It's hard for us to believe, but we have actually made a contract to purchase a home just around the block from Laura's parents. It is a nice two-story, 3 bedroom home on a small lot in a very typical suburban neighborhood in northern Colorado Springs with an unfinished basement—finishing it will give us a nice hospitality suite a bit like an extended stay hotel so we can put up more guests J.
We're excited a bit, I guess, as we keep walking by it on our evening walks. As we considered finding a home, we realized that Laura has not really been able to pick a home to settle in for a very long time. So this was her time. It was fun watching her consider different possibilities, weigh the value of closeness to her parents over against different home features, and imagine what it would mean to live in her own home.
As we looked, we laughingly said it would be hard not to imagine being able to live in any home we looked at after almost 15 years in a 1200 sq ft apartment made to Taiwan standards. Seriously it is our hope that we will be able to use this home as a place to welcome people in Jesus' name and honor God with it, just as we sought to do with the apartment God provided for us in Taiwan, and the homes we lived in before that.
We are anticipating a closing date of May 31 and more settling in the days after that. Meanwhile we have all three emerging adult kids here this week, and we're soaking up the family time. Fortunately the weather finally broke today and we were able to do a beautiful mountain hike. It's been a dry winter and that showed, but Colorado is still a very beautiful place. It also has a Costco. (This was a big thing in Taiwan, where Costco showed up in our city just a year or two before we left.) The kids remember stopping for hot dogs when we were traveling between cities on their school breaks in Taiwan, but they don't remember seeing Pikes Peak from the parking lot—and in fact the parking lots in Taiwan are built over and under the stores, not outside them!
One thing you might be able to help us with…we're doing a "prototype" international ministry marriage event in mid June (all the way up in the thumb of Michigan!) As we prepare for that, we're trying to better understand what m's are looking for in a marriage event. If you have any experience as an m, or even if you don't, would you take this survey?
Take the international marriage survey now!
If you follow this link, you'll find a simple survey about marriage events. It will probably take you 10-15 minutes. Would you please fill it out? You are also welcome to forward it to anyone else you think would have valuable input. And the results will be available to share with anyone who is interested.
Thanks for your time and input!
With love from the one who keeps us, Steve and Laura
PS In case that link above didn't work, here's the actual address: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/mcouple
TEAM, PO Box 969, Wheaton, IL 60187, 800 343-3144
<spinella@alumni.rice.edu> <lauraspinella@alumni.rice.edu>
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