family.  We could not be doing this mission work without you all, and we are truly thankful that you partnered with us!  This blog is to keep you all updated on the work we do there in Italy. These past few months have consisted of a two week training program in Searcy, AR, several trips to Goodwill, several postings on Craigslist, leaving our jobs, lots of packing, and many goodbyes.  We will sorely miss our friends from home.  Thank goodness for Skype! After all the preparation, the day finally came when we left Searcy.  We headed from Searcy, AR up to Wisconsin to visit with my good friend Katie for a few days.  That trip was supposed to be done in a day, but we left Searcy much later in the day than we had planned.  Alan was driving a u-haul truck while I drove the car.  We got walkie talkies so we

This may come as a bit of a shock to some of you all, but Alan and I are in the process of raising funds to move to Italy in order to do mission work for two years.  Maybe I should start at the beginning since it's usually the best place to start... This past fall Alan was in his last semester of undergraduate school at Harding.  During that semester we were busy cooking up plans for our future.  Alan applied to graduate schools for both Occupational and Physical therapy programs.  However, we have both been feeling this desire to do something else with our lives right now. We both have been feeling that lately all we've been doing is getting caught up in worldly desires - having a nicer place to live, buying a nice car, getting the latest gadgets and gizmos, etc.  It's hard not to in our consumeristic (yeah, I'm pretty sure I just made that word up) American culture.  However, Alan and I have found that we are both becoming tired of this "getting a