Last week Billy turned in his final assignments and finished his time at his internship by cleaning out his office and turning in his keys. On Saturday he walked across the Edman Chapel stage and graduated from the Wheaton College Graduate School with a Masters of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy.

Receiving his diploma

Proud of our graduate

Billy’s 3 core Marriage & Family Therapy professors, Dr. VanDyke, Dr. Yoo and Dr. Johnson

MFT Cohort photo

Maybe we will recreate this photo if Will also graduates from Wheaton?

We are so grateful to the long list of individuals, churches and United World Mission – all who have made it possible for Billy to fulfill this dream and to become better prepared for our work in Peru.

So what’s next for us?

Right now we’re in the middle of packing up our home here in Wheaton. We will ever be grateful to the Missionary Furlough Homes organization who provide these fully-furnished townhomes at minimal cost to missionaries on home assignment. Being able to have low cost housing here so close to the Wheaton campus the past two years has really made it feasible for Billy to study.

109 N. President will always hold a special place in our hearts as Will’s “first home” – where he learned to crawl and subsequently walk, where he began solid foods, sleeping through the night and began to talk. It’s where we began living with a baby and are now leaving with a little boy. (Technically his first home would be our apartment in Lima but we left when he was 5 months old… when we go back it will all be new to him!)

September 2017 // May 2019

We will be in Wheaton until the end of May before heading to Michigan for the summer. These next couple weeks we will be spending time checking things off our Chicagoland bucket list, revisiting favorite places (like our little Cosley Zoo here in Wheaton, the Morton Arboretum and the public library) and seeing some new ones. Billy will continue his work on research projects with his Wheaton MFT faculty and we will spending time with friends we have met here and starting the process of saying goodbyes.

If our parents were writing this, they would say that we will be “based in Michigan” this summer since we won’t be there the whole time. In June, Billy and I are taking a much needed celebratory trip together (thank you grandparents for watching Will!). In July we will be visiting churches, friends and supporters in the Charlotte, Nashville and Huntsville areas. We’ll also be spending time going through our belongings and Marie Kondo-ing everything that doesn’t “spark joy.” For those of you in the Detroit area, our loss will be your gain when we host a garage sale towards the end of July! (Dates will be confirmed soon so please come help us get rid of some stuff and get back to Peru!)

It’s amazing how quickly time passes the older you get. When Billy was accepted into the graduate program, two years seemed like a long time. Now, looking back on it, we have done so much during our time here. But as we get closer to our departure, time seems to go faster and faster. We will be returning to Peru on September 16th, just in time for Kate to participate in the 2-day Conferencia Ellas women’s conference our church puts on each year.

We have greatly appreciated your love and support as we have spent this time in the States and now as we transition back to Peru.

with love,
Kate, Billy + Will