Summer Update from Eary July

Hey all, Life has been active lately and we haven't been able to communicate much. So in everyone's interest, I'm gonna catch you up on some things.
#1 Jack has been singing 'Tomorrow' from Annie, except that he sings it as 'Tonanno, tonanno, I yuv ya, tonanno. onwy day away!'. It's very fun, that kid has music in his blood. Wonder where that trait came from... #2 We had a really fun 4th of July. Finally a BBQ with no rain! We had several friends from church over. All the kids swam in our wading pool and the adults all swatted flies. But we had fun doing it. Yummy food, a good musical playlist, tiki torches, and homemade ice-cream!!! We watched fireworks from our church's parking lot. The biggest show in Springfield is shot from a location just north of us, so we had a great view... #3 Bethany and I had and have an awesome opportunity to put together a missionary Teamwork workshop with a group of folks who will be sent out of High Street as missionaries. Because our training with NTM is based on the premise of working in teams, our Pastor as well as Missions directors asked us to host this event and present some information about working as a team. We were really excited and honored to be able to do this. Our first meeting was on July 5 and our next will be the first week of August. #4 We're close to being done with the biggest stretch of fencing in the backyard. I've really enjoyed the 'manual labor.' There's something satisfying about that kind of work. #5 Mom Stroud went back to work this week after three weeks off for her surgery. She's just working half-days this week and then will move back to full-time next week. It seems she is healing well and the surgery was a success. #6 B and I are going away for two nights this weekend down to Tablerock lake to the south of us. We're so excited to have some time for just the two of us and to finally celebrate our 4th anniversary! That's the high points right now. We're really excited to see Dad and Mom Potter in 3 weeks and we're trying to use the time before they come to finish up the fence and some other projects.We are also trying to begin the packing process for returning to Indonesia. Our goal is to have most of our stuff packed and ready to go before we leave for my brother's wedding the first week of August. We also finally have a date set to return to Indonesia. Our tickets are booked for August 22nd. We still have no word on how our visas are coming along but we are just going to assume they will be granted and will progress forward!

That's all for now! Enjoy your summer! Joel for the Potter 4!