We’re writing to share some exciting news, and to seek your prayers as we enter a time of transition. Scott is preparing to defend his dissertation December 14th (yay!), which deals with the nutrition project we were working with in Uganda this past summer. With the end of grad school nearby, we are looking towards our next steps.

We have signed a contract for Scott to begin a post-doc focused on child health with Wits University (in Johannesburg, South Africa). We are planning to move in early February. The post-doc is for up to 3 years, and we’ll be there for at least 1 year.

Despite the amazing opportunity, we’re pretty sad to be leaving the community and friends that we love. We have some pretty emotional moments where we get pretty teary thinking about leaving. Sometimes it feels like an emotional rollercoaster, but it’s a sweet sort of rollercoaster — it’s nice to know we’ll dearly miss the community we live in. Sometimes tears are nice — it means we’ve loved and are loved. It is especially hard as we are feeling more connected to this community than ever before.

Knowing how precious our community is to us, we are continuing to live in the present and to really savor where we are right now and drink it all in. However, please pray for us in the next few months in particular as we continue to live in the present, fully engaged where we are right now, but also preparing for our future transition. We’re also praying for the community we’ll be joining in South Africa and for safety there.

Thanks a ton for your prayers and for loving us so well…we are blessed.