At the end of May we all arrived in the US after about 48 hours of door to door travel; Dara, Grace, and Xavier to Seattle and Elijah, Malachi, and I to East Texas. Dara and company spent a couple of weeks visiting family in the Northwest while my gang got the house set up in lovely Van, TX. Though it's only about 1,400 square feet it feels like a mansion after a 500 sq. ft. cabin. I also spent a week at the International Operations Center for Mercy Ships doing handover for the role that I will fill in Maritime Training beginning the 6th of July. The first two days will be straight into teaching fire fighting to the current Gateway class.
This past Sunday morning we were reunited as a family and have spent some time settling and continuing to work around the house and yard. Transition has been relatively smooth so far. Certainly there is much adjusting and it is clear that there is much about American culture that our kids aren't familiar with, which is sometimes a blessing. There are myriad details and the costs of transition are brutal, even with the bonus of having had some furniture and things in storage and some items donated by friends and neighbors. If you feel called to help out with that you can go here: Donate to the Koontz Family. We continue to volunteer with Mercy Ships and rely on the support of others to fulfill the mission God has called us to.
So, we're here. We're trying to sort out how to reintegrate into things like commutes, grocery shopping, home repairs (our hot water tank ruptured a little over a week ago), etc. We have been continually blessed along the way and are looking forward to this season.
