Ch-Ch-Changes

So maybe you're noticing things look a little different...(or maybe you don't remember since it's been forever since I've posted).  As we are beginning this exciting new phase in our lives, some changes had to come about, one of which being saying goodbye to our furry child Sidney :( We are so excited to say he has a new home with Nick's Aunt and Uncle up in Pennsylvania and seems to be doing great with his new big sister Minnie (a 200 pound Newfoundland Terrier). But we sure do miss him a bunch!

Needless to say, we lost the 'S' of our SNAC pack (Sidney, Nick, Amber, and Carter) but fortunately we can work our acronym into meaning the Srokas: Nick, Amber, and Carter. Also, it meant it was time to update our family picture, so this is one of the three of us at the pumpkin patch in Tallahassee.

As you may know, we are now in Virginia for eight and a half weeks of training with the IMB.  We are learning a wide variety of things to help better prepare us for the mission field.  Things like language acquisition, discipling, legal matters, worldview, servant leadership, anthropology, healthcare overseas, etc.  There are about 200 people here (children included) and we are living in a building with 4 other families who are headed to countries in the 'Americas.'  We have class each day beginning at 8 and Carter spends the day in childcare.  He is doing soooo well in school and I absolutely love that we get lesson plans sent home every week with his 'curriculum' on it.  Last week was 'colors' week and they studied a different color each day and everyone in his class wore that day's specified color.  This coming week he will be learning about shapes :) He is walking so well now and my favorite part of the day is that when I pick him up from his class, he smiles so big when he sees me and runs to me to give me a big hug...be still my heart! Here he is before his first day of 'school.'

Although last year was Carter's first Halloween and we took him to a Fall Festival dressed as a giraffe, this year we were able to have a little more fun with him since he is older.  He dressed up as a dinosaur and with two new friends we went to a local church's trunk-or-treat followed by some actual trick-or-treating down one street in a close by neighborhood.  Although it was pretty chilly, we had a LOT of fun and Carter got some good candy for his mama, haha. I thought it would be interesting to compare Carter from last year's Halloween to this year's...

It is so hard to believe that it is November already, and that we have been in Virginia for three weeks! We are loving our time here and soaking up our time in the states before heading to Brazil around the beginning of the year.  But as we learn more and more about what we are doing, we are becoming more and more excited about being a part of God's plan of redemption for his people in South America and are becoming more and more burdened for the lostness of those people.  Praise God that He desires ALL nations, tribes, and tongues to know Him!