{"id":7819,"date":"2012-05-14T02:47:00","date_gmt":"2012-05-14T02:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=7819"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:35:57","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:35:57","slug":"update-for-mid-may","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=7819","title":{"rendered":"Update for Mid May"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It’s Mother’s Day and I did my best – given the circumstances – to let Melissa know how much she is appreciated by all of us.\u00a0 The kids are getting old enough that they are actually taking responsibility for finding their own gifts for Mommy – and even paying for them out of their own pockets.\u00a0 (Praise the Lord!)\u00a0 We had a great steak dinner and Melissa’s brother, Randy, and his family were here as well to celebrate with Grandma Trudy.\u00a0 Life is a bit too busy in general right now.\u00a0 I have never been one of those who complain about busy-ness while seemingly taking great pride\u00a0IN that busy-ness.\u00a0 Here’s some of what’s been going on\/coming up.\u00a0Melissa and I would appreciate prayer as we try to strike a balance:\u00a0* Missed school last Friday to take part in a funeral.\u00a0 My friend Luke was only 31 and went much too early.\u00a0 I have been praying for his mother especially today.\u00a0 Unless someone passes away in his sleep at the age of 99, most deaths are a rough business.\u00a0 But this one in particular was tragic.\u00a0 I loved Luke like a younger brother – I still can’t believe he’s gone.\u00a0 I can’t write more about him without it turning into a book, and I don’t have the time to write a book because …* Tomorrow starts our final full week of school.\u00a0 We have class all this week and then Monday of next week and then finish with\u00a0three days of finals.\u00a0 Then freedom.\u00a0 Before freedom comes the grading of about 50 research papers still.\u00a0 (The grading\u00a0got put on hold while Luke was in the hospital.) I just need to get the papers graded before the final exam grading begins!*\u00a0 As soon as school is out, we’ll have a few days to get some work done on the house.\u00a0 I guess we are thinking right now that we will be renting it out again, but there\u00a0remains still quite a bit of work to be done before someone can move in: sanding, cleaning, yardwork … THE POOL.\u00a0 Every weekend, Melissa and I talk about going to the house to work and then … other stuff comes up.\u00a0 But we have to get it ready to rent by the end of May because then we will be leaving for …* My nephew’s graduation in Seattle.\u00a0 We have never been out to Seattle to visit my brother Ryan’s family and so decided to take this opportunity, since it is not likely we will have a similar chance to travel to the Northwest over the next few years.\u00a0 So we are flying out as a family and then driving back.\u00a0 Yes… DRIVING back … 2,400 miles or so.\u00a0 Our intention is to present about Haiti whenever we get the chance along the way, all while doing some sightseeing.\u00a0 We’re especially\u00a0 looking forward to seeing Yellowstone Park.\u00a0 And we’re also hoping to see the highlights of South Dakota and some family there.\u00a0 (Which reminds me… I need to call them…)\u00a0 Also, we plan to swing through Iowa again.* On the bright side, something has been taken off our plate – for now.\u00a0 We were anticipating spending all of July in Greenwood at OMS Headquarters for Cross Cultural Training.\u00a0 We wanted to get it in because it is only offered twice a year: July and January.\u00a0 Since we’ve come to the conclusion that we won’t be able to get to Haiti full time by August like we had originally hoped, we definitely want to get there early in January for the start of the second semester.\u00a0 But now we’re being told that the Cross Training is being reformulated, so we don’t have to worry about being in Greenwood all summer, but that we won’t have to stick around in January for it.\u00a0 We’ll maybe get it in bits and pieces or over the internet or something.\u00a0 Anyway, that’s a great chunk of time that is now open for funding work (and maybe a bit of relaxing along the way!).\u00a0 * Which is good, because if we are stuck here in the States for a few more months, Melissa will be starting a new calendar at her school, with the new year starting August 2nd!\u00a0 The plan right now is that PROBABLY Melissa will be continuing on at her school and all four kids will be going with her.\u00a0 Meanwhile, I will PROBABLY be resigning my position so that I can concentrate\u00a0 all my efforts on fundraising.\u00a0 It is really frustrating not being able to leave for Haiti this August.\u00a0 I was just tonight reading a blog posted by Angie Bundy, wife of the Haiti field director, Brett, and the principal of the school where Melissa and I intend to teach.\u00a0 At one point she was lamenting our delay a bit<\/a> – and it just made me want to go buy an airplane ticket right now and go!* Speaking of funding, we’ve seen some great progress there – as well as some much-needed encouragement.\u00a0 One of the highlights recently has been the folks at Grundy Center United Methodist Church in Iowa.\u00a0 Apparently, they consider us ‘their missionaries” and we are overjoyed to claim them as our supporters in ministry to Haiti.\u00a0 I will have to write more about them when I have the time.\u00a0 Right now, I need to get to bed so I can at least start this week well rested.\u00a0 We would appreciate any prayers you can lift on our behalf.\u00a0 Let us know what we can be praying for you, too!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s Mother’s Day and I did my best – given the circumstances – to let Melissa know how much she is appreciated by all of us.\u00a0 The kids are getting old enough that they are actually taking responsibility for finding their own gifts for Mommy – and even paying for them out of their own […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7820,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7819\/revisions\/7820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}