Living Stones

I know it's been a while since we've posted so I'll do my best to get you caught up on life. Renae and I left the orphanage on the 30th of July. It was a very tough day. Renae was crying days before and even more so the day of but for the most part I thought I'd keep my composure. That was until... Crisantos. Crisantos is a little 5 year old boy that Renae and I fell in love with! We always joked about taking a kid home with us but knew it wasn't really possible or probably. But with Crisantos we would have taken him in a heartbeat. I was holding Crisantos while Renae was crying and alot of people were crying right before we left. He asked me "why is everyone so sad?" I told him "we have to leave, we're going back to the otro lado." He said to me "but you guys always go to the otro lado and come back the same day, why is everyone so sad if you're coming right back?" I had to choke back tears and tell him "we can't come back this time buddy, we're moving away for good." That's when he lost it. He was screaming, crying, telling me not to go. which then is when I lost it. Eventually he settled down, laid his head on my shoulder and we just sat there surrounded by tears, crying together. I hadn't cried in front of the orphanage kids before and I think that our tears led to more tears which led all the way to teen boys crying, which made us cry even more!!! The whole morning was definitely the "water works" as they say. But finally we left and made our way to Canoga Park, CA to be a part of our new church family at Living Stones.

We were greeted with more than hospitality. When we arrived an hour later pretty much the entire church was there (it's still a really small church, but still). They must have know we liked food so much because there was super good salads, pasta, BBQ'd ribs, and rotisserie chicken. Not to mention really friendly, loving people who made us feel immediately part of their family. The next day was our first day at church and... we love it. It's small, only about 30 people, 20 of them being kids under the age of 10. Worship is acoustic and we meet in people's houses. We love it!

Thursday I signed papers at Olive Garden and will be starting officially on Monday. Renae is still on the job hunt. She's applied at everywhere within a 10 mile radius and now it's just time for us to sit back and watch God find her a job!

School has been an issue for both of us. I am 100% accepted and ready to go to EBC we just haven't figured out how we're going to pay for things since the 1st installment is due on the 12th of this month. Renae's story is a bit different. Unfortunately we found out a couple days ago that all of her GE did not transfer from Portland State. Which means in order to be accepted as a Junior at CSUN she has to take 4 GE classes at the local JC. Unfortunately when she tried to apply there, they told her that her California DL and voter registration didn't prove California residency and that she'd have to pay out of state tuition which is $180 per credit, compared to the $25 per credit as a California resident. We still don't know what we're going to do. We're going to see if there isn't some red tape we can cross to get her the in sate tuition but, we'll see.

That's that!!! I know it's alot and believe it or not it didn't even begin to scratch the surface of the amazing things God's doing in our life! God is good, we are His, we need nothing more.